Th. Schneider

The founder and his name

By the time he established the company that carried his name, Schneider was already a very well seasoned automobile manufacturer. With Edouard Rochet, Schneider had been involved since 1889 or 1894 with the Lyon based Rochet-Schneider company.

Although Schneider had apparently been registered at birth with the name Théodore Schneider, many friends and business partners knew him as "Théophile Schneider". Use of the name Th. Schneider for his automobile company avoided the need to arbitrate between the two names.

1920s

In October 1919 the manufacturer took a stand at the 15th Paris Motor Show, and was already exhibiting a range of four different cars, with wheelbases of between 3,000 mm (118.1 in) and 3,400 mm (133.9 in). They all used 4-cylinder engines with cylinder diameters that placed them respectively in the 12HP, 14HP, 18HP and 26HP car tax bands. The engine capacities were 2,292cc, 3,030cc, 3,958cc and 5,500cc. The cars offered for the 1920 model year were not strikingly different from those that had been offered before the war, but the radiators were mounted in front of the engines, which by now was becoming standard practice across most of the French auto-industry (although Renault would persist in placing the radiator behind the engine till 1929). During the early 1920s the Th. Schneider range became broader (and more complex).

The business prospered through the middle 1920s. One of the best remembered models, built since 1922, was the Th. Schneider 10HP which sat on a 3,000 mm (118.1 in) wheelbase, and was powered by a 1,947cc engine that was offered with a side-valve engine for "normal" use or with overhead valves in a "sport" version. At the 19th Paris Motor Show in October 1924 the manufacturer was offering this car with a "Torpedo" type body for 29,000 francs. From the volume makers, a "Torpedo" bodied Renault 10HP was listed only 22,500 francs at the same show and a comparably sized "all-steel" Citroën Type B10 was offered for even less, but the mass-produced Citroën still had serious structural issues to overcome, and at this stage the French automarket was still able to absorb cars in this class from the smaller automakers as well as from the high volume companies.