It’s easy to forget that Plymouth sold pickups from 1937 – 1942. Obviously, it was just a badge-engineered half-ton Dodge pickup with a Plymouth-style grille, but it appeared that Plymouth was pretty serious about offering a line of commercial vehicles, which also included various passenger-car based commercial cars, including a panel delivery and utility sedan.
Why didn’t the pickup reappear after WW2? Good question.
This ad from 1937 suggests “Business Men Wanted It”. More likely, it was those dealers that carried the combined Chrysler-Plymouth brands that wanted it, as they had no trucks to sell.
Actually, Plymouth started selling the passenger-car based commercial cars in 1935, and then expanded the line to include a Dodge-based pickup in 1937.
This 1939 ad shows the full range of commercial vehicles offered. All of them except the pickup were based on the larger 116″ wb passenger car line. The pickup had a 114″ wb.
Here’s the line for 1940.
And one more for 1941.
As to why these didn’t re-emerge after WW2, it really is a good question, and one I don’t have an answer to except to speculate based on the facts. Sales for the pickups were 4,000 in 1939, and 6,879 for 1940. Not terrible, for the times, but obviously not very good either. Given the post-war seller’s market, presumably Chrysler had no need or desire to spend extra in marketing and supporting the Plymouth truck.
That ambulance conversion… looks like the attendants are stuffing a body into the trunk…
And the car-based Plymouth pickup *did* return, it just took until 1983 to come back! 🙂
1979, with the Arrow pickup. Plymouth also had a passenger van and body-on-frame SUV starting in the early-mid ’70s.
As for why no regular pickups after WW2, at least in the ’80s it wasn’t rare to see a Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge Truck franchise in rural areas.
And the car-based Plymouth pickup *did* return, it just took until 1983 to come back! 🙂
These ’37 – ’42 Plymouth pickups weren’t car-based; they were badge engineered Dodge trucks.
I was thinking that the ambulance conversion probably served better for the Medical Examiner / morgue delivery.
Didn’t a lot of ambulances do double-duty as mortician’s vans at the time?
Understandable that Dodge wouldn’t concede truck sales. Plymouth should have done the same by not sharing the various A-body variants. I’ve always had the feeling that Dodge killed Plymouth at every turn. Too bad, I always preferred Plymouth.
I am definitely no expert, but it’s my understanding that within the dealer network and relationships with the factory, dodge was favored and Plymouth was basically a second class citizen within the company due to politicking. I’m sure a more knowledgeable mopar person can come in with more details.
Let’s not forget the Trail Duster of the 1970’s.
The Plymouth was typically dual franchised with Dodge, DeSoto or Chrysler during the 1930’s-1950’s. Because the Dodge dealer network was already established before Chrysler bought the company in 1928, the dealers already had their truck line to sell, bother little with Plymouth trucks if granted a franchise for those. Plymouth trucks were more for the benefit of the DeSoto and Chrysler dual franchises with Plymouth analogous to the GMC pairing with all other GM makes except Chevrolet.
The other motivation for adding the Plymouth light-duty trucks was to match their “low-priced three” competitors Chevrolet and Ford with a comparable commercial offering. For the few stand-alone Plymouth dealers in rural areas, these were a boon to their business.
Seems odd that the business coupe isn’t listed in these ads. The business coupe was a big seller: 60k out of total Plymouth sales of 500k in 1939. The pickup sold 6k, and the panel delivery 2k. The utility sedan only sold 300.
When I was a kid – before I learned how legendary Dodge trucks were prior to Chrysler buying the company in 1928 – I couldn’t understand why Chrysler used their medium priced brand to sell their trucks, unlike GM and Ford.
Then after reading a biography of Walter P. Chrysler I also realized that the formation of Plymouth just months prior to the purchase of Dodge created a redundancy among its brands. It only got worse in 1960, when Dodge advertised the Dart by comparing it to the “C” car (Chevrolet), the “F” car (Ford) and the “P” car (Plymouth).
Pity poor Plymouth and DeSoto, the former at least had a purpose initially, to take the place of the Chrysler Four, born of a Maxwell. The DeSoto was redundant from the word ‘go’ with the Dodge purchase, lived its life as a cut-rate Chrysler. Ultimately, both nameplate’s sales volumes were coveted by their corporate brethren and machinations set in place to achieve their objectives.
By the postwar years, K.T. Keller was running the show. He came up through the Dodge Division, as did his successor ‘Tex’ Colbert. What Dodge Division wanted; Dodge Division got first. Competition from a Plymouth pickup was something they didn’t want or need. Scarce materials went to proven sellers and the Plymouth pickup was a marginal seller at best. Plymouth had to make do with their woody station wagons for the commercial customers.
Good looking rigs IMO .
I once had a 1979 3/4 ton long body Plymouth Voyager crew van…..
-Nate