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Origins
Marius Berliet's Lyon empire built automobiles from 1901 and by the 1930s faced the decade's consolidation with a pragmatic catalogue: the Dauphine-era 11CV cars offered conventional, solidly engineered French middle-class motoring — but the company's heart and profit had moved decisively to commercial vehicles. Car production wound down by 1939, never resuming after the war; Berliet became France's truck colossus, eventually folding into Renault Véhicules Industriels. The thirties cars thus mark a deliberate corporate goodbye — competent machines built while the exit was planned. Surviving Berliet automobiles are curiosities treasured mainly in Lyon, where the family name means industry itself; they remind historians that France's truck giant once contested the passenger market, and left it without regret.
1934 Berliet Dauphine 11CV · Charles01 · CC BY-SA 3.0
