(first published 4/11/2012) From time to time we all get a bit insecure about our appearance. Whether it’s our clothes, the angle of our nose or our lack of muscles, there’s something about ourselves we want to change. And no car understands our need to fit in better than the Plymouth Valiant.
We all know the original Valiant. Once seen, never forgotten. Although it has always been my (oddball) cup of tea, its ranking at the back of the Big 3 pack of compacts in sales, despite its far superior performance and all around competence, must have been a big sore point for Mopar.
Meanwhile the cherubic and non-offensive Falcon continued to clean up in sales. The trendsetting Corvair, wild as it was, still had very healthy sales, and even the faux-elegant Comet was doing decent business. It was obvious dressing all that torsion bar/Slant Six/Torqueflite goodness in outre styling from the mind of increasingly embattled Virgil Exner wasn’t the way into thrifty wallets.
Virgil himself must have been stung strongly to do such an about face on what was his first salvo in the post Forward Look era to come up with such a subdued follow up. It was cleaner and more generic that the wild child that came out of the Highland Park womb in the fall of 1959.
About the only hint that underneath the new conservative cardigan and khakis, this was the same overachieving Valiant as before is the slight rotundness of the decklid between those two blunt almost fins, which were added by incoming Design Chief Elwood Engel, to square up the rear end some. One of the visual impressions that the new Valiant gave was of general compactness. the 1960-62 Valiants seem like a larger sea of undulating curves that belie its rather abbreviated compact size.
Along with the buttoned down appearance came a little bit of open air flair for the Valiant in the form of V200 and Signet convertibles. Prices across the board were also reduced a bit, keeping with the themes of renewed conservatism. One has to wonder if all of those loops and curves cost all that much more per car.
Actually Valiant could brag about being America’s lowest priced convertible for 1963, since they offered two trim levels of Convertible, the mid level 200 and the top trim Signet. Falcon, Lark, Corvair and Nova only offered convertibles in their top trim levels. And few of those top down fun machines came with as much zest for the dollar as the Valiant did.
Although a V8 option wouldn’t appear for another model year, the 170 cube and 225 cube Slant Sixes held their own against the competition. And both engines were cheaper than the V8 and turbo options of its competition. The argument can be made that the Valiant, even after 4 years, had the best six cylinder options among the crop of compacts.
All of this chalked up to the Valiant’s having a great year in 1963, appearing all new against all of its competitors. More than 225,000 of the variety of Valiants this year headed home to willing customers.
It actually set a new tone in the life trajectory of the Valiant. By 1963 the Falcon was at a crossroads between appealing to the more luxury compact dynamic set forth by the Corvair Monza and the original intended purpose of being a no frills throwaway first car. Once Ford focused on the Mustang, the Falcon floundered, becoming an also ran in the field it dominated almost as quickly as it became the star of the class of ’60.
The Valiant, however, went from the weirdo that ate his boogers to being the respectable accountant (or the more talented Falcon). A respectable accountant that got good referrals from happy customers each year, solidifying the reputation of being the pragmatic choice for people who really didn’t care about cars.
Inherently even if an appliance is excellent, if it looks unfamiliar few customers will take it. By trimming the wild plumage previously festooned on the bones, the Plymouth Valiant transformed overnight into that phenomenon we came to know so well in the post-war era.
The Appliance Car. (Thanks to Paul for the photos of the red Valiant from Eugene).
Update 3/1/21 by PN: Although Valiant sales improved somewhat for 1963 and 1965, after that they went into serious decline—along with most other compacts—until 1970, with the arrival of the Duster, which sold extremely well. The overwhelming majority of Valiant sales from 1970-1976, which peaked at 460k in 1974, were for the Duster. Valiant sedan sales were quite modest during all those years.
Our ’63 V-200 wagon in Medium Metallic Green, with the 170 and pushbutton torqueflite and whitewalls was my favorite family car ever. Here’s a page from a book of my late father’s “Book of Cars” that I made for him.
OK, that didn’t work…. how about a pic of the Valiant in our driveway?
My parents bought a ’63 pale blue Valiant 200 four door. I don’t know which slant 6 it had, but given my dad’s frugality, I doubt it was the 225.
3 on the tree it was the car on which I learned to drive a stick. When it was time for my driving test I drove my mom’s olds 88 with an automatic.
In ’71 or ’72 my dad gave me the car to use in college. By then rust had reduced the weight of the car considerably, but it soldiered on with out any repairs needed.
My wife and I married in May of 1973 and our wedding gift was a ’73 duster. Again with 3 on the tree but it did have the 225.
I like the original, as Tom McCahill said, the Valiant looked like a much more expensive car than the dumpy Falcon w/ it’s unfortunate engines and transmissions
did the Valiant wheels get smaller w/ the redesign?
I think I read that the orig Valiant had larger wheels than the Falcon, whose wheels look tiny and the dumpy car look dumpier – the redesigned Valiant seemed to mimic the dumpy Falcon in that respect
I wish I had been car buying age from 1970 to 1976 because a Valiant sedan would have been the perfect car for me and my personality. A K car Reliant would have been perfect for me in the early to mid 80’s but that is when I was in college. My parents got me an 85 1/2 Escort when I graduated from college, and after that car, I have purchased only Crown Victorias and Grand Marquis.
Exner certainly went out with a bang with his last Chrysler effort. And it’s worth noting how Engel’s little touches really cleaned it up, too, especially the second year car, on both the rear ‘and’ front. Engel’s little rear finlets provided a terrific place to move the horizontal taillights on the second year car, as well as the horizontal front grille bars.
Other sixties cars tend to get all the love, but for my money, if I wanted a sleeper classic that would be easy to drive and maintain, it would be a 1964 Valiant Signet convertible. I dare say I’d prefer it over that typical standard sixties classic, the ubiquitous Mustang.
@ Rudiger ;
You’re 100 % correct .
Sadly the styling of GM & FoMoCo’s products over shadowed these vastly better driving cars .
I’m an unabiasged GM (Chevrolet mostly) Fanboi but as a Journeyman Mechanioc I also know how stout and reliable as well as fun to drive daily these “Low Cost” (cheap) car were and are even to – day .
-Nate
Conservative isn’t necessarily wrong. The 63 restyle and late 60s mid 70s generation were solid looking cars that perfectly conveyed their mission of reliable unpretentious transportation. Personally my favorite Valiant is the 68 or so Valiant 2 door sedan that looks like sized up Ford Cortina mark II.
My parents had a 64 Valiant sedan which they considered a good car, but it was also the last American car they owned until my mother bought a Saturn in 94. The two European cars that succeeded the Valiant were actually somewhat similar, a Mercedes 250S and a Volvo 164. The Volvo is especially Dart/Valiant like with its OHV engine and square rigged styling.
Hi! I’m the owner of the Red Valiant in your pictures… Not sure who Paul is, but he got some nice pics. I just happened to google Valiants this morning and there was my car… Kinda blew my mind.
I’ve owned it since 2002 and am the 3rd owner. I found it at a local towing company. It had 75,000 original miles on it.
Here are a few stats:
4 Door
Slant 6
Manual / 3 on the tree
Original color was white
Coming back to this gem of a post.
One thing that contributed to Valiant’s decline outside of the Duster post ’65 was dropping the hardtops and convertibles in ’67 in favor of the Barracuda, following Ford’s lead with the ’66 Falcon and Mustang. Dodge kept those in the Dart lineup and benefited.