Plymouth Reviews

Plymouth Logo Plymouth Brief History:

Well as you probably know the Plymouth automobile is a thing of the past however is does have a place in the history of automobiles. Plymouth’s history started out when Walter Chrysler took over the Maxwell Childers car company back in the 1920s which included the Maxwell car. Chrysler used the Maxwell Childers plant to produce the Chrysler car in 1924 and in 1926 Chrysler took he Maxwell car and made a few changes before they introduced the lower priced Chrysler know as the Chrysler 52. Then in 1928 the “52” was redesigned and launched as the Chrysler Plymouth “Q”. Then in 1929 the Chrysler part of the name was dropped and the Plymouth “U” was introduced to the public.

Little Know Fact from Plymouth History: The Plymouth logo was the Mayflower ship that landed at Plymouth Rock, but the name came from “Plymouth Binder Twine” and chosen by Joe Frazier for its popularity among farmers.

Plymouth History of the 30s, 40s and 50s

The original marketing plan for the Plymouth was to fill the lower priced niche market and the timing couldn’t have been better. The lower priced Plymouth automobile was an integral part of keeping the Chrysler Company alive during the Great Depression at a time when many car makers were put out of business. Plymouth was a success and in 1931 it was the number three auto maker, at which time they introduced the Plymouth PA model and the slogan was “The economy of a four; the smoothness of a six.” Wow, economy cars were a hot ticket back then too.

1933 Plymouth PD

Then in 1933 Chrysler set its sights on Chevrolet and Ford with their more powerful six cylinder engines. They took the 1931 DeSoto 3.1L 6 cylinder flat head engine and added a down draft carburetor and placed it in the new 1933 PC that they unveiled in November of 1932, but sales were dismal. They went back to the drawing board and took the Dodge DP chassis, the PC body and the DP hood, radiator housing and front fenders to create the 1934 Plymouth DP or A.K.A. the “DeLuxe” which was quick to become a big seller. The 6 cylinder flat head engine remained in the Plymouth line-up until 1959.

A feather in the cap of Plymouth automobile history was the 1939 convertible, it was advertised as the first mass produced convertible with a power folding top that was powered by the Chrysler Flat Head engine which boasted 82 H.P. and 201 cubic inches of power. Not much by today’s standards.

For many years Plymouth was one of America’s best selling automobiles. For years Ford, Chevrolet and Chrysler Plymouth were know as the “Big Three” in the auto industry.

Plymouth Future Dimming

Heading into the late 90s there were only four cars that were badged with the Plymouth name and they were the Plymouth Grand Voyager Mini-van, the Breeze a mid-size sedan, the Neon which was a compact car and the Prowler sports car. Then things changed a bit after the merger with Daimler-Benz and the Plymouth Prowler was the car made with the Plymouth badge.

The Plymouth Prowler

Plymouth saw its peak production in the 1973 model with 973,000 vehicles and never got significantly past 200,000 vehicles per year after 1990. Daimler-Chrysler dropped the Plymouth name after the production of some 2001 models in November of 1999.

The last new car sold with the Plymouth badge was the second generation Neon for 2000 & 2001. The PT Cruiser was launched as a Chrysler, and the Prowler and Voyager were change to the Chrysler brand too. After the 2001 model year, the formerly Plymouth Neon was sold only as a Dodge in the U.S., but it was still a Chrysler in Canadian and a few other countries.

Plymouth Review from a Regular Car Guy: Plymouth like so many of the other remaining car manufacturers has a rich history of success, struggle and survival. To this day I still mix up Plymouth and Chrysler when it comes to certain models. Did they just have too many overlapping models with Chrysler and Dodge…probably. Like some of the other manufacturers they tried to expand beyond their ability to differentiate the models or brands. Not my personal favorite, but many people remain loyal to the Plymouth name or is that the Chrysler name, no maybe the Dodge name. Either way it’s all Mopar to me. We have seen the same thing happen to some of the GM brands, but either way the Plymouth still hangs on through the Chrysler family so I personally don’t think it was much of a loss.

Just My Opinion by;
Kenny, a Regular Car Guy

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Due to the situation with Plymouth and Chrysler I will write some limited reviews on past models that are still running around, but not until I write reviews on the ones that are still in production. If you have a certain Plymouth model that you would like reviewed by a regular car guy add your request through the comment form below.