Canadian Wartime Sales

[B-Watson]

One last one - British Chrysler products.

Plymouth and DeSoto names were used in the U.K. for the 1929 to 1932 models.

From 1933 through to the beginning of WW II when all auto production ended, the Plymouth was sold as a Chrysler. Generally the lowest priced models were called Plymouth while the upper (DeLuxe) models were sold as Kew and Wimbledon. The small bore engines (2-7/8") were available in the Pymouth and Kew series.

DeSotos were also sold as Chryslers with the Airflow going by the Chrysler Airflow Croydon name. Leftover 1934 Croydon Airflows were sold in 1935 with the addition of the Chrysler Engineering code L to the serial number and model code. Similarly leftover 1935 SG Croydons added M to serial number and model code to become 1936 models.

The 1937 DeSoto S3 was sold as the Chrysler Richmond in the U.K. No other DeSoto models were built / sold in the U.K. prior to WW II.

Leftover 1934 Airflow CU Royal (Chrysler) Airflow 8 were sold as 1935 and 1936 models by adding the Engineering codes for 1935 (L) and 1936 (M). The 1935 C2 Royal (Imperial) Airflow also had leftovers sold in 1936. Needless to say, the Airflow was not well received in Britain.

Production of Chrysler Corporation cars did not restart after the war, the Kew works badly damaged by bombing, although production of Dodge, Fargo and DeSoto trucks eventually did. Sometime in that era Chrysler started using unique designs for their British trucks.

That continued when Chrysler acquired Rootes, with the Commer and Karrier lines eventually being combined with Dodge. For awhile in the 1980's Renault owned the British Dodge Truck firm.

[Bill Kreiner]

Bill :

Thanks for the helpful answers, as always.

The export situation now makes perfect sense, regarding U.S.-sourced vs. Canadian-sourced cars.

It's easy to forget that Hawaii and Alaska weren't states till 1959. Also, if memory serves, Newfoundland wasn't a part of Canada till 1949, hence the exports listed in James Mays's Ford book for the period up till then.

The British Chrysler situation is now much clearer. Now I can look at the data in my Motor Specifications and Prices book and understand what was going on. Am I correct in surmising that the 1940 Chrysler and Dodge models in Britain were merely continued production of the 1939s? The model listing in that trade publication would suggest that. Other than some deletions and increased prices, things seem very much the same. Interesting about the fact that production did not recommence after the war. That explains the 1946 listings that have no prices. The 1942 Dodge listing is curious, but there are no prices. Perhaps some were assembled for the Armed Forces?

It's a shame the Airflow didn't get a better reception anywhere than it did. I know Volvo copied the idea for their Carioca model of 1935, but it took till 1938 to sell off a mere 500 examples. Toyota's first cars also resembled the Airflow. But these were built in small numbers from 1936-1944 for the Armed Forces and Government only. The last 53 of this style were built in 1947-1948.

The origin of the model year is indeed very interesting. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

As for states titling cars, I have noticed some were sticklers about titling cars by calendar year of registration. Owing to this, there are quite a few 1949-model Mercurys, Fords, and Lincons titled as 1948s, since they debuted before summer 1948. I assume some Canadian provinces did the same thing?

I have run across a few 1943- and 1944-titled cars at car shows. In all cases, of course, as you explained, they were 1942-model, 1942-built cars that were sold new (in these cases to doctors) during 1943 and 1944. I assume this also happened in Canada?

As for Britain, yes, you're correct about model years existing. I have two editions of Glass's as well. But there, the cars were almost exclusively assigned an official date by calendar year of registration. Thus, if a car was considered a 1937 model in the fall of 1936 by the manufacturer, the cars sold during 1936 all got 1936 registrations. The whole concept of model year in Britain had been rendered sort of pointless and fuzzy by that. Confusing!

Edited August 14, 2012 by Bill Kreiner

[Bill Kreiner]

Back in '99, I was in touch with Tad Burness, the author of those wonderful spotter's guides and columns. He sent me some of the wartime examples he had done for his weekly newspaper column. The 1943 Monart and 1943 Dodge represent new 1942 cars in stock converted in 1943 by Monart and Derham, respectively, into station wagons for transporting war workers. The 1944 Plymouth represents one of the 1942 models held over by government edict and sold new in 1944.

Below those, I've attached scans from a late-1940s edition of Ward's Automotive, showing how many new cars (sadly, not broken down by make) were released for sale in 1943 and 1944. Both scans also show federal authorizations at the bottom, and 1943 even shows bus conversions, which I suspect may include the likes of the wagons like the Monart and Derham, since they were war-worker "buses" of sorts. It does not appear cars taken from stock and delivered to the military are included here, and the continued production of Chevy and Ford sedans for the military certainly aren't included. In addition to the 1943 and 1944 figures, there were about 220,000 new cars sold to civilians between March and December of 1942, and about 8,000 sold between January and July 1945. The VAST majority of these 1942-1945 sales came from dealer stocks. Factory sales for 1943, 1944, and early 1945 were a mere 139, 610, and 700 cars respectively (late 1942 is unknown).

[eh dubya]

Those are neat Bill. Here's a picture of the Dodge courtesy of the Library of Congress...

I forwarded the Plymouth drawing to a local 42 woody owner asking if he's learned anything of it's origins.

[Bill Kreiner]

Thanks for that 1943 Dodge Derham pic -- I never thought I'd see an actual photograph of one!

I did see what I immediately knew was a Monart, in relatively poor condition. It was titled as a 1944 Mercury, which must have been when Monart converted it from a new '42 car in stock. It looked like a '42, but with all chrome painted (black-out model), and the wooden body was painted grey. It had a name on the side, but it was too worn to see. Next time I went to this lot, it was gone, and I was told someone else (besides I) recognized its rarity as a Monart and immediately bought it. I hope it gets restored and gets brought to shows!

I wonder if you'll discover anything specific about the '44 Plymouth wagon.

[RobertKB]

Here is a VERY telling statistic. The allied and the axis armed forces totaled nearly the same. The Allied leaders believed in God the Axis leaders were atheists. The Axis casualty rate was 45%; The Allied: British Commonwealth wass 27%, USA was 7%.

Makes one pause.

Don't know what this has to do with the topic. However, don't forget Russia was a major Ally and Stalin did not believe in God. I am not minimizing the contributions of the other Allies, but we tend to forget Russia took the brunt of the fighting against Germany in WWII.

Thanks to the contributors who have provided the auto related information in this thread. It is facinating reading and I thoroughly enjoy it and looking at the pictures.

Edited August 15, 2012 by RobertKB

[B-Watson]

Thanks for that 1943 Dodge Derham pic -- I never thought I'd see an actual photograph of one!

I did see what I immediately knew was a Monart, in relatively poor condition. It was titled as a 1944 Mercury, which must have been when Monart converted it from a new '42 car in stock. It looked like a '42, but with all chrome painted (black-out model), and the wooden body was painted grey. It had a name on the side, but it was too worn to see. Next time I went to this lot, it was gone, and I was told someone else (besides I) recognized its rarity as a Monart and immediately bought it. I hope it gets restored and gets brought to shows!

I wonder if you'll discover anything specific about the '44 Plymouth wagon.

The Monart was styled by Brooks Stevens, who also did the postwar Willys Wagon, Jeepster, 1962 Studebaker Hawk, 1963 Brazilian Willys Aero and the 1964 Studebaker. Also did some concept cars on Chrysler chassis in the late 1950's. Chrysler had no part in the project, other than selling the chassis to Stevens.

[Bill Kreiner]

Another War Wagon is the 1944 Ford, built by Schult Trailer Co. Circa 100 seem to have been built, and the one featured here is a survivor. I scanned these in from Sorensen's Famous Ford Woodies book some time back. I found them on a flash drive I just accessed.

[Jim Benjaminson]

Campbell Body works also converted civilian sedans into station wagons to haul war workers. The Plymouth based DeSoto's all used Plymouth serial numbers but the cars had the letter "S" added to the model code - a P3 Plymouth became an SP3 DeSoto and so forth. I'll put together the entire list and post later.......