It’s now been over two decades since Chrysler pulled the plug on Plymouth. After a very promising start, Plymouth had become Chrysler’s volume brand, but it never reached the heights of rivals Ford and Chevrolet, and it eventually faded to irrelevance. Recently, I learned that a car alleged to be the last Plymouth ever built still survives (and had gone up for auction in 2021), so I thought I would compare it to one of the very first Plymouths, a 1928 Model Q four-door sedan.
Unlike Ford and Chevrolet, Plymouth was never an independent automaker or a standalone brand, and it was a relative latecomer to the low-price field: It was introduced in mid-1928 as Chrysler’s cheaper model line, allowing the Chrysler brand to move further upmarket while also leaving space for the equally new DeSoto line. (How Dodge fit into that schema is a much more complicated question for another post.)
The early history of Chrysler is somewhat convoluted. The Chrysler Corporation was essentially born from the wreckage of two older automakers, Maxwell and Chalmers. Maxwell — best known today to fans of comedian Jack Benny — had gone bankrupt in 1920, and in 1921, its receivers had appointed dynamic auto industry veteran Walter P. Chrysler as the company’s new chairman. As Chrysler and Maxwell president William R. Wilson reorganized and revived Maxwell, the separate Chalmers Motor Car Company, with which Maxwell had been closely if rather unhappily associated since 1916, also went bankrupt, with the same receivers. Maxwell bought Chalmers in December 1922 and merged their sales organizations as the Maxwell-Chalmers Sales Corp.
Having revived Maxwell, Chrysler could have similarly revived Chalmers and moved on, but he had great ambitions of establishing his own car company, under his own name. The first Chrysler car, the six-cylinder B-70, was developed in 1923 by Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton, and Carl Breer — Chrysler’s “Three Musketeers” — and designed by Oliver H. Clark. It debuted in January 1924, replacing the existing Chalmers line. At first, the Chrysler was sold by Maxwell dealers, but on the strength of its initial success, Chrysler was able to raise the money to buy out the assets of Maxwell Motor Corporation through the new Chrysler Motor Corporation, which was incorporated on June 6, 1925.
Chrysler’s next step was to replace the four-cylinder Maxwell with a new four-cylinder Chrysler, the 58, which debuted on June 27, 1925. This was more or less the old Maxwell with a new name and a lower price, retaining the 170-cid (2,794 cc) L-head four. The same was true of the subsequent Chrysler Series 50, although its wheelbase was shortened 3 inches, to 106 inches, which then carried over to the 1927–1928 Series 52.
The first Plymouth, which went into production in June 1928, was the direct successor to the Chrysler Series 52. Along with its new name, it boasted updated styling, a longer wheelbase, a bit more power (now 45 hp), three-point rubber engine mounts, and a reinforced frame and axles.
The Model Q was 169 inches overall on a 109.75-inch wheelbase, somewhat bigger than a Ford Model A or a contemporary Chevrolet; Chrysler called the Plymouth America’s lowest-price full-size car.
Chrysler claimed the Plymouth had a top speed of about 60 mph, although the press kit stressed how comfortable it was at more rational speeds of 25–30 mph.
Plymouth’s biggest claim to fame was standard four-wheel hydraulic brakes, now with Lockheed expanding drums. All the six-cylinder Chrysler models had used hydraulic brakes from the start (albeit originally with contracting drums), but “juice brakes” were still uncommon on cheaper cars; Henry Ford famously mistrusted them. The earlier four-cylinder Chrysler models had mechanical brakes, and on the rear wheels only, so the Plymouth Model Q was a definite step forward in stopping power.
Chrysler allegedly chose the Plymouth name for its association with the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock, but general sales manager Joe Frazer later told Richard M. Langworth that the name was really inspired by the Plymouth Cordage Co., whose rope and twine had a strong reputation, especially with farmers. Amusingly, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied Chrysler’s trademark application in February 1929, saying the Plymouth name couldn’t be registered because it was geographical.
These first Plymouth cars were known internally as Model Q, although I didn’t find any indication that they were marketed that way. They were identified as “Chrysler Plymouth,” suggesting a model line rather than a brand, and until March 1930, they were only sold through Chrysler dealers. Chrysler introduced the new model in a show at Madison Square Garden in New York on July 7, with famous aviator Amelia Earhart driving a Plymouth.
Contrary to what you might expect, the Model Q Chrysler Plymouth was not a particularly inexpensive car for its class. Here are the original base prices, FOB Detroit:
- Roadster (rumble seat): $670
- Coupe (rumble seat): $670
- De Luxe coupe (rumble seat): $720
- Two-door sedan: $690
- Touring: $695
- Four-door sedan: $725
- Chassis-cowl: $490
At the time, the prices of a Chevrolet National Model AB ran from $495 for a roadster to $675 for a four-door sedan, while a Ford Model A ran from $480 to $585 — a price difference of $100 or more was not a small amount of money at the time. In August, Chrysler then increased Plymouth prices by up to $15, citing higher labor costs, only to slash certain prices by up to $40 in late December. (The magazine ad pictured above reflects the increased prices.)
Nonetheless, Chrysler had an outstanding reputation, and excitement was very high. Chrysler sold 29,490 Plymouths during the 1928 calendar year, with total Model Q production eventually totaling 66,097 cars. This didn’t include the new Fargo Packet, a half-ton truck riding the Plymouth chassis and using the Plymouth four. Chrysler could probably have sold more cars except that the Highland Park assembly plant was now very badly overextended. That August, Chrysler began planning the new Lynch Road plant, which would be online by January 15, 1929, expanding Plymouth production capacity to 500 cars a day. Chrysler also contracted with Hayes Body Corp. to produce Plymouth bodies. (Early bodies and some later ones were built by Briggs.)
The Model Q was replaced in February 1929 by the Model U, which was now simply called Plymouth, not Chrysler Plymouth. Sales for the 1929 calendar year rose to 84,969. By 1931, Plymouth would be No. 3 in the industry, now sold by Chrysler, DeSoto, and Dodge dealers.
I should emphasize that the blue four-door sedan pictured above is not the FIRST first Plymouth (nor do I know its build date). The actual first Model Q off the line is not known, and whether the first car still survives intact is anybody’s guess. For many years, Chrysler had a 1928 Model Q De Luxe coupe that they represented as the first Plymouth, but after that car was eventually sold, its subsequent owner discovered that its build date was not early enough for it to have really been the first, or even one of the first.
By contrast, the silver 2001 Plymouth Neon IS alleged to be the actual last Plymouth-badged car to come off the assembly lines before Chrysler closed the book on the Plymouth brand in 2001. It’s an LX sedan with the 5-speed manual transmission, but equipped with nearly every other option on the list, including antilock brakes, side airbags, a CD changer (remember those?), and leather upholstery.
The original sticker price was $19,150, including destination charge, but aggressive factory discounts brought that down to $18,210.
Introduced in 1994 as an early 1995 model, the first-generation Neon was arguably the first really competitive compact car a domestic automaker had offered in years, with cute styling, excellent interior space for its size, a fine chassis, and decent power from a 122-cid (1,996 cc) engine. It wasn’t the most refined car in its class, but aggressive pricing (starting at just $9,500 in 1995) made it seem like a great value.
Unfortunately for Plymouth fans, it also marked a new low for the brand: Other than badges and the names of certain trim levels, there was no difference at all between the Dodge and Plymouth versions of the Neon.
The Neon could have been a real winner, but overzealous cost-cutting left it with some persistent reliability woes, including an appetite for head gaskets and exhaust manifold “donuts” that it took Chrysler forever to resolve and that made the Neon a risky choice as a used car or for drive-it-till-it-wears-out owners.
Chrysler introduced the second-generation Neon in early 1999 as a 2000 model. It was a bit bigger than before, with less-cutesy styling and some mild upgrades, although it was now sold less on merit than on price: You could have a 2001 Neon LX with ABS and side airbags for around $2,500 less than a similarly equipped Honda Civic EX.
By the time the second-generation Neon arrived, Chrysler had already decided to phase out the Plymouth brand. Despite its strong start, Plymouth never really overcame its companion-make status. When also paired with DeSoto and Dodge as well as Chrysler (as it was through 1959), Plymouth had more total dealer franchises than Chevrolet or Ford, but those dealers seldom had a reason to push Plymouth very hard if a prospect could be shifted to the more expensive make. In later years, Chrysler could seldom resist the temptation to sell its more interesting products (like the Cordoba, the LH cars, or the PT Cruiser) with Chrysler badges instead. I always saw Plymouth as the budget version, with near-zero brand equity. Chrysler eventually concluded the same thing.
The second-generation Neon was not terribly different in overall size from its 1928 Model Q ancestor. Stretching 174.4 inches from bumper to bumper, the Neon was 5.4 inches longer, but on a 4.75-inch-shorter wheelbase. It was much lower than the Model Q sedan, of course, but, surprisingly, its 2,559 lb base curb weight wasn’t terribly different.
The 2-liter Neon engine was much more powerful than the old 2.8-liter four, making 132 hp to the L-head engine’s 45 hp. Like its ancestor, the last Plymouth could be had with above-average brakes: The standard Neon disc/drum brakes were nothing special, but ordering ABS (standard on the sportier Neon R/T) got you strong four-wheel disc brakes, plus traction control and a tachometer.
By 2001, the Neon was the sole remaining Plymouth — the Voyager minivan had been rebadged as a Chrysler starting in 2000. According to Automotive News data, dealers were still selling Plymouth-badged leftovers through the end of 2001, but it was the final year for the Plymouth brand. (The second-generation Neon continued in Dodge form through 2005.) Plymouth calendar year sales for 2001 totaled 31,234, surprisingly close to what Plymouth managed in its debut season back in the latter half of 1928, when it had seemed to have such promise.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1936 Plymouth – I Can Take It For A Spin? (by Paul N)
Vintage R & T Review: 1995 Plymouth Neon Sport “Tarnished By Opening Night Jitters” (by Rich Baron)
Curbside Classic: 1997 Plymouth Neon – Brightening Up The Compact Class (by Brendan Saur)
Curbside Classic: 2001 Plymouth Neon LX – “Hi” Turns To “Hello” (by Brendan Saur)
I would have expected the last model out of the production line to be saved for a museum (the Chrysler museum had opened a few years before); to fade away in total obscurity is undeserving of a brand that for better or for worse sold millions of cars.
It really shows how little Daimler-Chrysler thought of Plymouth
The last Pontiac was similarly sold off as a regular G6, and only rediscovered later https://www.theautopian.com/final-pontiac-real-pontiac-museum/
My Dad served as a submariner during the Korean war on the SSR312 Burrfish, keeping the two Fairbanks-Morse diesels in the forward engine room in shipshape condition. He qualified in subs while at Pearl Harbor, and this photo shows him at around age 18 with the 1928 Plymouth “Q” he bought on Oahu. The car cost $725 new, but was pushing 20 years old at this point. The story as Dad related it was that he bought it off another sailor when the car died in the middle of an intersection in town. Dad offered $25 on the spot, and said it was a very simple fix to get it running again.
Nice to see what one looks like all fresh and dolled up.
I love the shot. Reminds me of a picture my 18 year old father on Leyte in November 1944 with just a towel around his waist.
16 Grand for a new Neon in 2001?!? That was one really expensive Neon!
I remember thinking about the last years of Plymouth and how they were back to offering competent but dull 4 cylinder cars, just like in the beginning. Except the old ones probably lasted longer.
That was my first thought, as well. Not only that, but I never would have guessed that a leather interior was available on a Neon. Did Chrysler really think that would move the Neon into a more upscale subcompact category? I sure can’t feature a leather interior being an option on any of the Neon’s competition, not even the highest trims from the premium Asian brands. A Cavalier or Focus sure couldn’t be had that way.
I also didn’t know that the last gen Neons got their very own Plymouth grille badge. That’s a small departure from previous Plymouth Neons that only had a single ‘Plymouth’ decal on the trunk lid to differentiate them from the, quite literally, identical Dodge Neon.
Actually 18 grand, or $19K without the various manufacturer discounts. To be clear, that particular car was special-ordered and absolutely loaded, and at its final sticker price it was only about $500 more than a 2001 Honda Civic EX sedan with side airbags. I’d guess a more typical 2001 Neon probably went for something like $14K.
I think it was around 1963-4 when Plymouth began its slide into irrelevance. When the Dodge Dart switched from being an intermediate into a LWB version of the Valiant. I mostly remember Plymouths as being cheaper versions of whatever Dodge was selling. I can only think of a few cars after the mid-1960s that were unique to Plymouth.
a] The early A-body Barracuda.
b] The 1971-2 Plymouth Cricket was an Americanized Hillman Avenger, and Dodge sold no counterpart.
c] The Plymouth Prowler, which became the Chrysler Prowler when the Plymouth name ended, but for a couple years was unique to Plymouth.
Other than those 3 models, Plymouth was never anything aside from a stripped out Dodge, at least in my eyes.
The one-two punch that would ultimately spell Plymouth’s demise almost exactly forty years later was not only the 1960 Dodge Dart, which encroached on Plymouth’s low-price territory, but the 1961 Chrysler Newport that would be sold at the same dealerships as the same size class Plymouth. Between buying a full-sized Plymouth or a slightly less equipped (but more prestigious) Newport for just a few dollars more, guess which one most people chose? This conundrum was most apparent with the dismal sales of the Plymouth VIP while the Ford LTD and Chevy Caprice enjoyed solid, profitable results.
Even then, Dodge dealers howled loud and long for not getting a ponycar in the sixties (even though they got the Charger) which resulted in the 1970 E-body Challenger. That was always a big problem for Plymouth; the dealers much preferred selling a higher-profit Chrysler and didn’t have any real motivation to fight with Dodge over getting into Plymouth’s demographic.
One of the first real signs that Plymouth was on the way out was when the shorter 108″ Valiant sedan wheelbase was dropped and went to the Dart’s longer 111″ wheelbase for 1974. In effect, the Valiant and Dart were way more alike than they’d ever been before. And the brand-new, full-size C-body Mopars were, likewise, virtually identical with only slightly different grille and tailight treatments. The following year, the Cordoba came out as a Chrysler and Dodge, with no Plymouth version. The Cordoba undoubtedly sold better as a premium Chrysler, but at the expense of the Plymouth brand.
More than ever, all the seventies’ belt-tightening of the struggling Chrysler was the writing on the wall for the death of Plymouth, and it would continue full-steam ahead with Iacocca and K-car and minivan variants which were barely distinguishable from the Dodges and Chryslers.
The bottom line is that dualing Plymouth with Chrysler dealerships (unlike standalone Ford and Chevy) would put them at a tactical disadvantage as time went on over the years. A real shame since standalone Plymouth dealerships might have made the difference in the brand’s survival.
The power of inflation: In 1928, $660 bought a car with leather upholstery. In 2001, $660 bought the leather upholstery.
I just saw a late 90s Plymouth Prowler driving down the street last week at lunchtime. Haven’t seen one of those “in-the-wild” in many years.
A thought: Has anyone considered that the Plymouth name was garnered from the City of Plymouth, Michigan? The only thing contrary to this is that the Plymouth hood ornament for many years was a sort of version of The Mayflower. Another feature for Walter P. was that his 1924 six-cylinder Chrysler featured the first production high-compression six. Ahem, that was 6:1. Walter P. Chrysler has spent most of his life in the railroad industry before putting together the Chrysler marque.
Except it wasn’t? Chrysler press stuff at the time cited the Pilgrims and the Mayflower, Joe Frazer said it was borrowed from Plymouth binder twine.
My grandfather was a doctor in a small Ontario town, and when he died in 1933 he had a Plymouth business coupe for home visits. My mother said he was very proud of the car and it was quite stylish. I do know that they had a 1918 Model T touring, followed by a 1926 Model T, which I think was a sedan. I don’t know of any other cars, but there might have been. He also kept what my mother called a “cutter”, which was a one horse open sleigh, for house calls to rural patients. I suspect that he got the Plymouth when my mother and her older brother were able to get licences, which would have been 1930 and 1931. My grandmother never did drive, so my mother became the family chauffeur.
Great Story and wise conclusion. I was a big Plymouth Fan as my first car was a 67 Belvedere ll 2 door hard top. A square sleek beauty with a 273 V8, auto Trans, manual brakes/steering. My dream car 69 Sport Satellite took me nearly 40 years and about 100k to put together.
I helped into Tallkng Lee Iococca out of killing Plymouth, 93?,on an LA am Talk Show. Chry/Dod/ Eagle all had new cars and nothing for Plymouth and I accused him of Killing Plymouth and he said “We haven’t decided yet” I said BS and said that Plymouth was my first car and Eagle was a Brand the Frenchies pulled out of the Air, 15 years ago! Plymouth sold more minivans than Olds/ Pont/ Merc car lines. Mercedes finally killed Plymouth at Merger and I bought my first/last new Plymouth. A 1999 5 speed Breeze a piece of crap. I owned all 3 Plymmy mini vans and the first 2 generations were great and the last one, bought as a VW, was a heavy piece of shit spent more time in the Ship than on the Road! Be well, Sal and RIP Lee and Plymouth! SAL D