1961 brought a totally new generation of Dodge trucks. What’s easily forgotten is that for its first year only, it was called Dart. Now that’s a bit odd, given that the Dart was at the time Dodge’s popular full-size passenger car series. And Diesel Power? In 1961? What’s that all about?
Given that the Dart name was not anywhere to be seen on the 1961 pickup brochure as well as a number of its initial ads, it’s pretty safe to assume that the Dart name was added at the last minute, or possibly even just after it went into production. There’s no Dart badges on it anywhere. So why the last minute rush to add Dart to its name?
The 1960 Dart, Dodge’s new entrant in the popular low-price segment of the full-size market, was a smash sales success. Since Dodge dealers no longer had the possibility of selling Plymouths, they were given a directly comparable model, the Dart. Sales and market share exploded, from a sleepy 156k units and 2.5% market share to 368k and 5.6% market share. And 88% of those were Darts.
Of course they pretty much all came out of Plymouth’s hide, which dropped from 459k in 1959 to 252k in 1960, and market share dropped from 7.3% to 3.8%. Undoubtedly, Chrysler-oriented full size buyers found the Dart to be much more stylistically palatable compared to the rather odd 1960 Plymouth. This reminds me; we’ve never done a proper CC on either of these, and I shot a Plymouth ten years ago or so. Good to know there’s still untrod ground to cover, although finding a ’60 Dart might be a bit of a challenge.
Back to the Dart pickup. No doubt the white hats at Dodge were chuffed about their hit, the 1960 Dart. So they figured they’d spread some of that Dart pixie dust on their new pickup.
It didn’t work. I don’t have ready stats available, but from what I’ve picked up, the new ’61 Dodge pickup was not well received, and sold barely better than the quite aged truck it replaced.
That probably explains the new grille for 1962, and the lack of any references to “Dart”. Meanwhile, the passenger car Dart line fell back to earth for 1961, dropping almost 50%. That probably also explains the lack of the Dart moniker too. And by 1963, the Dart would reappear as a genuine compact, and to considerable success.
And now to the “diesel power” part. To tell the truth, I’m a bit stumped by that ad, as all the information I have suggest that the Perkins 6.354 six cylinder diesel was made available on Dodge pickups late in the 1962 model year. Maybe they got it wrong, and it was actually late in the 1961 MY. Either way, only some 1000 of these 120 hp units were installed. Americans just weren’t ready for diesels in their Dodges in 1961-1962. But then they wouldn’t be ready either in 1978, when some 2,835 Nissan diesel powered Dodge pickups were sold. Finally, when in 1985 the first Cummins diesel was implanted, things took off. Third time’s a charm.
Related:
The Case of the Very Rare 1978 Dodge Diesel Pickup and the Missing Diesel Van PN
Just looking at some other ads, it seems that the Dart name was only used for 2WD half-tons with the 8′ Sweptline bed and 225, with an emphasis on fuel economy/low cost of operation.
According to a forum post, the ’61 look was so poorly received that Dodge ended up in 6th place behind not only Chevy and Ford, but also IH, GMC, and Willys (who didn’t even have the Gladiator pickup yet!). At least they beat Studebaker…
That makes sense. More like a sub-model, and something they came up with during the year to stimulate sales, as they were obviously a bit desperate.
Before the Gladiator pickup was the forgotten Jeep Comanche pickups… and before that the forgotten Buick and Hudson pickups…
Way before the Comanche–this was even before the original Gladiator pickup, the full-size model. All Willys had at the time was the Jeep Truck dating back to 1947.
That introductory grille was unable to meet daily truck needs and it quickly turned into looking like a busted screen door. This meant that most of the trucks that year got replacement grilles that were stronger and heavier looking. These replacements covered the exposed front end supports and were thicker. It was a mighty awesome truck, but not appreciated by the market.
Chrysler did a lot of things right in 1961, but buyers didn’t appreciate the Exner styling.
The Dart name? It was overused. It appeared on many different models that often didn’t even share the same front end design. I got a feeling that Chrysler was open to new branding after DeSoto got tapped out, Valiant was released, and there was a lot of instability in brand names at the time. I guess we had to be there in those unfiltered cigarette smoke-filled Mad Men board rooms to follow any logic using it on a pick up truck.
I had a ’61 D100. I don’t recall ever seeing any Dart branding or reference anywhere on the truck. Nor do I recall the owner manual referencing the Dart name or an available diesel. Mine was a 318, so perhaps the Dart name was reserved for the /6.
The absence of ’60 Darts is striking. Can’t argue with stats; they certainly sold a lot of them. But they were all gone by 1980. Pre-60 Dodges were still common in the ’70s, and the ’63 to ’66 Darts were still common in the ’90s. Those midsize Darts were missing. The engine wasn’t the problem. Did the bodies rust out especially fast?
I’m guessing the Dart pickup was a response to the Falcon pickup and Corvair pickup.
I agree. Ford started the rush to compact pickups with the 1960 Falcon Ranchero. The very next year, there was the Corvair Loadside/Rampside and Econoline pickups. Chrysler may have had prior knowledge of these upcoming small pickups and the base Dart pickup was a stopgap attempt until they were able to get their own compact A100 pickup into production in 1964.
Unfortunately, sales of the 1961 Dart pickup did not materialize and, knowing the Dart name was going onto the A-body compact in 1963, the Dart pickup was dropped after one year.
I might go so far as to suggest that they were planning to call the 1964 A100 compact pickup a Dart, too, but seeing that both GM and Ford’s use of their compact names on their compact pickups were quickly dropped, decided to forego the Dart name on anything but a car.
I’m going to just leave these pictures here.
That Sweptline DeSoto pick-up, I guess it was sold in Mexico?
Also, I remember an article of Collectible Automobile who mentionned then Chrysler once toyed with the idea of a Town Sedan and Town Panel with the Sweptline design but they decided to continue with the old Power Giant design until 1966. More mysterious, I once saw a 1:43 diecast of an Argentinian Dodge pick-up truck as an ambulance vehicule https://imgur.com/VeJqkS1 as well as some screenshots showing a Dodge Sweptline panel truck in an Argentine movie on IMCDB showing how a Dodge Town Panel Sweptline might have look. http://imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=853263
These pics I posted are from Argentina.
Thanks for the infos. 🙂 We could said then these oddities came from parralel universes or alternate universes. 😉
One more oddity, a RHD Dodge Sweptline from South Africa as shown in the movie “Target of an Assassin”. https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_287685-Dodge-D-Series-1962.html How Dodge menage to get a RHD Sweptline in South Africa while Dodge in Australia used International Harvester cab and chassis is a mystery.
Not much mystery to it; Australia had strong local-content requirements.
Thanks for that. Doesn’t just look different, it looks better too.
I think the ad is also referring to Dodge’s heavy duty line of Cummins diesel powered trucks, which also debuted in 1961.
That’s a real possibility. A bit cryptic, though.
Perkins diesels were standard option on all British Dodges for years by that time so this is no surprise to me (the last conventional Kew Dodges had the US style by the way).
Those early diesel pickups usually carried a huge price jump over the gas ones so not appealing to budget buyers… and repair costs are also steep…
…and repair costs are also steep…,. Through the years I’ve heard so many people say, “…but there’s nothing that needs fixing on a diesel.” Then why do we have diesel mechanics?
Facts destroy so many good sayings. . .
With hindsight from 2021, a full size Dart pickup seems no stranger than a four door Mustang.
Shuffling model and sub-model names in the early ’60’s was endemic at ChryCo: Saratoga: out; Newport: in. Dodge: Coronet, Royal, Custom Royal with Lancer: out; Polara, Dart with Seneca, Pioneer and Phoenix: in. Lancer: in, quickly out, Seneca, Pioneer and Phoenix: out; 330 & 440 in, then out. And, for that matter, DeSoto: out; Custom 880: in. Enough to make your head spin.
Mercury was almost as bad: Montclair, Park Lane: out; Meteor with 600 and 800 in, then the latter two out, then Meteor: out; Montclair and Park Lane: in.
Yet another fascinating history lesson .
-Nate