The Plymouth Deluxe is a 2-door sedan / 4-door sedan / 2-door coupe / 2-door convertible / 4-door station wagon from Plymouth, built from 1933 to 1950, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 217.8 CID Plymouth I6.
How it came about
The Plymouth De Luxe and Special De Luxe are full-sized automobiles which were produced by American manufacturer Plymouth during the 1933–1942 and 1946–1950 model years. The Plymouth Deluxe Model PD appeared in 1933, shortly after the Plymouth Six Model PC which was the company's first six-cylinder automobile but offered a 107 in (2,718 mm) wheelbase versus 112 for the De Luxe. It was an upscale alternative to the Plymouth Six (1933-1934), Business Six (1935-1938) and Roadking (1938-1940).
In 1941, the Roadking name was dropped for the low trim Plymouths, which were referred as P11 and not renewed in 1942, making the De Luxe, the entry level. Between 1941 and 1950, the De Luxe was offered in two trim levels, the De Luxe and the top-of-the-line Special De Luxe. The engine in 1946 was a 95 bhp (71 kW) 217.8 cu in (3.6 L) Plymouth Straight Six. In 1949 this engine was upgraded to produce 97 bhp (72 kW).
The hardware
Power comes from 217.8 CID Plymouth I6. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 1937-39 114 in / 1940-48: 117 in / 1949-50 SWB: 111 in / 1949-50 LWB: 118.5 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Plymouth Model PJ; its successor was the Plymouth Concord (Deluxe SWB) / Plymouth Cambridge (Deluxe LWB) / Plymouth Cranbrook (Special Deluxe); assembly was at Lynch Road Assembly, Highland Park, MI. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57, the Hispano-Suiza type J12 sedan — show what else the money bought that year. Its Plymouth stablemates include the Plymouth XNR and the Plymouth Laser.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Plymouth Deluxe — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.