Dodge and Plymouth buyers ran away from the unconventional styling of the 1962 models, and even their chief designer hated them. Yet the cloud had a silver lining
It’s fair to say the early 1960s were troubled times for the Chrysler Corporation: declining sales, quality headaches, an unhappy dealer network, even a major scandal in the company’s highest ranks. (See our feature here.) But in Motor City lore, the darnedest story of them all surrounds the unusual styling of the 1962 Dodge and Plymouth models. Even the company’s vice president of design, Virgil Exner, hated them. In the the now-famous phrase, he called the cars “plucked chickens,”
1962 Plymouth Fury Convertible
As the story goes, the chickens came to roost when Chrysler CEO William Newberg, attending a posh Detroit-area garden party, heard or overheard Ed Cole, then general manager at Chevrolet, describing a plan to downsize the 1962 Chevys. (Cole was actually referring to the ’62 Chevy II, it’s said.) The following Monday, the story continues, Newberg gathered his styling and engineering chiefs and ordered them to radically downsize the 1962 Plymouth and Dodge in response.
Since by that time the 1962 models were almost ready for production, a crash program was required to produce a smaller vehicle platform and somehow shrink the 1962 sheet metal designs to fit a much smaller package. To save time, engineering based the new cars on a stretched version of the compact Valiant Unibody with its wheelbase extended from 106.5 to 116 inches, creating a new platform that became known as the Chrysler B-body.
1962 Dodge Dart 440 Hardtop Sedan
Meanwhile, Exner and his stylists rushed to make their full-sized designs fit the much shorter and narrower package. Ordered to subtract cost from the vehicles as well, the Chrysler stylists also eliminated the curved side glass, simplified the bumpers, and removed other details. No one in the Chrysler studios was pleased with the results, least of all Exner, delivering his oft-quoted appraisal: “plucked chickens.” Furthermore, he added, the cars would not be competitive and the Chrysler styling team should not be held responsible.
But by then it was too late. The formerly full-sized 1962 chickens were introduced to the public on September 28, 1961, and they weren’t well received. Already in decline, the sales numbers plunged again in ’62, as Dodge declined more than 10 percent and Plymouth fell from fourth place all the way to eighth in the U.S. sales race. Despite his warning, in the aftermath Exner was pushed into retirement and a consulting role by Chrysler’s new CEO, finance man Lynn Townsend. Deciding that a fresh start was in order, Townsend appointed Elwood Engel of Ford to the top styling post.
1962 Plymouth Fury Hardtop Sedan
In retrospect, the problem was not the size but the styling. Ford and GM were racking up big sales numbers with their mid-sized models, and the Mopar B-body cars were a nice fit in the category. For ’63, the exterior designs were cleaned up, then refined over the next few years as sales climbed back to acceptable levels. In fact, many of Chrysler’s most memorable cars of the muscle era, including the Road Runner, GTX, Charger, and Super Bee, were based on the hastily conceived ’62 package. The B-body proved to be one of the corporation’s most valuable platforms, remaining in production through 1978.
1962 Plymouth Fury Station Wagon
I’d agree the size of the cars wasn’t the problem. The styling, and especially on the Dodge, was absolutely bizarre, looking like different themes were tacked together with a stuffy upright greenhouse pasted on top. There was no continuity of line front to rear, and the dash design even worse. Exner had health problems during these cars’ gestation, and leadership chaos reigned in the studios. Blame it on that. Engel couldn’t arrive too soon.
They had design issues for a while. I always thought that the 1961 Dodge Polara looked like the teams that designed the front and rear had never met.
I agree with Bruce Parliament. The 1961 Dodge and Plymouths were not the best looking. (I’m trying to be kind here.)
I wish you could do a separate article emphasizing that the last year of production for B-body cars was 1978. I seem to continually run into untold “experts” who insist that the ’79 Magnum and Cordoba are Bbody cars when in reality they are Rbody cars.
Also your mention of the Bbody platform being conceived as a stretched Abody platform is the first mention of this I’ve seen in print, but it does make perfect sense. Why reinvent the wheel when you just have to tweak it a bit!
With the exception of the 1960 Chrysler, I don’t think much of the styling for any of the Mopars from 1958-1964. The 63-64 Dart gets Honorable Mention. Exner did a superb job with the Forward Look but the later stuff doesn’t thrill me.
With design leadtimes often 3-5 years, how could these quick changes be made from current sales figures?
How much “smaller” were these cars? I remember them, they weren’t noticeably smaller than a Chevy or Ford. But I was in grade school then, so almost everything looked big…
In addition to the downsizing issues, it seems to me that Chrysler clung to the Buck Roger’s School of automotive design for far too long. While Fords and Chevys lost the fins and side sculpting, and the plain Studebaker Lark was a huge success, Chrysler was still doing strange things with fins and headlight placement. I wonder if the success of the Forward Look in the late fifties made them reluctant to give it up.
1961 Plymouth Savoy/Belvedere/Fury 118″ wheelbase/209.5″ long/80″ wide
1961 Dodge Dart 118″ wheelbase/213.1″ long/78.7″ wide
1962 Plymouth Savoy/Belvedere/Fury 116″ / 202″ / 75.6″
1962 Dodge Dart/Polara 116″ / 202″ / 75.6″
1962 Chevrolet Biscayne/BelAir/Impala 119″ / 209.6″ / 79″
1962 Chevrolet Chevy II 110″ / 183″ / 70.8″
1962 Ford Galaxie/Galaxie 500 119″ / 209.3″ / 79.2″
1962 Ford Fairlane 115″ / 197″ / 71.3″
1962 Ford Falcon 109.5″ / 181.1″ /70.6″
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The 1961 Polara was a larger car on a 122″ wheelbase. It was renamed Custom880 in 1962 and Polara became a midsize trim level. The 1962 Dart was a midsize car above the Lancer.
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“The 1961 Polara was a larger car on a 122″ wheelbase. It was renamed Custom880 in 1962 and Polara became a midsize trim level.”
But unfortunately, Plymouth didn’t get a larger car until 1965, which meant that its B-body had to compete with both the Fairlane and the Galaxie, never mind that the interior dimensions were comparable to a full-sized car. Back then, like it or not, people saw smaller cars as less expensive.
Chrysler, for all its engineering prowess, made some really bone-headed marketing moves throughout its history. And under Stellantis it appears that things haven’t changed all that much.