Last Plymouth remembered

For Plymouth lovers everywhere, the date June 28, 2001, will always be remembered. That's the day the last Plymouth rolled off the assembly line in Belvedere, Illinois. It brought to an end the Plymouth era that began a year before the Great Depression in 1928.

Walter Chrysler is the man responsible for bringing Plymouth to the market, feeling a low cost, entry level, automobile would build the consumer awareness of his Chrysler Corporation.

He was right.

Although Plymouth never became a huge seller, it did compete fairly well with Ford and Chevy. Its best year was 1973, when 750,000 Plymouths were sold.

However, just a few years later, the oil crisis nearly buried then struggling Chrysler Corporation, but thanks to a few decent models in the early Eighties and a little "nudge" from the U.S. Government, Chrysler peddled forward.

The company persevered, and then enjoyed an industry smash hit with its all-new and novel Minivan in 1983. Thus, Chrysler survived and the Plymouth brand lived on until the late 1990s, when Neon, Breeze and Prowler made up the automobile offerings along side the still popular Plymouth Voyager minivan.

The final car, a 2001 silver Neon 4-door, was purchased by a Chrysler executive, and brought to an end a storied history, and one that impacted this writer personally through my early years.

My father owned a '55 Plymouth Savoy Inline-6 flathead 4-door back in 1957, a nice car that lasted until 1961 when the engine blew up. My uncle tooled around in a 1956 Belvedere, finished in two-tone red and white with a V-8 under the hood and a pushbutton automatic transmission. They were neat cars.

Plymouth fans will surely remember Plymouths from the Fifties, like the Cranbrook Business Coupe, the 1957 Sport Fury and perhaps the huge finned 1959 models. How about the 1961 Plymouth Valiant? It was a success right from the start.

In 1962 Plymouth played a major role on the street scene with its 413 Ram Induction 2-door Savoy models. By 1965, the 426 Hemi was under the hood and headed for automotive immortality.

At the box office, moviegoers will surely remember John Carpenter's "Christine," a 1958 Plymouth Fury "horror hero" in big finned, "possessed" killer dress. On the comedy side, Chris Farley and David Spade deserve note as they save the Callahan Company while motoring across America in a metallic blue 67 GTX Convertible selling brake pads in "Tommy Boy."

Performance enthusiasts will recall all those 1968-1970 Roadrunners with 383 and Hemi power, the great GTX models from 1967 through 1970, and the highly popular Hemi 'Cuda and 340-Six Pack Cudas. On the drag strip, Ronnie Sox and his Pro Stock Barracudas, Ken Montgomery's "555" Hemi Super Stockers and all those Richard Petty STP Plymouths that terrorized NASCAR ovals have been sealed in our memories. (Montgomery, by the way, is still racing!)

Yes, Plymouth was a major player in a crowded market, and we still miss the car. Sadly, it joins DeSoto in the Chrysler model graveyard, although in the car business, resurrections are common. Let's hope one day a new Plymouth rolls off the assembly line, hopefully a retro 2010 Hemi Roadrunner.

As for the year 1928, On June 17, Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean and succeeds the next day; Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin on Sept. 3; In the November presidential election, Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Alfred E. Smith; Shirley Temple, American actress and politician, is born April 23; A. B. Frost, American illustrator, dies June 22.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist).

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