1962 Plymouth Styling Concept

[Dosmo]

I'm sure these photos have been on here before - but, they always make me wonder what the public's reaction to this styling might have been versus the reaction to the so-called "Plucked Chicken" styling of the 1962 Plymouths that were released. I actually like the version that was released, but the proportions here look a little sleeker to me.

[supersix]

Probably a little too bizarre for the day but I like the roof line on the left image. The rear quarters not so much. I also like the looks of '62 Plymouth, having one back in '65. I do not like the looks of the '62 Dodge, except for the 880.

[Rusty_OToole]

I like the picture better than the one they produced but neither would be anywhere near the top of my hit parade.

[Guest Skyking]

I like the '62 Plymouth either way. It's strange what people though was bizarre back then and anything ugly (which most are) is accepted today.

[Dosmo]

Something about the rear end view reminds me of the 1960 Pontiac.

[John_Maine]

Actually, the rear view looks more like a '60 Olds to me than a '60 Pontiac. I didn't care for the Plymouth or Dodge in '62, but I like them now because of their uniqueness.

[D Yaros]

Actually, the rear view looks more like a '60 Olds to me than a '60 Pontiac. I didn't care for the Plymouth or Dodge in '62, but I like them now because of their uniqueness.

Having been a '60 Olds owner/fan/aficionado for many, many years, I can see why you would say that. The tail light treatment and the bubble top window are indeed reminiscent of the 1960 Oldsmobile Holiday SceniCoupe.

[john2dameron]

I have never been a fan of the '62 Plymouths and Dodges with their chopped-off looks. It seemed to me that someone had a mental lapse and let those cars come on the market. However, I love the Dodge 880's and often wonder if I should have bought a '63 880 convertible instead of my '63 Galaxie 500XL convertible but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it because the Galaxie was a beautiful and great car; much nicer in many ways than the '65 Impala Super Sport I traded it on.

[The Continental]

I like it better, except for the tail lights. While I like the tail lights of the factory '62, I prefer that combo on an Impala.

[NTX5467]

There was an article on the '62 Plymouth full-size cars and why they looked "as they did", in "Collectible Automobile" a few years ago. Something about a cocktail party conversation being overheard and mis-interpreted, I believe. Seems like the "overheard" part had to do with the upcoming Chevy II compact. The "mis-interpretated" part was by a Chrysler operatative that it was going to be a replacement for their full-size cars, rather than an alternative to the Corvair. So, the Chrysler people got to work immediately to revise their '62 proposals to what we got for the '62 large Plymouths and Dodges.

To their credit, they were smaller and lighter, allowing their workhorse 318 to have very nice daily performance. The interior was big enough for 4 adults and 2 pre-teen children, plus a trunk to accomodate "The Great American Vacation" for all six . . . from my own experience as "one of the two kids".

The Dodge 880 was done so Dodge could keep the California Highway Patrol business, as purchasing the slightly more expensive Chryslers might not set too well with the taxpayers. Be that as it may, and CHP had been known to have Buicks and Mercurys over the years, too.

To me, one of the great things about the '62 Plymouths and Dodges was that they were better looking than the '61s and led to the better looking '63s a year later. I remember the multi-page spreads for the '63 Dodge Polaras. Much talk about "smaller and more efficient", but still "big enough". That was pretty accurate. One aunt and uncle bought a '63 Polara 2-dr hardtop. That's the car we went on vacation in in '63. Pretty snazzy.

As with the '61s, if the car was in the right color and with the higher trim level, they looked quite good, if not a little too unique for some tastes. But if they were the lesser trim level with little chrome and "a little age and wear", they didn't look quite so good.

Seems like there was a recent article about the "conceptual proposals" of the '62 Plymouths and such somewhere? "Collectible Automobile" or possibly the Mac's Motor City Garage website? Definitely some unusual "lines" on those cars! Makes the actual '62s look very tame!

Just some thoughts . . .

NTX5467

[Dave Mellor NJ]

Kinda reminds me of the "Starlift" roof 62 Fords where they put a few 61 Starliner roofs on to improve the aerodynamics. This shape would have certainly improved the Plymouth's zip at a time when Mopars were really coming on.

[Guest Rob McDonald]

I like both Dodge and Plymouth for '62. The Dodge 880 looks bloated and old-fashioned by comparison, which I think these stillborn Plymouth proposals do, too. Everyone says Chrysler made a huge marketing mistake with their plucked chickens but I think they helped the brands shake off their old fogey image. By the mid-60s, Dodge and Plymouth were solidly in the muscle car pack, albeit with their mid-size cars, not the biggies.

Could they have gained that performance cred, without stepping out of the full-size mould in '62? Sure, Pontiac did, but their '61s and '62s looked a lot trimmer than the 1960 models, despite that they actually weighed more.

1962 Dodge Polara 500 and Plymouth Fury, with styling obviously rooted in the Valiant

[Guest]

Something about the rear end view reminds me of the 1960 Pontiac.

Did you mean 60 Oldsmobile?;

http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/brochures/Olds/1960/images/1960-Oldsmobile-18.jpg

[Dosmo]

I guess the tail lights are more Olds-like than Pontiac, but I still think Pontiac when I see it. Something about the trunk lip and the panel under the trunk.

[rocketraider]

Yeah, they looked "unique" when they came out but these cars have grown on me to where I think they are rather nicely styled and detailed cars. They were just a little too different from what had come before and the looks jarred people. Then by the mid 60s they had become conventional, which sold more cars but had a certain "me-too" factor.

I'd like to see one of those styling studies with the production car's notchback roofline. I can't help but think it would have looked thoroughly modern and maybe a little more palatable to early 60s tastes.

Compared to modern jellybeans, any 60s car is high style!

[Dosmo]

I hear a lot of people knock the styling of the 61 Dodge, but I think all the body styles for that year look great, with the possible exception of the sedans. The hardtops look positively slinky to me.

But then, I like Ramblers, so my idea of what a good looking car might be is pretty much off the map, anyway.

[Hudsy Wudsy]

There are exceptions, but for the most part, I have never been a big fan of Virgil Exner's designs, especially the early '60s. It's nice to know that there was some explanation for the cropped-off look of the '62 Plymouth. I'm a little puzzled that they would even mock-up a design with features which so closley immitated a two year old GM car. Fans of Virgil Exner's work may enjoy this article on a design for a car that was labeled the "Corvette Killer".

Corvette-Killer... or Career-Killer? Virgil Exner's Unusual 1960 Chrysler Concept - Core77

[Dosmo]

This 1961 Polara looks fairly sleek to me in hardtop form. Exner was starting to get off the path, I guess, but I like a lot of his ideas on this model. The sedans, particularly, in the Dart series, were a little strange looking. I do agree with one of the earlier posts that mentioned how the 1962 models that were released look better now than they did then.

[Guest]

I think one of my automotive books of the sixties sums up Dodge and in particular Plymouth for 1962 when it says;

" Chrysler Corporation institutes sweeping changes to the look and size of mainstream Dodges and Plymouth's, a ill-timed move to compact dimensions that sets the divisions back years " -and- " Plymouth with it's narrower model mix than Dodge, suffer even more from the downsizing; falls to eighth place in model-year production, it's lowest ranking ever! "

My own observation of the time and even now was that the people who designed and approved those cars had lost their minds. The only people I thought would buy such a car were people like the Jetsons who ironically made the television debut in 1962 also. Apparently the buying public felt the same. At a time in automotive history when traditionally the battle for the number one spot in sales was between Ford and Chevy, in which Chevy usually won, the price leader of Chrysler Corporations Plymouth would naturally assume third place but always strive for first, lost that position to a mid-priced Pontiac division for nine years when eventually Plymouth would claim number three in 1971.

The Plymouth people of 1962;

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/aa/Jetsons.jpg

[rocketraider]

Gotta remember that only 5 years earlier that 61 Dodge would have been in the same territory as a radical custom.

Now, picture the 62 Dodge grille on the face of a mid-50s Hudson or Nash, and see if you don't think it would have been an appropriate update.

I remember when AMT and Revell used to offer customizing parts kits along with their annuals. One of the AMT kits included a 1962 Dodge grille along with a 60 Mercury. I put the Merc grille on a 59 ElCamino kit, but never found anything I could use the Dodge grille on. But Budd Anderson, the Kat from AMT, obviously thought that grille had a little custom style to it, to have included it in the customizing parts.

You model building nostalgia freaks enjoy! The KAT from AMT - Home Page

[Hudsy Wudsy]

Rocket, even at the time, I knew that the "Forward Look" was just that. I got it that the Jetsons would have related to it. The thing is, I never related to it. It wasn't that I disliked the advanced nature of the designs, I simply I never thought that much of it was in very good taste. It probably shows my prejudices here, but I have to think that if GM had chosen to embrace the coming age in a like manner, it would have been in far better taste. That, of course, is just my humble opinion and I respect others, as well. BTW, I'd found lots of uses for the Merc grille, too.