Oops! When the 1962 Dodges were introduced, there was no full-sized model and dealers howled. So Chrysler engineers threw one together in just three months.
As we’ve noted before here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, when the Dodge and Plymouth full-sized passenger car lines were radicaly downsized for 1962, the move created a number of challenges for the Chrysler Corporation. (See our feature here.) Here’s one more: Dodge dealers were left without a traditional full-sized product to sell, and that was a considerable part of their trade. To plug the hole in the lineup, engineers rummaged through the corporate parts bins and put together the Dodge Custom 880 in just three months. The production lines were rolling on January 22, 1961.
Long story short, the Custom 880 was a 1962 Chrysler Newport with a 1961 Dodge front end grafted on. But actually, it’s slightly more complicated than that. The ’61 Dodge sheet metal wasn’t a direct interchange so the stamping dies had to be modified, and there were some trim discrepancies and so on to sort out. Ironically, the ’62 Newport was itself a spinoff from the ’61 Dodge package, so the task wasn’t too difficult. The tooling cost amounted to just $400,000.
Except for the ’61 Dodge/DeSoto instrument panel, the Custom 880 interior was identical to the Chrysler Newport’s, with the same layout, fabrics, and color combinations. Body styles were identical to the Newport as well, though the only available engine was a 361 cubic-inch B-series V8 with 265 hp, no options. There was just a single trim level for ’62, Custom 880, though there are no identifying Custom 880 emblems on the car. The badges simply say Dodge.
Dodge’s ad hoc big car carried forward into 1963, now with its own distinctive front end sheet metal and two available trim levels, Custom and Custom 880. For 1964, the rear end received a styling update to match the front, and in 1965, the 880 became a trim level in a new Polara full-sized platform, only to be dropped altogether for ’66. For a last-minute job the Custom 880 didn’t fare too badly, as more than 77,000 were produced between 1962 and 1964.
A ’62 880 was the first Chrysler product I ever laid hands on. According to John Samsen at Desoto and later Dodge at the time, the 1962 880 was a 1961 Dodge Polara body with Chrysler rear quarter panels and taillamps coupled to a 1961 Dodge Polara interior, assembled at Jefferson Avenue plant. Six one way, a half dozen another, thank you again MCG for the memories…
surprised they didn’t sell better, compared to the downsized B body cars available at the time this actually quite normal looking and would have been my choice
Yeah, I remember an article on Collectible Automobile where the late auto historian Jeffrey Godshall wondered why using “Custom 880” and not “Custom Royal”? Had the “Custom 880” being named Royal/Custom Royal or Coronet (a name they would bring back for the 1965 model year where the “small” full-size 1962-64 became an intermediate/mid-size), I think it might have better sales.
$400,000 in tooling costs for 77,000 units works out to $5.19½ per unit. That may be the record for the lowest per-unit cost for a (semi-)new model.