Collector Car Corner – Plymouth fondly remembered

Collector Car Corner - Plymouth fondly rememberedHere’s a 1952 Plymouth full model brochure featuring all of the models, including the Cranbrook sedans, coupes and wagons. (Complements Chrysler Group LLC)
Collector Car Corner - Plymouth fondly remembered

Here’s a 1952 Plymouth full model brochure featuring all of the models, including the Cranbrook sedans, coupes and wagons. (Complements Chrysler Group LLC)

Q: Hello Greg, I’m writing about the Plymouth automobiles. I enjoyed your articles on the “Melrose Missile” and the Ronnie Sox Barracuda funny cars from the 1960’s, but want to know about the Plymouth nameplate and what happened to it? Why did Chrysler drop it from its lineup of cars? I always loved Plymouths, and I owned my first one in 1958, a 1952 Cranbrook that I bought used for only $500. Werner K., Illinois.

A: Thanks for your letter Werner and I’d be happy to tell you about the Plymouth.

Walter Chrysler is the man responsible for bringing the Plymouth brand to market in 1928 as an entry-level automobile that would help build awareness of his Chrysler Corporation. The car was an entry-level model built to battle with Ford and Chevy lower priced models.

Collector Car Corner - Plymouth fondly remembered

Plymouth was a major player in the muscle car market, establishing the new Roadrunner in 1968 as one of the most popular cars of the decade. (Complements Chrysler Group LLC)

Through the years, Plymouth served Chrysler’s purpose. Its best year overall was in 1973 when 750,000 Plymouths were sold at the beginning of the initial gas and oil crisis. This was somewhat of a surprise because most Plymouths were bigger cars, although the compact Valiant did help the “economy” sales thanks to the now famous “slant-six cylinder” engine that debuted in 1960 in many Dodge and Plymouths. This engine lasted through 1983 in cars and 1987 in trucks.

Back to the fuel crisis.

The fuel crisis negatively impact Chrysler badly as by 1979 Chrysler needed big money loan guarantees to stay afloat. Thanks to new CEO Lee Iacocca who was hired in 1978, Congress approved a $1.5-billion deal that allowed solvency and for Iacocca to build the new Plymouth Reliant K-Car. The loan guarantee also allowed Iacocca to lead the way to his next “big idea” project and a major automotive success it was.

Specifically, and thanks again to Iacocca, the beleaguered company hit pay dirt and enjoyed the automotive smash hit with its all-new and novel Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans which debuted in 1983. Chrysler thus survived and its Plymouth lived on until the late 1990s, when Neon, Breeze and Prowler models made up the automobile offerings alongside the still popular Plymouth Voyager minivan.

However, in a move to consolidate the models and dealership offerings, on June 28, 2001, the last Plymouth rolled off the assembly line in Belvedere, Illinois, and brought an end to the Plymouth era that began a year before the Great Depression. It happened because by then the Dodge and Plymouth were identical vehicles except for the badges.

The final car was purchased by a Chrysler executive and was a 2001 Plymouth Neon 4-door finished in silver.

Plymouth fans will surely remember your Plymouth from the 1952 and personally, Plymouth played a major role in my life, too. My father bought a used ’55 Plymouth Savoy (light green) in 1957 and until 1961 when he bought a brand new 1961 Chevy Belair. Also, my uncle Joe owned a 1956 Belvedere in two-tone red and white with a big V-8 under the hood.

As for muscle cars, in 1962 Plymouth became one of the big winners at the drags with its 413-inch two-four barrel cross ram V8 in lightweight Savoy drag strip models, which I remember because across the street from where I lived in Vineland, N.J., sat the “Jolly Roger,” a ’62 Savoy that I visited daily. By 1965, the 426 Hemi was under Plymouth’s hood and headed for drag racing immortality.

On the nation’s boulevards Plymouths ruled, especially those 1968 to 1970 Roadrunners with 383, 440 Six Pack or 426 Hemi power and the 1967 to 1970 GTX models, either 440 or Hemi. After 1970, the Roadrunners and GTX models went downhill quickly thanks to government regulations and emissions and that gas crisis. (Yes, I owned a ’67 GTX, which I’ve mentioned before, and also a ’62 Savoy with a slant six).

Film lovers had a lot to cheer about as John Carpenter’s “Christine” chronicled a “possessed” 1958 Plymouth Fury in this still popular horror cult classic. On the slapstick side, Chris Farley and David Spade saved the Callahan Brake Shoe Company while motoring across America in a metallic blue 67 GTX convertible trying to sell brake pads to Dan Aykroyd, who played Ray Zalinsky, “The Auto Parts King” in the hit movie “Tommy Boy.”

We can’t end this column without a shout out to the King Richard Petty, as his winning ways in his family STP Plymouths dominated NASCAR ovals for decades and built the Plymouth/Dodge brand like no other race team ever did.

Thanks for your letter.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader questions on collector cars, auto nostalgia and old-time racing at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, Pa. 18840 or email at greg@gregzyla.com).