Re: Riddle me this......why why why

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2010/7/31 21:03:17

Not that it matters anymore but if you were in the market for a new car in the low priced field in 1957, and wanted the sharpest best performing car, the Plymouth was the outstanding buy.

All new "Suddenly it's 1960" styling, new torsion bar front suspension, 318 V8 that was larger and more powerful than Ford or Chev, 3 speed Torqueflite transmission vs 2 speed Powerglide and Fordomatic. Plymouth was better styled, better handling, better performing and got better gas mileage than its main rivals.

This accounts for Plymouth's huge sales increase over 1956, nearly double. The limiting factor for sales was factory production capacity. They could not build them fast enough.

So where are they now? Well they were also notorious rust buckets with bad quality control, possibly related to the hurried production. They had their day and were quickly discarded for something newer and better.

Today you will see 100 57 Chevs for every Plymouth at the car shows. Yet in 57 they were struggling to sell a 3 year old body against brand new offerings from Ford and Plymouth.