(submitted by Michael S.C. We’ve seen the Hillman Avenger at CC, but I’ve been hoping for a genuine Plymouth Cricket since day one. It’s finally appeared)
I’ve owned this green 71 Cricket since 81, and the parts car since 1998. These cars weren’t as unreliable as they were just really difficult to get replacement parts for. The green car has over 500,000 miles on it and the gold car 150,000 miles. How’s that for breaking the stereotype of these?
Choke issues, points issues, some electronics problems were common. Arguably, the Hillman engine was tougher, the low compression and sidedraft carb were a limiting factor. The Dodge Colt (by Mitsubishi) was lighter, faster, got better mileage.
But the Cricket was quieter, had more room, handled better. The metal was better, but still prone to rust.
My father totaled his ’65 Malibu SS and traded the carcass for the green ’71 back in 81. It had a fresh Earl Scheib paint job, and Tijuana upholstery. It had a burnt piston and it took a month to get one from England. He drove it until ’89. I pulled it out of storage in ’93 and started driving it. Blew it up a year later and put the spare engine into it. I drove it until 97, when I swapped in a Datsun b210 engine and trans. Raced autocross for a few years until I painted it in a factory color; Oasis Green (Original was electric blue).
I had it in my first car show, Feb ’98, when a guy approached me to tell me he had an Aztec gold 71 in his back yard. I rolled my eyes thinking he was actually talking about a Colt, but he said it was from England. $50 got me a 150,000mi deluxe model with some moderate damage to the front, a set of vintage rocket racing wheels, front spoiler and some vintage parts.
I got it running, the clutch was in bad shape, but I drove it down from Los Angeles to San Diego.I later blew the rear seal out and ran it out of oil. I drove it back from Los Angeles knocking a rod the entire trip, but it never quit.
We moved to Washington in 2012 and the floors had gotten really bad, so the green car was parked on stands. Last year, I started fixing rust to discover that the Pacific North West weather was horrible to it. A SoCal car had rusted to hell in five years of rain!
I also put the gold “parts” car back together, but all the spare parts were worn out. I will finish the green car, and maybe swap a more powerful drivetrain into it.
Michael also sent some pictures of a Cricket in a junk yard labeled “Valiant” that he found a few years back and got some parts off it.
I’m guessing “Cricket” wasn’t in the junk yard’s inventory database.
He also sent this great shot of a truck load of Crickets, Colts and some other Mopar goodies of the time.
Here’s two in the same colors Michael’s Crickets were originally in.
Half a million miles ? Doesn’t one car have a B210 engine ? Perhaps some clarification may be in order.
We have got tons of Hillman avengers Down Here and my uncle being a mechanic since 1980 has worked on many of them most won’t go pass 300K KMs without any Major repairs
The CAR has 500k; the original engine went about 350k with the one rebuild at around 180k. Spare engine had around 150k and still runs.
The b210 engine currently in the green car has 90k and was a Nissan crate engine
That has to be the rarest ’71 Plymouth in existence. I’m a Mopar guy and go to several of the major national shows and I don’t think Ive ever seen one in person
I remember when these came out. It is common to rag on the packaging of the Pinto and Vega of 1971 but Chrysler was offering both these and Colts and not selling all that many of either (though more Colts than these.)
One of these turns up on old TV shows from time to time. I recall one in at least one Mannix episode, and I also recently caught one in a 1973 episode of Colombo my Mrs and I happened to catch.
I cannot begin to think of the last time I actually saw one of these.
Our neighbors bought a brand-new one in 1971. It was a light green color. That was the only one I ever saw until a Cricket actually turned up at one of the Carlisle shows a few years ago in the car corral (meaning, it was being offered for sale).
They kept their Cricket until 1975, when it was traded for a brand-new, light purple AMC Hornet Sportabout.
J.P:
Mannix secretary had one of these at one point in the series, but as time wore on she replaced it with a Colt. I have no idea/remembrance of what replaced the Colt when Mannix switched from Chrysler products to Chevrolets.
I was always really confused by the appearance of these on American shores, as what could Chrysler possibly do with this offering that either the Plymouth Valiant or Dodge Dart already took care of? I am sure it was a good enough car but this question still needs to be posed.
The Valiant and Dart were compacts, like the Nova and the Falcon/Maverick. The Cricket (and Colt) were subcompacts, substantially smaller. This was where the Pinto and Vega played as well as the Toyota, Datsun and (of course) the VW Beetle. It was well known that Ford and GM were working on new subcompact Beetle-fighters. Chrysler could/would not pay for a matching program and tried to compete in that segment on the cheap.
To be fair, Chrysler was almost assuredly trying to get back some of their investment in Rootes. Didn’t exactly pan-out. The money they spent on Mitsubishi (Colt, et al) and Simca (Omnirizon) was much better spent.
Yeah, it’s hindsight, and the ponycar market was hot in 1968 (when the decision to embark on the E-body was made) but it’s still one of those things I’ve always contended that tight-budgeted Chrysler would have came out much further ahead if all the cash they’d dumped into the ill-fated E-body would have, instead, went into developing the Omnirizon. Imagine if the Omnirizon had come out in 1974 instead of 1978. As it was, Chrysler had trouble keeping up with demand, anyway (and they had to use a VW-sourced engine block).
I mean, c’mon, tiny AMC was able to come out with the 3/4’s-of-a-Hornet Gremlin at the same time as the Vega and Pinto. Chrysler couldn’t even match AMC?
More “Grandfather’s Axe” (https://logosconcarne.com/2016/03/19/my-grandfathers-axe/)
than 500,000 mile Cricket. I must note that today’s date is April 11th so “April Fools + 10!” comes to mind.
While I can’t deny its existence, I can’t wrap my mind around its reality.
I was in High School when these came out, and for some reason I remember them, if a bit vaguely. I can’t recall ever riding in one, but since we still owned a Plymouth Valiant in 1971, perhaps I saw one at a dealership, or perhaps somebody in high school got one from a generous and well-meaning dad.
Anyhow, I do remember that they were more like Mayflies than Crickets, as – in Western Pennsylvania where it can be hard to tell the snow banks from the piles of road salt – they disintegrated spectacularly while offering all the design and build quality that British Leyland could slap together. To be fair, maybe the Mitsubishis rusted even worse, but I have no memory of those.
I am awed and amazed to see this one, and I offer a toast to its owner… It is very, very cool.
I remember being in a junkyard one time when two guys came in with a whole pile of tools,including several five pound hammers, declaring that they were there to get the ball joints out of a Cricket. I thought at that time that they were truly dedicated, since most ball joints on boneyard cars aren’t generally worth looking at.
I’ve never even seen a Cricket in the metal, so this is a rare treat. The car may have been lousy, but the British sure knew how to craft a car name. A cricket sounds adorable and fun, and avenger is also a great name. I have the C/D which has a review of both this car and the Colt. The biggest problem for a car like this is American manufacturers really could not make it less expensive than something like a Valiant/Dart, and they didn’t see the market for a fairly expensive but tiny and tinny car . . . until OPEC happened.
the British sure knew how to craft a car name.
The Brits had nothing to do with it; the Cricket name was what the Plymouth folks decided to rename to for US consumption.
Rust in the Pacific Northwest? Nonsense
How cool! Gotta respect and admire the dedication required to keep the likes of a Cricket alive and thriving over the long (long, long) haul.
I see and appreciate your lighting system modifications (’68-type Mopar sidemarker lights rather than the original sidemarker light/reflectors; amber rear turn signals and side turn signal repeaters I assume are from a UK-market car).
Actual side markers on the US model appeared to be the same ones used on some other British cars like the MGB. Was there one supplier to several UK manufacturers?
Possibly the dreaded Lucas?
Yup, do a Google image search for Lucas L841. Lucas had an extensive “library” of surface-mount lamps (sidemarkers, repeaters, tail lamps, stop lamps, turn signals, etc) that were widely used on a great many British (etc) cars.
Good eye; side repeaters at from a us spec 70 cortina, side markers from a 68 Plymouth valiant
My next door neighbor got one and after six months, traded it in for a loss. A horrible, unreliable, terrible car. Cute, but horrible.
Congrats on owning a rare pair of Crickets. Hope they won’t breed…
“Hope they won’t breed…”
Hahaha! At least with this kind you will never need insecticide because they all kill themselves. 🙂
they have; I now own four!
Always happy to see a determined owner keeping a car long term on the road, Only have 302k miles on the ’86 Jetta, but still on original engine and transmission. No rust in PNW on my car, the original paint loves the soothing rain, a towel off occasionally and she continues to shine. 28 years since I bought it and counting…
The pictured car carrier is a another uncommon Mopar, a Dodge LNT 1000. Almost as rare as the Cricket, but had a much better reputation.
Last Cricket I saw was at a Mopar show about 3 years ago. They were never common, but they were around. I thought they were good looking.
Not too sure if the car over the cab of the car carrier is actually a Mopar. Maybe a Toyota?
It’s a Dodge Colt, which was produced by Mitsubishi. (Chrysler Corporation had bought a stake in Mitsubishi.)
It gave Dodge dealers a subcompact to sell.
Funny enough this Dodge Colt was sold as a Plymouth Cricket in Canada between 1973 and 1975. From 1971 to 73 as the Colt in the USA.
Ive never seen a Plymouth Cricket as far as I know, the identical Hillman Avenger though are still not all that rare here yet theres more of those about than Mitsubishi Colts and new they were a better drive.
One would think that after eight decades of designing and building cars to inhabit an island in the North Atlantic that British engineers would have found a way to keep those cars from rusting. Think again. Avengers/Crickets began to disintegrate on their assembly line in Glasgow, Scotland, and did not stop until they were mostly piles of red dust on the floors of their owners’ garages. So to be in posession of one of these insects in pretty darned good condition is quite an accomplishment.
It looks like Chrysler had moved from the last musclecar op-art ads of 1970 to the subcompact Cricket for 1971. It didn’t help much, but the ads are still cool.
Cricket’s had the weirdest directional signal I ever saw. It’s hard for me to even explain it.
Buddy of mine had a ’73, good running little car, his dad was a professional mechanic, so whatever it needed, it got.
We had a lot of fun in that car in HS.