Chimo

Chimo was a Canadian specialty automobile and kit-car marque launched by Customotive Inc. at Saint-Laurent, Quebec, in 1980. Customotive moved the operation to Ottawa, Ontario, in 1985. During that year Image Inc. of Smiths Falls, Ontario, took over or continued production and retained the Chimo name until approximately 1988. The complete documented range consists of one unnamed coupé. Its one-piece fiberglass body was considered an unusual Canadian manufacturing approach at the time and has been compared in overall profile to the Jaguar XJ-S, although it was an independent kit-car design rather than a Jaguar replica or conversion. The body mounted to a Volkswagen Beetle chassis. Surviving summaries report multiple possible powerplants: Volkswagen engines, Ford V6 units and Mazda rotary engines. They do not preserve displacements, outputs, transmission pairings, installation dates or evidence that any engine choice carried a distinct model or trim name, so all remain configurations within one Coupé family. A surviving loose body advertised decades later was said to have been purchased as a roller with an electric motor attached to its transaxle; that proves an individual conversion, not a factory electric Chimo. No dependable designer, founder, body dimensions, wheelbase modification, weight, suspension/brake specification, pricing, assembly instructions, serial sequence, kit-versus-turnkey split, annual production, total output or survivor registry is publicly recoverable. A secondary recollection names Allied Industries as another possible later producer, but the better-established historical sequence identifies Image Inc.; the unsupported identity is not promoted to a corporate era. Chimo is distinct from the Chinese Ciimo marque, Chimo snowmobiles, Canadian place and school names, and unrelated modern companies. One Coupé row accounts for the entire defensible model range.

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