1959 Plymouth Savoy-Perkins Diesel
- Thread starter Jakter
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In my collection of '59 stuff I have a Belgian brochure for the Plymouth Perkins. I will see if I can find it.
n the late 1950s, the Savoy was the entry-level model in the full-size Plymouth line-up, positioned like the Chevy Biscayne or Bel Air. They were popular for fleet purchases as basic transportation and many served as taxicabs. This 1959 Savoy was not only once a taxi, but it was also powered by a Perkins 4-cylinder diesel engine! Located in Poulsboro, Washington, this interesting piece of Americana is available here on eBay where the starting bid is $10,000 (no takers so far).
Plymouth built more than 458,000 cars in 1959 as part of the recovery from an economic recession the year before. The ‘59s had tweaked styling based on the 1957-58 “Forward Look” cars that set the industry on its year. About 182,000 units were the Plain Jane Savoy and – of those – more than 84,000 were 4-door sedans. We don’t know how many of them ended up being Yellow Cabs, but it probably wasn’t a small number.
Supposedly diesel-powered cabs were all the range in Europe, and this may have given Plymouth and Perkins the idea to produce U.S. versions. We don’t know whether Perkins sent Plymouth the engines or if Plymouth sent Savoy’s to Perkins without the basic 230 cubic inch L-head six which was standard in those days. Perkins was big into the diesel world back then and the P4 motor is what Plymouth got, packing a sluggish 60 hp. They were all about miles between fill-ups, not getting from Point A to Point B quickly. You could identify a 1958-62 Perkins Savoy by the Perkins logo on the tailfins.
We’re told this car has been featured in the media on occasion. It wears blue/green paint, so we assume there is some yellow or a drab color hidden from its taxi days. We’re told it has a “3-on-the-tree” manual transmission though it’s hard to find a shifter in the photos provided. The seller has owned this car for years along with several other collectibles and is starting to thin the herd. The seller says the car is worth $35,000 (insured value) and maybe 20 of them are still in existence. If you’d like to be its fourth owner, “time’s-a-wastin’” as Snuffy Smith would say!
Very interesting. I was unaware these were made.
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