Berliet Model History

France · founded 1899

Lyon-based pioneer that built passenger cars from 1899 to 1939 before pivoting to trucks — supplying 25,000 vehicles to the French army in WWI and ending its car era with the elegant Dauphine.

Models

Early Berliet (1899–1902)

Marius Berliet's first cars — single- then twin-cylinder voiturettes built in a small Lyon workshop before the company moved to the Audibert & Lavirotte plant.

Veteran car · 1899–1902
Pre-War Four- and Six-Cylinder Range (1902–1914)

A broad pre-WWI range from 8 CV to 60 CV — honeycomb-radiatored fours and a massive 9.5-litre six — that established Berliet as a serious French manufacturer.

Touring car · 1902–1914
Type VB

Berliet's ill-fated post-WWI mass-market car — a copy of the 1916 Dodge that suffered from inferior French steel and bankrupted the company in 1921.

Touring car · 1919–1921
1920s Range (Type VI / VRC / VK and six-cylinders)

Berliet's post-bankruptcy recovery range — new overhead-valve fours from 7 CV to 18 CV and two new six-cylinder models introduced from 1927.

Touring car · 1924–1932
Dauphine 11CV

Berliet's last passenger car — a modern 1,990 cc family saloon with independent front suspension, produced in Lyon from 1934 until war ended car production in 1939.

Family car · 1934–1939

Other makes