1953 Plymouth Cranbrook 4-door Sedan

“Call it what you will — sound thinking, great engineering, or just plain consideration for your comfort — we think you’ll find that the new ‘53 Plymouth offers you more of it than any other car in the lowest-priced field. But you be the judge! You have a standing invitation from your Plymouth dealer to look, ride, drive, compare. Then we believe you’ll agree: there’s more quality in it — you get more value of it!” 

The 1953 Plymouth is perhaps the most underrated car of the 1950s, shunned by the consumers (and later by the historians) as a design inferior to its competition. In fact, in a time when fancy „longer and lower“ styling was de rigeur, and upsizing was the name of the game, the new Plymouth bucked the industry trend by actually becoming smaller and looking remarkably dowdy. 

Plymouth consolidated its lineup for 1953 down to two trim levels, sharing the same 114-inch (2,90 m) wheelbase. While the entry-level „Cambridge“ benefitted from the new dimensions, the top-level „Cranbrook“ now became 4,75 inches (12 cm) shorter than in the previous years — and lost a whopping 4.5 inches (11 cm) of wheelbase, too. Nonetheless, the cabin became roomier than before because the engine moved forward. Thus, rationally, Chrysler engineers had designed a smarter car with an improved package, shorter overhangs and a roomier cabin, and incidentally anticipated proportions that should become common-sense much later. 

But the fact of the matter is that most car buying decisions are made on an emotional level. And in 1953, downsizing was completely out of sync with the contemporary taste that favored longer, lower and glitzier designs, and generally wanted a certain visual “bang for the buck”. 

A comparison with the main contenders shows this predicament. While the Plymouth’s 114-inch wheelbase was a mere inch (2,5 cm) shorter than the Chevrolet and Ford (both placed on a 115-inch wheelbase), the competitors were much longer overall, and made the Plymouth seem like a smaller car: the 1953 Chevrolet was six inches (15 cm) longer and the Ford added a whopping nine inches (23 cm) to the Plymouth’s overall length. Hence, the Plymouth rather became a car of choice for the ones that wanted value for money and didn’t care for the looks. Which was already a minority in those times. Incidentally, you rarely see a Plymouth of that generation in Cuba. We reckon that they weren’t exactly compatible with the Latin show-off culture, either. 

Regardless, 650,500 Plymouth found new homes in 1953. It was a new high for the company, but you need to put these numbers into perspective: in the same time, arch-rivals Chevrolet and Ford produced a whopping amount of 1,346,500 and 1,247,500 cars, respectively. And Plymouth’s surprising production record of 1953 was short-lived: already in 1954, sales nosedived by nearly 190,000 units, down to the level of 1952. Again, that wasn’t really the fault of the design, which remained unchanged, save for some minor trim changes, but rather the effect of a fierce “sales war” that Chevrolet and Ford had initiated and that left all other manufacturers in the dust. 

But there was light at the end of the tunnel: behind the curtains, a new generation of Plymouth cars was already waiting to be launched. These new “Forward Look” designs would finally sport proportions that matched their stylish aspirations.