Ugly Ducklings: The 1962 Plymouth Design Proposals Were Ultra Ugly!

Learn more about the design of the 1962 Plymouth!

[volktales]

My Grandma was a huge fan of the '62 Plymouths. She loved her Sport Fury hardtop and drove it for over 25 years, finally selling it when trim parts were proving impossible to find after she backed into something. Grandma had a lead foot, and her trips in that lightweight V8 were legendary... Grandma is long gone, but it is believed her old Fury was fully restored and survives today.

[landiahillfarm]

@3:35 the asymmetrical clay models were very common in the day, it allowed designers to present two, three or even four different design ideas in model saving both time and money. All the design studios [GM(s), Ford, Chrysler] did this.

[jamesaandf]

The ‘62 Plymouth DID NOT have curved side glass. However, in some of the proposals before downsizing, they did. No Chrysler product had curved side glass but the Imperial until the ‘65 C bodies got a major Engel makeover.

[granttaylor]

Hi Adam.Greetings from Australia. Fascinating episode on the "ugly ducklings" from Plymouth.
Chrysler had been in Australia for quite some time prior to the sixties, but the name really went up in lights in I think 1962 with the release of the Chrysler Valiant. Compared to the then very dowdy cars from Ford (the Falcon) and the GM Australian arm (Holden) the Valiant at the time was sensational.
The first two models were shipped in crates from the U.S, and assembled at the Chrysler factory in Adelaide, in South Australia. I know there was a Valiant in the U.S. but I don't know whether that was sent to Australia. The Valiant was the star of the show for Chrysler for many years in Australia, but the company in the end was bought by Mitsubishi and I think they discontinued the Valiant.
Perhaps more knowledgable fans in Australia or the U.S. may know the exact details.
Chrysler locally built a Valiant Charger which was a sales sensation in the seventies and beyond and they feature at the Chrysler Car Clubs meets around the country. I have a small collection of original newspaper advertisements of American cars in the fifties and sixties, one being a full page ad for the 62 Plymouth with the caption " The more you see the others the newer Plymouth looks"
Love your show
grant taylor Malmsbury Victoria Australia

[JasonOBrienThinksHeCan]

‘Lube for life simply means the lifetime is shorter’. Nice!

[JeffKing]

I always thought that the asymmetrical cars were actually two different designs like you pointed out.

Doesn’t mean that they are pretty! The designers were clearly trying new things.

[WilliamParmley]

I remember someone commenting (maybe I read it in Car & Driver) that the 1957s fell apart in two years, and the 1958s fell apart in one year.

[joemazzola]

The 59 Chevrolet proposal had stacked center mounted headlights as well
In my opinion as weird as the Plymouth was the dodge was More weird the grill looked like one car stacked on another
For you younger viewers that service man is frank fountain a k a crazy Guggenheim from the Jackie Gleason show

[mattg]

I miss Plymouth. Along with Mercury, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile.

[dave]

Just like General Motors, Chrysler just couldn’t seem to get it together. The 1960, 1961 & 1962 Plymouth’s were some of the strangest looking cars they ever built. I had a friend years ago who was a general manager at a Plymouth dealer in the early 60’s. He told me that they had several leftover 1961 models when the 1963’s came out. Nothing like a brand new 2 year old car!

[T-]

I’d like to say thanks for showing this, but it brings back sad memories. Since they were new I ( a Mopar guy) have thought both the 1962 Plymouth and Dodge Dart were bizarre / ugly. I could not imagine how the company management would approve them. I saw these pictures of the styling study vehicles quite a few years ago. My conclusion was that after these were made, there was probably not enough time left to start over so they made the decision to remove the really crazy stuff and go with it. On the other hand the engineering of these vehicles was excellent. This was the first year for the super successful B body platform that was used for many, many years. Also the 727 aluminum housing Torqueflite transmission, probably the best performing, most durable and reliable rear wheel drive automatic ever produced .

[OLDS]

Thank Adam as this was interesting to see what they were thinking at the time. You were right about Chrysler and the changes they went through. Ward Cleaver seem to be happy with his Plymouth.

[HarborLockRoad]

8:21- " What did you do to my mama, Russell?" ( Dick Shawn in, " its a mad, mad, world driving a very similar red convertible in the movie) 10:43, spencer Tracy's black detective car! Peter falk and rochester both had 59 Plymouth taxis.😂😂😂 ps: jane hathaway also had one in the early black and white beverly hillbillies seasons.)

[wskinn]

Not to pile on, but the early styling clays were frequently set with as many different design cues as possible. The execs would come into the studio and look at one proposal on the left, then compare that to another proposal on the right, discuss them with the design manager, make choices, and then leave. The studio staff would use the notes from that visit to refine the clay model, and the refined version would be shown to the execs again. This cycle would repeat again and again until the design was finalized. There are even surviving examples of fully functional show cars that have variations from side to side to work out the final position of things like badges, chrome trim, and multi-tone paint patterns.

[hangonsnoop]

I know that I'm an oddball but I love the Googie styling of the 1962 Fury.

[desertmodern]

I learned a ton about these cars from this segment, but I'm pretty sure the Imperial was the company's only car with curved side glass for 1962.

[kurtbrueske]

Interesting…in the front 3/4 view of one of the clay mock ups it appears that the designer essentially borrowed the concave scallop from the rear quarter panel of the ‘62 Chrysler 300 in somewhat of a mirror image approach

[maxr]

One of my favorite cars of all time the 1964 Plymouth Beautiful!

[werquantum]

That commercial feels like we intercepted it from another planet far, far away.

[kwatt-engineer]

They called it the lean look, 1963 was a little better. 1964 hit the sweet spot with, I owned 3 of them at various times and wish I still had one. The 383 powered Sport Fury was a tad faster than GTO in the quarter mile which made it somewhat of a sleeper. All three of those model years were a huge improvement over the 1960 to 1961 behemoths. Note: I worked for a Plymouth dealer during those years.