I think they didn't sell as many back in the 30's as Ford and Chevy, so just less to begin with. The mid 30's Mopars were very good looking cars, especially '33-'34 coupes! They almost look like the top is already chopped from the factory.
What survives is the result of construction method,and popularity.A car that was popular when new will always have a following look at the model A, 55 Chev, 65 Mustang. You dont see alot of early Chevys because they were made of wood with a tin skin. These cars got loose,and fell apart .The modelA was steel so its still here. MoPar cars were seen as old people cars so the group who liked them died off,and no one saved them.Why would you when you could get a 32 coupe for 75 bucks? I do agree that the 33-34 coupe was a nice car as was the 33-35 PU,but nice looking MoPars really started with the muscle car era.
My only thought on it is that they hit the s**** yards a lot faster than Fords, Chevys and a few others did after people put them out back when they broke down or they quit driving them. I don't remember many Mopars except pickups and trucks sitting around in sheds, out behind the barn or out in the row of broke down vehicles and equipment that you often see. Not even in the 60's when I was a teenager looking for something to build a hot rod out of that I could get cheap. On the other hand replacement parts may have been the real issue. I've had two Mopars in my life a 69 Barracuda fastback and a 69 Chrysler New Yorker and didn't need much for either but in the 70's and 80's if a Mopar was over 11 years old the dealer didn't have any parts for it except what fit later models. On the other hand in 1973 when I bought my 48 I walked into Woody Jackson Chevrolet in McGregor, Tx and bought new door latches and strikers over the counter and off the shelf. 30 bucks for all four pieces and I was headed home to change them out. I can remember all the times I tried to chase down something as simple as a taillight lens for a 15 year old Mopar for a customer.
While I understand the fixation with 30's Fords, as a 33 Dodge coupe owner, a model I lusted over from 1958 to finally finding one in 2010, I am of course biased. As 1971BB pointed out they already look chopped. They are steel, they have a distinct grill, they are easy to put a different drivetrain in, and they are "NOT, the cookie cutter hot rod. If interested I have a build thread on HAMB detailing the conversion. But, be aware, the parts are much harder to come by which may contirbute to there being fewer rodded.
Thanks for responding I have a chance to buy a 1935 dodge I am 76 and don't want to have trouble selling it if things go south
Go for the 35'. IMO they are just as attractive as the 35' Fords (which I also like). Back then as today, designers copied each others "styling cues" which is the main reason cars within a model year often look similar across manufacturers.
To really evaluate the survival rate you'd have to go back to actual sales figures for mid '30s cars. I know MoPar was number 3, but I don't know by what margin. Then you have to remember that all cars were used/used up during the war years, so a high percentage of each brand wound up in the s**** yards. '30s MoPars were damned good cars, and ahead of all others in a lot of engineering features.
Some of the "popularity" had to do w/cost. Fords didn't hold their value as good as some others, so were much more affordable used, as were the used parts, weren't actually built(***embled) as well(not necessarily the materials), were cheaper to start with(usually), & probably most of all, a *lot* of parts inter-changed easily over the years. Ford wasn't known for adding &/or changing cutting edge tech often(v8 was an exception). & they made a jillion of them, + were also fairly easy to work on for most folks. Another example of things not changing much over the years was the acvw bug. & even the variants of it, had a lot of the same parts/interchangeability. Somewhat similar was the sbc & chevy mid 50's cars. Marcus...
... and perversely, now that they are less iconic of the era, they seem to be worth a lot less unless they are in super mint showroom condition. But it kind of makes sense when you factor in the extra costs ***ociated with sourcing early Mopar parts. A basket case Dodge is always going to be a much bigger project than a basket case Ford unless you're doing a rat rod or something.
These days it seems Dodges are a lot easier to find than Fords or Chevs especially the late 30s models. They built a lot of them and they seem to have a high survival rate.
Very much a fan, especially the '33-'34 coupes, pickups are cool also. Here's a picture of my old '35 Plymouth, I should have kept, an unrestored driver.
My 36 Plymouth was pretty complete so no big part sourcing was needed and most parts turn up for sale if you are patient. Mechanically, they are very well engineered and drivable in stock form. Even today, 30’s Dodge and Plymouths seem to be very reasonably priced compared to the Fords or Chevys and still deliver as many smiles per mile.
The Fords were cheap to start with, so lots of them were sold. Because they were cheap, their life expectancy wasn't as high, so the used versions could be bough cheaper as well. The Ford production numbers were probably as high, or maybe even higher the the #2 (all of GM) and the #3 (all of Chrysler) numbers combined. The World War 2 started up with a lot of s****ped cars of every make. The hard truth was if you s****ped a car for the war effort, you needed to keep something that was a better quality car to make it through the war. The vast number of Fords produced meant more survived simply because more were built. Probably a higher % of the Dodge and Chrysler vehicles were saved from the pre-war s****ping because they were better built cars, but after the 5 years of war, even their conditions were pretty bad. When the war was over, and auto production started up again, most companies simply produced the car choices as they were building before the war started. Those people were really tired of driving those wore out Chrysler products, so more of the older models that served well through the war, were s****ped after the war was over. The end result was there were fewer Dodge and Chrysler vehicles around for the returning young military men to buy and hot rod. The new car sales mirrored the same production numbers as before the war, more Fords were produced then the #2 and #3 combined. It was in the early 50s before the auto production numbers grew closer together.
Yeah not very popular. I think you should bring all those unpopular cars to my house and I’ll get rid of them for you!
As others mentioned, they just didn't make as many. I don't know what the numbers for the 30's are, but in the 60's they were number 3, and not even close to the number two spot. My 68 O/T Plymouth A body, 38,00 copies were made, of all variations. The Chevy and Ford cars in the same category, over 300,000 each were made. Big gap between number 3 and number 2.
^^^All the above are great answers!^^^ I've never been a brand person except for the Corvette! I do love them! So I have, and had cars from all of the big 3. But I'm just a Hot Rodder. So my Dodge delivery has a SBC in it. The 29 Ford has a 389 Pontiac. The other 31 Ford has a 354 Hemi. But to answer your question. I think there are a few reasons Dodges aren't as popular as the Fords?? #1 is the Ford's V/8 flat head that started in 1932. #2 Then the abundance of Ford bodies! They made a TON of them! #3 and lastly, it's a cultural thing? Songs, and movies like the Little Deuce coupe, Hot Rod Lincoln, and even later on like the American Graffiti movie all helped to make the Fords more popular. . Here's a couple pictures of my old Dodges.
Yep, Ford's sheer numbers led to critical m***. Five million Model As before you even get to the '32s. Think about it: There were so many Model As out there that when your A engine died, you just went to the wrecking yard and got a bolt-in replacement engine cheap. Repeat as needed. That kept a significant number of Model As viable through the wartime/s**** years and beyond, until finally nostalgia took over (Model A Restorers Club founded 1952; MAFCA 1955).
@57 Fargo , 99% of the DB's I would sell are '27 and earlier. I have a '36 DB pickup daily driver but not for sale. It will go to my daughter that bid on it at an auction near her for me years ago. Dave
You have a good point about used and used up. WV used to have a saw mill on almost every farm, most powered by Model T engines. My friend asked me to walk around his Aunt's farm, that he is supposed to inherit, and tell him what junk was good junk. I was looking under the end of a pile of plywood, and saw a wooden pully made by screwing 3 2X6's together. I yelled, "Is that a pully?" Yes. "Is it hooked to a transmission?' Yes. "Can you see a firewall?" Yes. I pushed the rest of the plywood off and there was/is, the cowl, engine, and frame to a T. I wanted to build a banger for the Race of Gentlemen. It's in Moorefield WV. If anyone wants to see it and make him an offer, PM me. I'm pretty sure he wants to sell it, Joe.
"#3 and lastly, it's a cultural thing? Songs, and movies like the Little Deuce coupe, Hot Rod Lincoln, and even later on like the American Graffiti movie all helped to make the Fords more popular." . Hey, Ron; I'm thinking the cars' popularity drove the songs, not the other way around. Songs reflected "culture" from hotrods, customs, etc from circa 48 -> to the late 60's. & they probably fed on each other. But if you go back in Time, to the teens, a whole lot of songs, lyrics, poems, & short stories mocked the hell outta Ford, & even chevy too. Maybe I've gotten too lucky & only seen the mockery(s), they were usually funny, a lot of them were cutting, but written & coached in a clean language. Marcus...
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