The Economy of a Four, the Smoothness of a Six

Today, CCJ’s editorial focus is clearly on trucks – heavy-duty trucks in particular. But for much of its history, the magazine focused on any commercial vehicle, including taxi cabs, station wagons, sedans and coupes, as this late ‘30s Plymouth ad shows.

 Plymouth was a late-comer to the automotive market. The brand was founded by Chrysler in July, 1928, as a low-cost competitor with Ford and Chevy. An early Plymouth innovation was the concept of “floating power,” which attached the car’s engine to the frame at only two points (“fore-and-aft”), defining an axis that passes through the engine’s center of mass. This greatly reduced the transmission of torsional vibration to the chassis and resulted in the slogan, “The Economy of a Four, the Smoothness of a Six” in Plymouth advertising.

 By the late ‘30s, Plymouth was firmly entrenched as the third highest-selling automotive brand in the country – and can very close to taking the second-place spot away from Ford on the eve of World War II.

 Plymouth continued to be an engineering innovator and sales leader through the 1950s, but thanks to cross-brand dilution within Chrysler, had shrunk to a historic low of only 3 models by 1995. In 2001, Chrysler killed the Plymouth brand foverever.