1961 Chrysler Newport - Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time Chrysler produced and sold five different makes of automobiles. At the top of their very General Motors like pricing ladder line was Imperial, which, at least in theory, competed with GM's Cadillac and to some extent, Ford's Lincoln. At the bottom was Plymouth which competed with Chevrolet and Ford. Their three middle brands were Chrysler, Desoto and Dodge that were, again in theory, targeted at, respectively, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac.

Of Chrysler's middle children, the middle-middle kid, Desoto, created in 1928 at first to be a step up brand from Plymouth, which had also been created in 1928, had the toughest go of it. Unlike General Motor's middle three which had all been independent brands before becoming part of GM, Desoto never really had an identity of its own above and beyond being a less expensive Dodge or Chrysler. Chrysler's 1933 flip flop of Dodge and Desoto on their pricing ladder  didn't help Desoto to develop any brand identity either.  Desoto's inglorious end came halfway through the 1961 model year when Chrysler finally pulled the plug.

Desoto's demise coming not before Chrysler introduced a new-for-1961, lower cost Chrysler model they called, "Newport". Which, oddly enough, looked very similar to the outgoing Desoto. Then again back then, all Chrysler's looked so similar, save, arguably for Imperial, it was hard to make out a Chrysler New Yorker from a Plymouth Fury. Named after a concept car from the 1940's so fantastic that it paced the Indianapolis 500 in 1941, what could possibly go wrong with rebadging Desoto's and putting them in Chrysler showrooms?

 


While the Newport sold relatively well, at least in comparison to how Desoto had been selling, Chrysler's overall sales didn't increase appreciably. That was because brand loyalty being what it is, sales of the Newport came out of buyers trading in their Chrysler New Yorkers rather than owners of GM or Ford cars; also known as conquest sales.

Had Chrysler been able to market the Newport as step up from the New Yorker, similar to what Cadillac did in 1975 positioning the Seville as their most prestigious model, things may have been different. May have. We're talking about the automobile industry here so nothing's a given.

Then again, Cadillac's 1975 Seville was a completely different automobile than anything else they were selling at the time whereas the Newport was obviously what it was. Chrysler kept the Newport in its stable through 1981 updating it as it did the New Yorker never giving it it's own styling motif that had it looking anything more than a stripped down New Yorker. 



Many study success stories seeking to find the secrets to winning. I'm of the opinion that a more solid path to success is to study failure and learn from someone else's mistakes and misgivings. All to often success stories are chock full of hubris and pay little heed to luck and momentum. For more on that, please google "General Motors". Could/would/should Chrysler have been better off doing something other than trying to be General Motors years ago? Easy to say that now seeing how they failed at doing such but the point is a valid one. Despite flashy marketing and cars that were, subjective as it is, very attractive, Chrysler never really put a dent in GM back then. From five makes and models, actually six if you count the 1960 Valiant as a separate marquee, today, Chrysler, which is owned and operated by Fiat, has but two automobile divisions, Chrysler and Dodge. So much for making the switch to America's styling leaders.