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Walter P. Chrysler founded Plymouth Motor Corporation in 1928. The first car was the Q model, which sold as a 1929 model. It was built in the Highland Park facility, which Chrysler received from the purchase of the Dodge Brothers earlier that year. Plymouth was designed to be an entry-level automobile, competing primarily with Ford and Chevrolet. Pre WarThe Q model was the first in its class to offer hydraulic brakes as standard equipment along with a 45 horsepower 4-cylinder engine. The bodies were also mounted on rubber mounts to help eliminate vibration. Plymouth franchises were originally available to Chrysler dealerships exclusively, but in 1930, became available to Dodge and DeSoto dealers as well. This expanded the Plymouth franchise to well over 10,000 outlets. Walter P. Chrysler turned the presidency of the Plymouth Motor Corporation over to F.L. Rockelman, while maintaining his chairmanship of the Chrysler Corporation. In 1931, Plymouth introduces “Floating Power”. Using flexible rubber mounts in a 2-point engine mounting system; the vibrations from the top-heavy four-cylinder engine are kept from being felt in the frame and body. The slogan “Smoothness of an Eight, the Economy of a Four” was used to tout this development. 1932 brought the 6-cylinder to the Plymouth line for the 1933 model year. Walter Chrysler believed that a 4-cylinder engine was the answer for a low priced car, but having a 6-cylinder meant prestige to car buyers, so Chrysler gave them what they wanted. This development put Chrysler in Second place for vehicle production for the first time, right behind Ford. Plymouth was the only automaker in the year to show a sales increase over the previous year. This 6-cylinder was to remain in production form October 1932 until the end of production of the 1959 model year cars. Plymouth introduced the longer wheelbase PD and PCXX. In 1934 the one millionth Plymouth was sold. All the separate corporations, Dodge Brothers Corporation, DeSoto Motor Corporation, Plymouth Motor Corporation and Chrysler Motor Corporation, became division of Chrysler Corporation in 1935. This move allowed Chrysler to streamline production of the various lines, and allow for it to sell rebadged Plymouths as other Chrysler products to overseas markets. 1937 brought the production of the two millionth Plymouth and introduction of the Plymouth Truck. This truck was based on the Dodge chassis. Competition in the truck market was intense, including from Dodge, and the line was discontinued after the 1941 model year. 1939 brought the production of the three millionth Plymouth. Plymouth was also first in this year to introduce a vacuum powered convertible top. 1941 brought to an end the 7-passenger sedan, and was the year the 4 millionth Plymouth was produced. Post WarThe 1942 models were discontinued due to the war with production plants being used to turnout war goods. Plymouth dealers were asked to sell accessories like radios to people who had purchased cars without them. The news from the war was in much demand. Car production resumed in 1946, with warmed over models from the 1942 model year. However, Chrysler executives chose to move the company to production of military electronics after the war and left the automotive divisions on their own. This chaos left the divisions to compete, no only with Ford, Chevrolet, Pontiac, etc, but also amongst themselves. Plymouth survived the post-war period to about 1950 solely on war-starved demand and the brisk post war economy. 1948 produced the five millionth Plymouth and the sixth millionth Plymouth crossed the doors of the assembly plant in 1950. During this post-war period, people began to move away from the stogy solid reliability of the anvil shaped car to more racy stylish cars. People also wanted options, such as power steering, power brakes, power windows, automatic transmissions and more powerful engines. In 1951, material shortages due to the Korean Conflict, caused Plymouth, as well as most automobile manufacturers, to reduce the amount of steel used in automobiles. Sheet metal was thinner, braces removed, and fasteners were fewer and further apart. The Chrysler board decided that if production were to be curtailed that Plymouth would get axed, even though Plymouth was the third largest automaker. Plymouth marked the building of its seven millionth automobile in 1951. Plymouth during this wartime started falling back, becoming the little brother to the other divisions. Being considered a low cost auto, it failed to receive the promised new engines, transmissions and other upgrades that they were scheduled to get during this period. With the end of the Korean War, 1953 brought some restyling and downsizing to Plymouth. Bodies were shared with Dodge, beginning the trend of Plymouths becoming “stripped” down Dodge automobiles. In the summer of 1953, Ford and Chevy started a sales blitz, pushing cars out as fast as they could be produced. Plymouth tried to keep up, but got no production help from the other divisions. Plymouth barely kept its third place position. The eight millionth Plymouth was produced in the 1953 model year as well. The 1954 models were a disaster for Plymouth. Being short of options, and not having a v8, Plymouth sales fell. The semi-automatic transmission was carried over from the 1953 model year, and its reliability was questionable. Power steering was added 3 weeks after the model year started. The production slide did not go unnoticed, and late in the production year, Plymouth management made available the first fully automatic transmission in a Plymouth. As the traditional spring car-buying season approached, Plymouth was dealt another blow by a wildcat strike by the United Auto Workers at the Mack Avenue plant that idled production for a week. No sooner was this strike settled, when another wildcat strike shut down the Lynch Road facility, cutting production again. The 1954 model year was so bad; that Plymouth fell into fifth place in auto production, behind the likes of Buick and Oldsmobile. Also 1954 Plymouths were used to demonstrate a new turbine engine technology, as a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere became the automobile with this technology.
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BK (short for Big Kahuna -- a name friends gave him back in the early 90s) is the Administrator of MoparStyle, which he started in 2001. He's a semi-retired business executive/owner who now spends with his family, drag racing, and maintaining a slew of web sites and a gaggle of collector cars. Childhood Eldest of five boys and three girls who grew up in poverty living in a 2 bedroom apartment. Born in Michigan, but moved to Texas in 1961. Moved again to New Jersey in 1966, New York in 1970, and back to Texas after completion of Military service. Grew up with very little supervision, as his family was so large. His father always worked three minimum wage jobs concurrently, and his mother was too overwhelmed to keep up with all of the kids by herself -- so Dave pretty much grew up on the streets -- getting into a lot of trouble with the law as a kid. He always had a job of some type as a kid, from paper routes to washing dishes. Education He was a D/F student until leaving high school by mutual agreement at 16. Later attended various colleges in the evenings under the GI Bill, with a focus on business and computer science Military Service Dave enlisted in the USAF in 1972, shortly after turning 17, and was the youngest to be serving at the time he arrived to Basic Training in San Antonio, Texas. He spent three years active duty driving trucks, and exchanged his last year active for two years Active Reserves (under Palace Chase) to teach others to drive trucks. Dave spent the next ten years attending college in the evenings under the GI Bill. He is a service connected Vietnam Era disabled Veteran. Employment Career After he completed his military service, he (in order) drove taxi, Tractor-trailer, and dump truck; laid blacktop, roofed, and repo'd vacuum cleaners; was a bill collector, a carpet cleaning salesman, and a draftsman; a postage equipment repairman, a mailroom equipment salesman, and a computer repairman; a computer salesman, Executive VP of two large collection agencies, and owned a collections agency; owned a distress debt buying business, a software company, and a web hosting company; owned an race engine building company, and he now designs web sites. Dave and his eldest son (Dallas) recently started a Motorcycle Tour business by the name of Texas Motorcycle Excursions. Favorite Quote A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. Favorite Mopar
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