Chrysler Products outside the USA.

I recently saw an Australian 56 Plymouth Ute (at the WPC Meet in MPLS) and also recieved a photo of a 58 Dodge Kingsway from India.

Both of these cars seemed to be built with bodies that were a couple of years out of date compared to USA models.

Anyone know what the reason was for that? Did Chrysler simply ship old dies overseas to get more life out of them? Or did they simply not update designs as often in other countries.

Any here know, or know of any websites or books that might enlighten me about this?

I recently discovered this interesting website about exported Chrysler products

<http://www.allpar.com/world/plymouth.html>. Hope it helps.

Larry

My 1930 Chrysler 77 Roadster came back to the US from Venezuela. The speedometer (original) reads in Kilometers, however the vehicle is a left hand drive. It has the same body as the US Sold cars. I have however been told that the 1930 Chrysler 77's sold in Australia had a body by "Roberts", rather than the US body on them.

Rich

Chrysler Corp made few cars that were ONLY EXPORT models such as

DeSoto Diplomat,

http://www.accf.com/images/Av1.jpg

Dodge Kingsway.

http://www.dyna.co.za/cars/Dodge_58_Kingsway_Red_bs1.jpg

Diplomat had plymouth body & dashboard with DeSotos grille/front fenders

Kingsway had plymouth body & dashboard with Dodges grille/front fenders

I have no idea why they made these, but nowadays here in Finland there are

Chrysler Neons and Chrysler Voyagers which are Dodges in US.

Maybe Chrysler chiefs in US believe that outlanders cannot afford REAL Chryslers and sell Dodges as Chryslers because people would love to one a Chrysler.. Don't know. I believe that Diplomats and Kingsways were assembled in Canada. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Here in Finland are several Diplomats and Kingsways left. Actually, My brother had a 1956 DeSoto Diplomat 4d sedan couple of years ago. They thougt there was only couple of them left in Scandinavia...

At the time, Australia was undergoing a push to have auto manufacturers build as much as possible in Australia. Things like engines and transmissions had to be imported, but bodies could be built in Australia. However, given the small market, they had to last a few years.

Thus Chrysler Australia built the 1954 models into 1956. And used that body, with 1956 Plymouth front and rear sheet metal, for the 1957-63 Chrysler Royal. The chassis for the 1954-1956 Plymouth, Dodge Kingsway and DeSoto Diplomat were all built by Chrysler of Canada during the 1954 model year, by the way.

Ford of Australia used the 1955-56 bodies up to 1960 or so.

Chrysler started shipping old tooling to other countries in the 1960's. Old Dart and Valiant tooling went to South America and the old Ford/Simca Vedette tooling (and flathead V8) went to Brazil.

Chrysler of Australia began building Valiant in 1961, and by 1965 began building Valiants that were different from the North American models. The 1971 Valiants looked like shrunken 1971 Coronets.

Bill

Vancouver, BC

My dad had 3 1929 Plymouth tourers. One was by either Richards or Roberts, I cant remember, but the other two had bodies by Holden. Holden later became part of General Motors. Dad bought the "R" car for parts, but most of the panels were slightly different to the Holdens.

The Australian firm was T. J. Richards Pty Ltd., Adelaide. They were taken over by Chrysler in 1951 when they also bought control of Chrysler Dodge Distributors. The two firms were joined and became Chrysler Australia Limited.

Bill

Vancouver, BC