What killed Plymouth's Formal?

[PeugFra]

A Plymouth table directly comparable to the fleet-only Custom 500 table does not exist, so I constructed one by adding the PK, PT and PM production numbers, excluding Canada-only PM23:

1975: 25,432
1976: 20,811
1977: 27,273

The tendencies for 1975-to-1976 are similar: a decline (Ford: -7.52%; Plymouth -18.17%) that far exceeds the decline in the low-priced fullsize market as a whole (-1.35%). It is true that also the higher trim levels not included in the Ford and Plymouth "fleet tables" attracted some fleet sales, but this cannot be quantified and would apply to both makes.

The uptick in 1977 Plymouth fleet production numbers has already been explained:

The main increase in fleet sales in 1977 was that Chrysler announced the end of production for the 1978 model year.

All Plymouth fleet sales taken together, its share in the fleet market was relatively stable, going from 4% in 1974 to 3% for the 1975-1977 period. So changes would be primarily in the mix of Plymouth models sold to fleets.

 

[PeugFra]

As I always like to drive in another nail, this is from a 2008 article published on the Automotive Fleet site:

"The fuel crisis dramatically changed the complexity of running a fleet. In 1973, the typical fleet vehicles were the Chevrolet Impala, Ford Galaxie, and Plymouth Fury. The immediate impact of the fuel shortage was increased consideration of smaller cars for fleet service. The wholesale market for full-size fleet cars dried up as few dealers or wholesalers bid on these units. Although resale prices were down overall, the cars bringing the best return were the intermediate-size cars. As a consequence, many fleet managers decided their 1974 and 1975 model-year selectors would consist of as many intermediate-size cars as possible. Fleets began to change their buying patterns. More fleets followed this acquisition trend in the ensuing years. In 1973, most fleet had a model mix of 75-percent full-size cars and 25-percent intermediate cars. The shift to primarily intermediate models was a dramatic turnaround in a business that was very conservative and slow to change product mix. Fleets operating full-size cars were downsizing to intermediates or shifting from intermediates to compacts and eventually to K-cars. Not only were vehicle sizes changing, but so were engine specifications. In the early 1970s, most fleet cars were equipped with eight-cylinder engines. The fuel crisis caused fleets to shift to six-cylinder engines and to include diesel engine passenger cars in some fleets."

Maybe because there are no clear-cut numbers showing the importance of fleet sales for Plymouth's C-body, this aspect of its viability as a full-size car has been somewhat overlooked until now.

 

[PeugFra]

I've got little in the way of C-body-relevant numbers to show these changes in the fleet model mix, so the following are mostly impressions:

Daily Rental:
The Cordoba was very popular in daily-rental operations, so that could have been a Chryco successor to the ubiquitous Fury from the early 1970s. In 1976 Chrysler Leasing Corp. had bought 79,229 units for fleet use. Avis accounted for 55 percent of the vehicles that Chrysler's subsidiary had on lease by the end of that year. By the way, my 1974 Fury III originally started out as a dealer rental car.

Federal Fleet:
A U.S. Border Patrol motor vehicle inventory for April, 1980 shows that about two-thirds of the approx. 740 sedans consisted of 1975-1977 Gran Furys (488). Only a few 1976-1978 Plymouth B-bodies show up in the list (30), and from 1977 on also some Volarés (16). In 1974 and 1978 Border Patrol had resorted to Ford fullsizes, the other notable intermediate from the 1974-1978 period being the 1977 AMC Matador (25).

Police:
Out of the 50 U.S. Highway Patrol agencies almost a third had picked an intermediate as their 1977 primary cruiser: 9x Plymouth B-body, 3x Dodge B-body and 4x Pontiac LeMans. In 1971 there had been only one state that was using something else then a fullsize car for highway patrol duties: Alabama with its AMC Javelins. A well-known example is the CHP, that switched to the Dodge B-body from 1976 on, after many years of acquiring only fullsize cars for their enforcement class. On the local level, already in 1974 the NYPD had switched from the Plymouth C-body to its B-body.

In the Police Cars brochures the Valiant appears for the first time in 1976, to be superseded by the Volaré in the following year. Annual police car orders amounted to 50,000, out of which Chryco regularly took a chunk of slightly over 50%.

Taxi:

Another point to mention is the success of Mopar's B-bodies: possibly the result of the mid-70s gas crisis. This may have taken sales away from the larger cars. Detroit taxicab companies seemed to love their B-bodies as much as New York loved their Checkers.

PT production numbers are quoted for 1974 (757) and 1975 (742), but for later years no such data are known. The Gran Fury is still there in the 1976 Plymouth Taxis brochure, but a year later it is gone.

Taking the circumstantial evidence together I'm going to say that Plymouth's accelerating market share loss in the low-priced field was also caused by its positioning as a fleet car. LTD and Caprice could make up for the pressures on the fullsize fleet market with their Broughamy sales, Plymouth could not.

 

[PeugFra]

The small foreign offerings were perceived at least to be much higher quality and of course better fuel economy. Plymouth being a low end offering was likely particularly hit hard by this trend.

You're absolutely right, that's the third angle to this story: the fullsize stripper vs. econobox conundrum. A bit like what happened in the fleet market, but now focussed on private customers. I have no numbers orgy to go along with this, but it all makes sense.

Actually Plymouth's formal C-body was a dying American breed. For Europeans the expression "big cheap car" is a contradiction. Big cars always meant luxury cars overhere. Back in the days when a fullsize car was the American standard, there was one size for every purse. The buyer that wished to get away with minimum expenditures would also find "his" bare-bones standard car. The type of person so much despised by their children for his miserly habits that he leaves a lasting mark on their personalities. For years the Fury nameplate catered for the frugal customer.

This was all well for the misers until fuel cost became a concern. In a cent-per-mile perspective, a fullsize car is by no means purse-friendly. The derogatory term "gas-guzzler", coined in the early 1970s, is the expression of this new insight. That's where the econoboxes, be they foreign or domestic, came in. The budget-minded car shopper traded space for fuel economy. The only worry that remained was the perceived low lovel of safety the small cars inspired. Sure, some came briefly back in the years leading up to 1979 (Second Oil Crisis), as fuel prizes did not keep pace with inflation, but after that the penny-pinching buyer was definitely put off.

Under these changing circumstances, the (Gran) Fury was left fighting an uphill battle. At the end, the fullsize stripper was no more.

Maybe something of this concept lived on in the van and truck market, but I don't know a thing about that. Some customers likely moved to class II light trucks, because they didn't get catalysts in 1975 and could continue to burn leaded gas. Costed less!

 

[PeugFra]

The Plymouth Gran Fury is a nice car but I think using single headlights on an fullsize car was not the best choice.

We didn't do the styling changes yet. The 1975 introduction of single headlamps goes hand-in-hand with the introduction of the Brougham badge. They served to make the Brougham trim level visually distinct from the lower trim levels, just like Chevrolet and Ford had been doing. Plymouth attacking the competitors' Broughaminess head-on! Like them, Plymouth decided to emphasize the Brougham image, as fleet car and stripper selling points were losing ground in a very fast way. To gauge Plymouth's position in the entry-level Brougham field, compare its overall market share in the low-price field with the entry-level Brougham market share:

Plymouth MY production - overall market share:
1974: 9.58%
1975: 8.64%
1976: 4.75%
1977: 4.16%
(from post #31)

Plymouth MY production - entry-level Brougham market share:
1974: 6.48%
1975: 6.49%
1976: 2.51%
1977: 5.41%
(Entry-level Brougham is defined as the highest trim level the low-price three offered, convertibles and wagons not counted.)

The first reaction to the 1975 single-headlamp set-up wasn't bad at all. The 1975 proportion held steady within a general environment in decline. But just holding steady was not enough.

Apart from 1977, with its uptake of fleet orders even among Gran Fury Broughams (North Carolina Highway Patrol!), Plymouth underperformed in the entry-level Brougham market. The single-headlamp set-up may have conveyed something of a Brougham image and thus prevented a further slide, but it also didn't gain Plymouth any further market share. However, a gain is what was needed, faced with dwindling sales in its other market (sub)segments. Plymouth was more biased towards the fleet car and stripper market than the other two and that made its position so dire.

Under these circumstances, the June 1975 decision to phase out the Gran Fury seems only logical. "Let's stop throwing money at this, we'll standardize on one front end only (the 1976-1977 single headlamps) and try to make the best out of it".

 

[PeugFra]

The underperforming Brougham proportion is clear, but I didn't document why Plymouth had been so dependent on the more modest part of its offerings:

"To make matters worse, Chrysler has been buffeted severely during every economic downturn, largely because its prosaic but well-engineered cars appealed mostly to lower-income blue collar workers, who were particularly vulnerable to recession or depression".

And for the sales success of the 1976 Volaré/Aspen the same blue-collar bias was noted: "These new buyers have tended to be more affluent than Chrysler's Plymouth-Dodge traditional buyers who come mostly from the blue collar group."

Another source cites among the weaknesses of Chryco: "A weak product appeal and a heavy dominance of blue collar buyers."

These were likely very cost-concious buyers, typically attracted to strippers and later to econoboxes.

1973-1975 trends are rather similar for MY production and CY sales, only the 1976-1977 trends differ, with a more gradual, but still devastating decline in sales as opposed to production, with its sharp drop and then holding steady. It seems like there was a backlog of 1975 MY cars to sell that only cleared in the 1976 CY.

A final note on that 1975-to-1976 production cliff fall: that's the distorting effect of the 1975 pile-up in the sales bank, you stupid (talking to myself).

 

[PeugFra]

Four FCBO pages reduced to four sentences:

Because of rising fuel prizes Plymouth's 1974 Fury lost its client base among fleet managers and thrifty private buyers alike, the former opting for intermediates, the latter for econoboxes. Unable to shake off its stripper image, an attempt to attract a new client base by tapping into the growing Brougham market failed. As market share eroded and sales slowed, early June 1975 it was decided to axe the C-bodies in the near future. By October 1977, when CAFE came into force, the low-volume, fuel-inefficient car line had become a liability for Chryco's newly-formulated business plan and did not return in the lineup.

Your honour, I rest my case.

 

[PeugFra]

After the 1977 Gran Fury ad parody, now something dead serious, although it also may raise an eyebrow. With its dealer special Redford Chrysler Plymouth made a desperate attempt to establish the 1977 Gran Fury Landau in the populuxe segment, laughing in the face of the Ford LTD Landau coupe with its price of just $5,250. Saved you about half a grand.

Apparently the idea didn't catch on too well, because by February 13, 1978, they were still advertising them ("SUPER SPECIALS! 77 GRAN FURY "LANDAU" SALE OF THE YEAR").

Shortly thereafter Redford went out of business: on January 10, 1980, the dealership equipment was auctioned off "by order of the Board of Directors".

 

[cbarge]

Shortly thereafter Redford went out of business: on January 10, 1980, the dealership equipment was auctioned off "by order of the Board of Directors

A lot of dealers were lost or reconfigured as part of Iacocca's restructuring of the Corporation. The Chrysler Marine division was also a victim for an example.

 

[Slap Stick]

Chrysler Marine went away because Fedgov required Chrysler to divest itself of its non auto subsidiaries as part of the bailout.
I worked at MODoT 74-77 and all the fleet cars were Grand Furys. The Highway Patrol was almost exclusively Plymouth. One Sgt had an Electra 225 and hated it and was happy when they gave him a new Plymouth the next year. In 75 we got all new Dodge trucks. I had a D-200 and when slinging salt a D-600.
Missouri liked its MoPars.
Personally I disliked the Formals. They looked like they were dragging their butts.
And I disliked the dash layout and lettering.
At that time I was driving a 65 Sport Fury.

 

[CBODY67]

I believe that one issue was the national gasoline shortage and the sudden desire for smaller cars. Although Fenner Tubbs C-P sold lots of New Yorkers due to their outstanding fuel economy at 55mph. I was in college out there, then, and came to know a few of the salesmen. I asked about how the cars were selling, after seeing their dealership-done, notorized copies of their fuel economy test. He said that when the Olds 98 or Buick customers questioned their testing, all they had to do was to give them the keys to a demo for a weekend. Sold them a new New Yorker on Monday! But this also coincided with a good cotton crop year, too. FWIW

Personally, I liked the Formals for several reasons. One was that the beltline was lowered to give them a feel similar to the '66 cars. Easier to see out of, for example. Capable of seeing the rear body corners from the driver's seat, easily. Compared to the "more confined" feel of the Fuselage cars, which I also liked. The ones I drove, I liked for their Chrysler-trademark responsive handling, too. But size tended to equate to fuel economy, in the public's mind, and Chrysler tended to miss that perceived mark, although the cars were more fuel economical than similar GM or Ford cars, by observation. AND I liked the better under hood room for doing maintenance, too. Another '66 item I liked, too. Especially compared to the Fuselage cars.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[PeugFra]

I hit upon a report on fleet cars from 1978 (D.B. Shonka: Characteristics of Automotive Fleets in the United States 1966-1977) and found an intriguing statistic about new car registrations, showing their market share of total vs. fleet registrations. This lumps together small, medium and large (standard) size vehicles. Comparing the low-price three you get:

1973
22% - 48% Chevrolet
25% - 24% Ford
07% - 02% Plymouth

1974
23% - 43% Chevrolet
26% - 31% Ford
07% - 04% Plymouth

1975
21% - 41% Chevrolet
24% - 26% Ford
05% - 03% Plymouth

1976
21% - 36% Chevrolet
23% - 25% Ford
06% - 03% Plymouth

Firstly, the fleet cars came mainly from Chevrolet and Ford (first column). Secondly, in comparison to its total market share, the typical fleet car make was Chevrolet, whereas Plymouth was underrepresented in the fleet car market: its share in fleet cars was always way lower than its total market share (second column as compared to first column).

In other words, when you saw a Plymouth rolling down the street, 2:1 it was NOT a fleet car. When talking about Plymouth as a typical fleet car, you are talking about image rather than reality. But then, image is (almost) everything for a make.