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How they named the cars: Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, and Ram stories
Feb 4, 2025
Stories about naming a variety of Mopar cars and trucks
View Video Transcript
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hi this is Dave again and now we're
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going to talk a little bit about how
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Chrysler names its cars and it's a
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little weird how they do it sometimes
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the results aren't always great and
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there are some funny stories along the
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way or at least stories I hope that
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you'll find funny so let's Dive Right In
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we'll start with a name that famously
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they had to drop very quickly the Dodge
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Demon which was named by the Dodge sales
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department according to Bert bamp
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because they envisioned an ad that said
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come in for a demon
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demonstration religious groups objected
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to that and so the name was dropped
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there are a lot of stories about how the
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Valiant was named including a contest
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for customers Al Bosley who was in
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charge of body engineering remembered
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that the Plymouth Chief's secretary who
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he later married submitted the Valiant
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name in the National naming contest
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which was open to everyone she wasn't
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really planning to enter but she was
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reading the Sunday comics saw Prince
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Valiant made a connection with what a
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valiant person is thought it would be a
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great name and turned it in the Chrysler
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C300 on the other hand was named after
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the 300 horsepower it had and the name
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stuck for a bunch of letter cars like
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the 300b D and E
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afterwards I don't know how they named
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the Barracuda but the joke was that if
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it had come just a little earlier we
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would have called Pony cars fish cars
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instead of course it would have had to
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be a bit more popular like the road
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runner for example now the Road Runner
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story you probably all know already Jack
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Smith originally wanted to call the car
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the CK for a Clark Kent hit the gas and
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the mild maned reporter becomes
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Superman however the Ad Agency wanted to
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name it the lancha after the man of
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lamancha a Broadway musical now uh Smith
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then brought up a name originally
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thought up by Gordon Cherry roadrunner
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and he got the idea based on his kids
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cartoons and there was silence at the
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table and suddenly one man from the ad
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agency's art Department started to
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shake and everybody just stopped and
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watched and suddenly he sat up and said
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God I could really do a lot with that
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and it was the Road Runner I don't think
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it requires a great deal of thought to
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figure out where the Charger Daytona got
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its name but then of course you had the
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Dodge Daytona just plain Dodge
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Daytona which I suspect was named that
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because of the similarity in the front's
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appearance to the Charger
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Daytona then we have the royalty Bend
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and that starts with the 1933 chryler
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Royal which is of course quite Royal and
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then we move on we get the Imperial
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Crown a lot of this heats up with the
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1939 visit of the House of Windsor the
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monarchs of England and that brings out
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the Chrysler Windsor a name which sticks
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around for quite a while uh Imperial of
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course being quite Royal
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goes on with the theme and then Dodge
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starts in and they get very Royal indeed
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from their uh logo to the Royal
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Monaco and you have both Chrysler and
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Dodge having little crowns all over
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their cars which starts getting a little
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bit silly and then you've got instead of
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the Chrysler Royal you have the Dodge
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custom Royal the custom Royal Lancer
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that is which is a Dodge and not a
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Chrysler despite the name because has
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always been a little careless with their
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names next we have the hotel Series so
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we've got the Plymouth seavoy to begin
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uh the famous British hotel we get the
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badier although the badier was probably
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named for a golf course and not the
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hotel you also get the plaza which
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definitely was named after the hotel and
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the Dodge St Regis which was probably
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named after the hotel but might have
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actually been named after the stud Baker
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St reges
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although that was a long time before so
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right now we're just looking at a badier
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and then a St
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reges and then of course you have the
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local areas so Cranbrook Cranbrook Drive
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Concord Street and Cambridge Avenue were
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all in the same suburban area and the
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cranbook school in Bloomfield Hills was
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a private school which hosted many
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Executives children at school for girls
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Kingswood got its own export model
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later and finally we have Ram an entire
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division of a company or at least an
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entire brand of a company named after
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its own hood ornament which was
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sculptured by avar T Fairbanks during
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the Depression and at the time there was
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no Dodge Ram but that hood ornament
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which was created in return for getting
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a new Dodge ended up as the inspiration
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for Dodge's ramt and then for the entire
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Ram brand
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which is pretty impressive although not
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entirely unheard of since Mitsubishi is
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a direct translation for three of those
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little shapes that are the logo of
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Mitsubishi and Subaru is sort of kind of
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named for its logo as well anyway so
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that's me that's a bunch of mopar names
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if you have more please send them in or
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send in comments and let me know
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#Dodge
#Motor Vehicles (By Brand)
#Ram Trucks
#Volkswagen