Raymond Lucien Reix, former owner of Raymond European Car Service and Raymond Jeep Eagle in Toronto, Ontario, passed away on Monday, January 29, 2018 at the age of 81. Raymond leaves behind his beloved wife of 57 years, Marilyn, and his daughters Monique and Michelle. Grandpere to Patricia, Peter, RJ and Tyler and Pepe to Mason, he will be sadly missed by his family in the United States and France.
Raymond had been retired from the world of servicing Citroëns since 2002. He was a Citroën dealer for many years, and had continued to service and sell parts for them literally decades after the last new one had (officially) arrived. His retirement was predicated on an offer he couldn’t (or in any event didn’t) refuse from the Mills and Hadwin Chrysler dealership, who wanted to add Raymond’s Jeep Eagle franchise to their brand offerings and were prepared to buy his building and his business outright. For some reason, the new owners didn’t wish to continue taking care of Citroëns. As such they didn’t have much use for, or interest in storing, or indeed buying the tools and spare Citroën parts that Raymond had accumulated over the years.
It was at that time that the Citroën Autoclub Canada purchased a set of special Citroën tools from Raymond. The photograph (below) was taken on the day of the purchase and shows George Dyke, Citroën Autoclub Canada president (pictured left) shaking hands with Raymond.
(In the photo from left to right are: George Dyke, Greg Lamb, Raymond Reix, Victor Alksnis, and Doug Pengelly).
Apparently, only days earlier, a guy from California had called looking for SM parts, and ended up buying over 20 cartons of great stuff sight unseen. Knowing there were special tools and DS and SM manuals, and not wanting to see those go beyond the resources needed to keep Citroëns on the road locally, the Club inquired about his set of these items and Raymond agreed to sell them for $1,000.
Citroën tools hanging on the wall at Raymond’s
There are many interesting stories about Citroëns serviced and sold by Raymond over the years and if you search past Citroën newsletters you will find ones like the time Arnold Korne had his son’s Méhari over to Raymond’s to have the exhaust system changed. The mechanic used a blow-torch to try to loosen a few bolts and while doing so got distracted for a moment. The torch ignited the Méhari’s ABS plastic body and within just a few minutes all that was left of the Méhari body was charred gobs of plastic clinging to the skeletal frame. There was another time that a customer who had a SM that required major work took his car to Raymond, but when he got the bill it was going to be quite a cash outlay! Rather than paying Raymond the money owed he figured he would try to get his insurance to pay for the value of vehicle and one night he sneeked into the back lot where his SM was parked and torched it! Although he tried to make it look like local vandalism by also painting slogans about the place he was caught and prosecuted, but unfortunately other cars were affected including another customer’s SM. Feeling bad about this incident Raymond offered that customer another Citroën in place of his damaged SM and agreed to take two DS cabriolets he had lying in the lot that were not running (but better than parts cars) and make one restored DS Cabrio. That was a very sweet deal for the SM owner given what used SMs were going for in the day and that DS Cabrios were beginning to be sought after.
1970s pictures of Raymond and his employees.
Raymond and his employees – circa 2000
The family will receive friends at the Ogden Funeral Home, 4164 Sheppard Ave. E., Agincourt (east of Kennedy Rd.) on Thursday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass to be held at Church of Good Shepherd, 21 Simonston Blvd., Thornhill (north of Steeles Ave., east of Don Mills Rd.) on Friday at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations to the charity of your choice would be appreciated.