Matford F917WS
A copy of the Fordson 7V was produced in France by Ford's local subsidiary and partner Matford as the F917WS model in their Poissy factory. It was mainly designed for the French army in the outbreak of World War 2 but only around 600 were delivered to the army before France was seized by Nazi Germany. The Nazis used a number of these trucks, but sabotages made by the French workers who were not fond of their ideals led to production ending the following months and the army using only German Ford trucks while the Poissy plant only delivered parts to Germany to keep production running. After the war, the truck was heavily modernized both mechanically and stylistically and was relaunched as the Ford Cargo F798WM (not to be confused with the later Ford Cargo range). This time, the Ford V8 was extensively reworked for the vehicle with the help from Hispano-Suiza. Apart from its home market, it also saw some export sales.
In 1951, the French Ministry of Defense placed a major order for 2000 diesel engine trucks with 6x6 all-wheel drive. However, such a model hat yet to be developed. As a temporary solution, Ford delivered 560 trucks with gasoline engines. From 1951, a tractor unit with the diesel engine was also available. Because of the austerity plans in 1952, the government withdrew its order and Ford France boss Lehideux immediately dismissed several hundred workers. As early as 1950, there had been repeated violent strikes at the Poissy plant. These strikes and low sales led Ford to look for a buyer for the plant. On July 4, 1954, Simca took over most of Ford France and thus also the Poissy plant. Until 1958, Ford still held 18% of the shares. At the end of 1954, sales of the Ford Cargo F798WM were discontinued. Nevertheless, a version for the French military continued in production under the Simca and later Unic brands in the company's plant in Suresnes. The engines were now supplied by Bugatti although they were still being based on the Ford V8 design. During all of production, more economical 4- and 6-cylinder engines were also available.[2] Since 1953, the engine of the Cargo was also used in the Ford Vendôme luxury car. Since the French army was looking for a small off-road truck in the style of the Unimog and no French automobile company had such a vehicle in its product range, the Simca SUMB was developed. The Simca SUMB shared the same transmission and engine as the by-now called Unic Cargo but had a new cab and slightly shorter chassis which was provided by Unic, while the axles came from Marmon-Herrington; the body was styled by local company Bocquet. Therefore, SUMB stands for Simca Unic Marmon Boquet.[2]
The SUMB came into many versions for the military, many including various special bodies, allowing for payloads up to 2 tons. Over 6,000 were produced and delivered to the French army before production ended in 1973. The tooling was sold to Renault which however did not procced further with the design, instead providing their own Saviem TP3 to the army as the successor. After 1994–1995, a number of SUMB vehicles were converted to use Renault engines as the outdated Ford design was very much uneconomical by now. Since 2005, SUMB vehicles started getting retired from military service and sold as surplus products.[2]
Iveco went on to purchase Unic, and produced an off-road-oriented version of its Iveco Daily van which was named the Iveco Daily 4x4. This was marketed in France under the Unic brand, effectively filling the gap left by the Simca/Unic SUMB by one of their own models.
