http://www.historicvehicle.org/News...&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=HVA Newsletter
The two of most interest to us I suppose.
The Mayflower ship on the radiator of the first Plymouth automobiles may have suggested the car company got its name from the rock of the pilgrims. But according to The Plymouth Bulletin editor Lanny Knutson, if it weren’t for a famous brand of binder twine, there would never have been a car named Plymouth.
In 1926, Walter Chrysler was looking for the perfect name for his bold new automobile designed as a low-priced and reliable alternative in a market dominated by Ford and Chevrolet. Chrysler wanted a name people would recognize instantly. But his executives were stumped until Joe Frazier (then an up-and-coming Chrysler employee who would, in 1939, become president of Willys-Overland) suggested the name “Plymouth,” a then famous brand of twine known to every farmer in America.
The first Plymouth eventually debuted in 1928, a year before the start of The Great Depression. According to Knutson, Chrysler executives who two years prior saw the name as too “puritanical” soon saw the wisdom of giving their new car a moniker that rung so many positive bells in the minds of American’s car buying public.
Most Americans still had some connection to farming and, as Chrysler had reasoned, would find an easy and comfortable familiarity with a name they saw nearly every day. At the same time economically strapped Americans were struggling to survive an uncertain financial future, Plymouth also brought to mind positive connotations of “endurance and strength, ruggedness and freedom from limitations” that so typified the first American colonists.
The original Dodge Dart was first produced for the 1960 model year as a low-priced replacement for the Plymouth line of vehicles taken away from dealers during divisional restructuring at Chrysler. While project planners originally proposed the name “Dart,” unimpressed executives decided to poll customers who were in favor of calling the car the “Zipp.” Perhaps fortunately for Dodge — and proof that the customer isn’t always right — somebody came to their senses and scrapped the name before it was too late.
The monikers most associated with this practical econo-car, however, are most likely the result of Chrysler shedding the image of pragmatism they worked so hard to create for the Dart in the early 1960s. Perhaps trying to capitalize on the “groovy” time period and the need for speed that gripped the youthful muscle car market, the company released the Dart Swinger 340, Demon (with a logo that featured a pitchfork wielding cartoon devil) and Demon Sizzler in 1969 and 1971.
- - - Updated - - -
it's a 17th century French name for a part of the English channel...
wtf use that for a car even
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel
The only thing I can guess is that someone made a connection between Plymouth England and The Channel.
"The Sleeve" (translation of the French)
What a disaster. Naming a car after a shirt sleeve. Might as well call it "The Arm Pit".
