Editing Talbot-Lago (section)

==Commercial and financial==
Sales data by model were kept confidential, possibly in connection with the company's financial difficulties, but the overall totals for the early 1950s tell a dire story. The [[Suresnes]] plant produced 155 cars in 1947, an output which increased by 23 in 1948.<ref name=Automobilia1948/> 433 cars were produced in 1950, but this then fell to 80 in 1951 and to 34 in 1952.  In 1953 it is thought that the company turned out just 13 of the 26CV Record model and 4 of the 15 CV Babys.<ref name=Automobilia1953/> During the rest of the decade volumes did not recover significantly; no more than 54 of the [[#T14 LS|T14 LS]] were built in 1955 and 1956.<ref name="Decker2"/>

As the company's commercial trajectory implies, the years following the end of the [[Second World War|war]] were marked by the slow financial collapse of Anthony Lago's Talbot company.  Other luxury automakers whose glory years had been the 1930s fared no better in the 1940s and 1950s than Talbot, with [[Delage]], [[Delahaye]], [[Hotchkiss et Cie|Hotchkiss]] and [[Bugatti]] disappearing from the car business while [[Panhard]], nimbly if slightly improbably, reinvented itself as a manufacturer of small fuel efficient cars.  Customers with enough money to spend on a luxury car were hard to find, and even among those with sufficient funds, in a country where well into the 1950s the [[French Communist Party|Communists]], buoyed by the heroic role played by some of their leaders during the years of [[French Resistance|Resistance]], regularly polled 25% of the vote in national elections, there was little of the "live for today: pay later" spirit that had supported extravagant spending patterns in the 1930s.  Government policy supported the austerity by creating a post-war tax regime that savagely penalised owners of cars with engines above two litres in size, and an Economic Plan, the [[Paul-Marie Pons#The Pons Plan|Pons Plan]],<ref name=Automobilia1948p53>{{cite journal| title =Automobilia| journal = Toutes les voitures françaises 1948 (Salon Paris oct 1947)| volume = 7|page=53|year = 1998|publisher=Histoire & collections|location=Paris }}</ref> which bestowed government favour (and allocations of materials still in short supply such as steel) on just five automakers, these being the businesses that became France's big five automakers in the 1950s and early 60s.  For France's other luxury automakers, meanwhile, including Talbot, the tide had simply gone out.<ref name=Automobilia1953/>

The money ran out, and Anthony Lago was obliged to seek court protection from his creditors, under a procedure known at that time as a [[:fr:Cessation de paiements en France|”Dépôt de bilan”]].  On 6 March 1951 the court agreed a debt moratorium which permitted a limited restart to production at the company's Suresnes plant, but the affair provided unwelcome publicity for Talbot's cash flow problems, and the company now experienced increased difficulty in obtaining credit.  Production was also limited by the extent to which it had been necessary to cut the workforce, and by the reputational damage caused by reports of the whole process.<ref name=Automobilia1953/>

The business staggered on till 1959, but never had the financial strength to support the development and production of its last model, the Talbot-Lago 2500 Coupé T14 LS, launched after a lengthy gestation in May 1955.  In 1958 Lago decided to throw in the sponge and put the business up for sale.  An offer was received from [[Henri Pigozzi]] under the terms of which the remains of the Talbot business would become part of [[Simca]].  In order to avoid bankruptcy, Lago agreed to sell the business on the terms proposed by the Simca president-director, a fellow Italian expatriate. Talbot-Lago was transferred to Simca in 1959.<ref name=Automobilia1959/>  Despite the sorry state of the Talbot business during the preceding ten years, commentators suggest that Pigozzi got a good bargain, receiving at Suresnes an industrial site and buildings worth many times the amount paid, along with a brand name that still resonated strongly with anyone old enough to remember the glory days of Talbot.<ref name=Automobilia1959/>

[[Antonio Lago|Tony Lago]] died in 1960.<ref name=Automobilia1959/>