The Plymouth Plaza is a 2-door sedan / 4-door sedan / 2-door coupé / 2-door station wagon / 4-door station wagon from Plymouth, built from 1954 to 1958, at the height of the post-war boom. Under the bonnet: 241 cuin V8.
The background
The Plymouth Plaza is an automobile which was produced by Plymouth from 1954 through the 1958 model years. The Plaza was Plymouth's entry-level car during those years and was priced under the Plymouth Savoy. It was offered in sedan, coupe and wagon variants. Known as Plymouth's "Price Leader", in 1958 the Plaza offered buyers the widest choice of options to date. Options formerly reserved only for higher priced lines were available on the Plaza for the first time in history. The Business Coupe, which was the least produced model of Plymouth in 1958 (1,472 units), differed from the regular 2dr Club Sedan in that the rear seat was an optional accessory.
Plymouth also added a special edition to the Plaza fleet in '58. Based on a Plaza Club Sedan, the "Silver Special" had a custom paint job with silver paint on the roof and in the Sportone inserts plus a short stainless steel spear that accented the front fenders and extended partially into the front doors. The final custom touch was on the rear fins where the Silver Special bore "Forward Look" emblems instead of the traditional "Plaza" scripts. It is isn't known how many of the 94,728 Plazas produced in 1958 were fitted with the Silver Special trim package, but they are believed to be very rare cars. Like most models of its kind in the 1950s and 1960s, the Plaza—with its minimal trim and plain cloth-and-vinyl upholstery, and limited option choices—saw most of its appeal toward fleet buyers, such as police departments, where luxury and comfort were not primary concerns. However, the model was available to budget-consciou
The engineering
Power comes from 241 cuin V8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. 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 115.0 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Plymouth Cambridge; its successor was the Plymouth Savoy (1959); assembly was at Highland Park, Michigan (Lynch Road Assembly), United States. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Chevrolet Corvette — 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 Plaza — 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.