Hmm cars seemed so similar... I guess it was hard to stand out. I know Plymouth was solid quality in 53 because they were following GM in R&D... Slow and steady wins the race?
My dad and uncle both had Taxi companies in the 50's, and we only used Plymouth and Dodge cars ; cheap , reliable , easy to work on and they lasted forever.
My grandfather had a 2 door 1953 Ford Customline. It did fine for him(and his 45 mph top driving speed) for 15 years/171000 miles. Then a ring broke. The engine was replaced, it then lasted the 3 years until he passed away. However, I do remember the wipers slowing down when going up hill. The video mentions an automatic choke as a feature. Based on my experience with automatic chokes is that they are a problem, not a feature. The car that I had with an automatic choke was always flooding, stalling, etc. My 1963 Falcon with manual choke has none of these issues.
Despite all the advantages of the Plymouth, buyers chose style over features. The Plymouth looked squat and stodgy compared to everything else. After 2 years of falling sales Chrysler changed direction in 55
The Plymouth has aged exceptionally well and in 2023 appears to be a terrifically proportioned car. Wish it were still produced - with all practical upgrades possible.
The Chrysler lineup of cars for 1953 and 1954 were behind in styling, even though engineering was ahead of Ford and GM and Studebaker. The main problem with the Plymouth was no V8 or Powerflite automatic until 1955.
It's surprising how often they go for the "Breaking the 4th wall" motif in these dealer film strips. It's a a dealer strip about the making of a dealer strip.
Ford also had a distinct transmission advantage: The buyer could get a fully automatic transmission on the '53 Ford (called Fordomatic, introduced in 1951) whereas the Plymouth buyer only could get HyDrive which was not fully automatic & was only introduced mid-1953 model year.
Chrysler Australia invested hugely to produce this 1953 P25 type...if you don't already know, it only ceased production in _1964!_ By that stage it had become a Chrysler Royal, having had tailfins and new front sheetmetal grafted on in 1957, supplanting the Dodge Kingsway, Plymouth Cranbrook and Desoto versions. Pretty sure the costs had been fully amortised by then! I think it was the last sidevalve six automotive application besides the US delivery vans.
The fact that the Ford was a continuation means that more bugs had been worked out of it. The Ford had a V8 to Plymouth's six, and that eight had a good reputation, and '53 was the last year you could buy it in a passenger car in the U.S. But the clincher would have been price--Ford and Chevy were involved in a price war in that era--you could get a new Ford or Chevy for only a few dollars more than a Henry J.
My great-grandfather was a constable in the small town we're from - he absolutely LOVED Plymouths because they hardly ever broke down and started even on the coldest winter mornings. He thought Fords were total trash (however, my dad and paternal grandfather drove Fords for several decades and said they wouldn't be caught DEAD in a Plymouth LOL!! He drove a Plymouth for many years and after he died, my great-grandmother drove a new Plymouth for several years afterwards. They both said there's NOTHING like the ride and reliability of a Plymouth!
The 1953 PLYMOUTH really is a more space efficient more comfortable car. Sure the inline 6 is a little dated but plenty of cars in 1953 used flatheads.
My parents had a 53 Plymouth Cranbrook. They said the heater never worked properly…. Other than that it was apparently a good car because they were Mopar customers from 1950 through 1989.
That's what I've always thought. Chrysler Corp made stodgy looking cars til the new, suddenly its 1960 cars in 1957. The 55/56 Chrysler cars have grown on me in the past few years, but still nothing compared to the 1957 models.
@@autochronicles8667 Boring, stodgy, AND frumpy. Compare the '54 Plymouth to the '53 Studebaker, and to the Kaiser that had been redesigned for '51 and a major facelift in '54. The Plymouth design may have been all new, but it looks more like a '49 than a '52 Ford.
Even though Clara Peller drove a 49/50 Dodge or Plymouth in the "Wheres the Beef" commercial. I can see why they picked the frumpiest car they could find. So even Wendys knew that Chrysler Corporation made old cars as new cars for old people back then.
what plymouth wont tell you is..the plymouth parking brake only works if both tires have traction...but the ford has both wheels locked at the wheel and not the driveshaft like plymouth ..and for being a new car the plymouth isnt exactly a good looking car
that parking brake was an issue and would be an issue when jacking the car up off the back wheel. They would put wheel chocks in these cars to handle that issue. But on the same note they are right about a separate braking system. These cars had single master cylinders. if you lost pressure, you had no brakes.
@@autochronicles8667 The ford E brake will also work in the case of loss of hydraulic brake pressure though, as it uses cables to activate the brakes and is independent of the hydraulic system. If the issue is caused by something like overheated brake pads the ford E brake wont work while the Plymouth will though. I'm gonna say the ford design is overall better since modern cars still use it.
The "all new" '53 Plymouth was stubby and frumpy, had a hoary flathead 6 as its only engine, didn't offer an automatic (but starting in '52 finally offered overdrive). Still had thru the floor pedals. It was a dependable stodgy old man's car... when new! Furthermore, the list price was higher than the thoroughly modern Ford. The '49-'54 Plymouths have been cheap stodgy uncool bargains for decades. It wasn't until relatively recent times that hot rodders modified them- least if all the '53-4's.
I am one of the few who likes the 53 Plymouth's styling more than Ford's. To be fair, the elongated greenhouse of the 52-54 Ford to me did not work in conjunction with the short-ish hood and trunk. The longer hood and trunk of the 55-56 Ford (same basic shape for the 4 door sedan, besides the wrap around windshield) really make the car shine, but in 52-54? Meh. Styling wise of course (I am utterly incompetent to judge the mechanics 😂)
They were the same length. The tail of the 55 is more square, instead of cut off at an angle like 54. That makes the car look longer. They were even the same width. The 54's width is from door skin to door skin. The 55's width is the width across the front bumper. A corporate sleigh of hand if there ever was one.
Plymouth cars (and possibly Dodge) were designed so a man who was six feet tall could comfortably sit in the car with his hat on. That was fine if you were six feet tall but short people could not reach the pedals unless the seat was almost all the way forward.
I would not say engineering disaster... I mean electric wipers are way better than vacuum :) and It kind of grows on you but I certainly think Ford won for looks that year.
![[Dealer Film] 1953 Plymouth versus Ford film strip.... the verdict is in...](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
