Commercial Cars Limited was incorporated in September 1905 to build commercial cars, omnibuses, charabancs and fire engines, and bought a five-acre site at Biscot Road, Luton, where new workshops were mostly complete by late 1906. It was one of the first British makers to specialise in commercial vehicles. Its first truck, the 3-ton RC, went into production in 1907, its first bus followed in 1909, and its gearbox slogan was “dogs which bite with a click”.
The First World War turned the factory over to military vehicles, more than 3,000 by 1919, but a debt to the Treasury for wartime excess profits duty brought financial trouble, and Humber bought Commer in 1926. Humber became part of the Rootes Group in 1931. The 1930s brought the N- and LN-series trucks and the streamlined Superpoise range, while post-war Commers included the Hillman-based Cob van and the Walk-Thru of 1961.
Many Commers are remembered for the Rootes TS3, a three-cylinder two-stroke diesel with opposed pistons, nicknamed the “Commer Knocker” for its sound. In the early 1960s production moved to Dunstable, where Commer, Dodge (UK) and Karrier were brought together. After Chrysler took over Rootes, the Dodge name replaced Commer in the 1970s, and after Peugeot bought Chrysler Europe in 1978 the factory was run with Renault Trucks.
