Cruisin’: Plymouth fondly remembered

For Plymouth lovers, the date June 28, 2001, will always be remembered. That’s the day the last Plymouth rolled off the assembly line in Belvedere, Ill. The final car, a silver Neon four-door, was purchased by a Chrysler executive, and brought to an end a storied history that began in 1928.

Walter Chrysler was the man responsible for bringing Plymouth to the market, feeling a low-cost, entry-level automobile would build more consumer awareness of his Chrysler Corporation. He was right.

Although never a huge seller, Plymouth’s cars sold fairly well in its battle with Chevy and Ford. Its best year was 1973, with 750,000 units sold.

However, the oil crisis nearly buried then-struggling Chrysler Corp., and thanks to a few decent models and a little nudge from the U.S. government, Chrysler peddled forward.

Thanks to the K-Car and later the industry smash-hit minivan in the early ‘80s, Chrysler persevered, and the Plymouth brand lived on until the late 1990s, when Neon, Breeze and Prowler made up the automobile offerings alongside the still-popular Plymouth Voyager minivan.

However, it won’t be the K-Car, Voyager or Neon that Plymouth fans remember first. It will be cars like the 1957 Sport Fury, the huge finned 1959 models or even the 1961 Plymouth Valiant. Performance enthusiasts will recall all those great muscle cars from 1963 through 1970, especially the highly popular Hemi Roadrunners and 340 Six-Pack ‘Cudas.

Even at the box office, who could forget “Christine,” the killer 1958 Plymouth Fury, or the metallic blue ‘67 GTX Convertible that Chris Farley and David Spade drove across America in “Tommy Boy.”

Yes, we still miss Plymouth. It basically joined the other Chrysler model that many hated to see go, namely DeSoto.