The 1971 Plymouth
Cricket four-door sedan weighed in at 890.4 kilos (1,963 pounds) and carried a
base price of $2,115 before taxes.
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The North American
small car wars waned throughout the 1960s as domestic compacts grew larger and
heavier with each passing season. Pint-sized vehicles were still offered by the
Big Four automakers but they were all captive imports, sourced from abroad. At
Chrysler Canada, that showroom-floor offering since 1959 had been the ‘imported
from Paris’, Simca.
This 1963 black four-door sedan was the first Volvo Canadian to roll out of the factory in Nova Scotia. |
The war quickly
heated up at the end of the 1960s. Volkswagen had long led the way with its
durable Beetle. Volvo was quick to set up an assembly plant in Dartmouth, Nova
Scotia. Subcompacts from Japan were gaining in popularity with Canadians.
1970 1/2 Gremlin from AMC. |
North American
manufacturers found themselves playing catch up. American Motors was first to market
when it introduced its adorable Gremlin on April Fool’s Day, 1970. Ford’s Pinto
and Chev’s Vega arrived hard on Gremlin’s heels for the 1971 model year.
While the trio was
designed and built in North America, for backup, GM Canada continued to ship to
our shores the strong-selling Vauxhall from its British subsidiary for
Pontiac-Buick dealers and rebadged it as the Envoy for Chev-Olds dealers.
The
second line of defense from Oakville, Ontario should have been the highly popular Ford
Cortina, also sourced from the UK. Not a single one was sold in Canada during the 1971 model year because of labour problems. It made a belated appearance on August 6, 1972. American Motors abandoned the subcompact
market completely in 1962 when it dropped the Metropolitan, sourced from
Austin.
For round two of the tiny transportation
battle, Chrysler took a different tack from its competitors because there were
no plans to develop a domestic subcompact.
Corporate thinking was that there was no need, since Chrysler owned a
number of international operations and could draw on them to fill that market
segment.
The ChryCo dealer
body still fielded the French-built Simca to the faithful but it was no longer
a popular seller and added little to the profit margin.
So, subcompact sales
would be bolstered by the addition of the stylish Cricket, imported from
Britain, where it was known as the Hillman Avenger--part of Chrysler’s Rootes
Group. Cricket would join the Plymouth gang, where the season’s sales slogan
was, “Plymouth Coming Through.”
Designers gave the
Avenger the latest styling. The 2 286-millimetre (90-inch) wheelbase carried a
gently rounded, unitized-body envelope incorporating the trendy Coke-bottle
swell at the rear, mated to a long hood. Flanks were accented with a
full-length, sharp razor crease immediately below the safety-recessed door
handles. The car was easily
distinguishable from others in its class with its unique, bold hockey stick
taillights.
The instrument panel
for the Plymouth Cricket was no-nonsense and strictly European in its layout.
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The padded
instrument panel was very European in flavour, with light and wiper controls
mounted on the steering column. The two-speed heater/defroster was located
front and centre, above the radio.
The Hillman Avenger was assembled in Argentina and sold as the Dodge 1500. |
The pert little
vehicle had already been modified to left-hand drive for the European and South
American markets. It had been road tested for more than 1.6-million kilometres.
For introduction to the Canadian market, there was little to do but ensure that
the car to meet the federal Ministry of Transport standards.
To that end, side
markers were affixed to the front and rear fenders, quad headlamps kissed the
horizontal, blackout grille. Inside, ‘tombstone’ headrests were moulded into
the front, bucket seats, stealing a page from AMC’s sporty Javelin.
The engine chosen
for the Canadian market was the 1.5-litre (91-cubic inch) four-cylinder, 5-main
bearing high cam mill. It worked in tandem with the fully-synchronized,
four-on-the-floor, short-throw manual transmission. For an extra $228, one
could zip around courtesy of Borg-Warner’s three-speed, automatic transmission,
with the lever mounted in the centre console.
Schematic details
the Cricket’s three-box, unit-body construction.
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Standard equipment
was impressive. Rack and pinion steering, power front disc brakes, coil springs
and an anti-sway bar set the Cricket apart from many of the others in the
subcompact herd.
Popular options
included an AM push-button radio for $85; white sidewalls for the standard radial
ply tires cost $35. Air conditioning was offered and those who did were
required to a $100 luxury tax to the federal government.
Stylists gave the
Plymouth Cricket hockey stick taillights.
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For $100 one could
deck out a Cricket with the Décor Package upgrade. That included dual horns, a
glove box light and lock, a cigar light, gauges for oil pressure and the
alternator, front door storage pockets, a day/night adjustable mirror, deluxe
carpeting, brightwork moulding around the windows, dual paint stripes on the
sides, bumper guards, deluxe carpeting and wheel covers, courtesy lights, an
upholstery upgrade and an instrument panel light controlled by a rheostat.
Crickets hopped
out of the factory in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, England clad in “happy colours”. Exterior
hues that made the Cricket cut were Polar White, Firebrand Red and Oasis Green.
Then there were the metallic finishes comprised of Sunset, Tangerine, Aztec
Gold, Electric Blue and Golden Olive. Regardless of finish, each body went
through a seven-step, dip-and-spray rust protection process, designed to thwart
the twin curses of the Canadian highway—corrosion and rust.
Five could be
seated in comfort--according to sales hype. Cabin colours selected for the
tough-wear vinyl upholstery were Black, Vellum, Tan, Olive and Blue. The boys
at Plymouth were given the task of colour-coordinating exteriors with interiors
for maximum good taste.
In Canada, the
marketing boys opted to forgo the cartoon cricket used in the States and
hired orchestra leader and
CBC-Television star, Bobby Gimby, the Pied Piper of Canada, to ‘blow his horn’
for Plymouth. Bobby and his trumpet did the job proudly, in both official
languages.
While Plymouth’s
Cricket never sold in big numbers, records show that in the 1971 calendar year,
2,995 of them chirped their way home to consumers. It brought up the rear
of Plymouth dealers’ sales. Cricket
ranked 49th in domestic registrations, behind the Chrysler New
Yorker and ahead of the Dodge Colt in nameplate sales pie.
The price for the
four-door sedan rose to $2,324 for 1972 and the wagon was introduced at $2,737. New car
registrations for 1972 show that number of Cricket dropped to 51st
place as only 2,480 sets of taillights zipped out the dealers’ doors. Canadians
passed by the imports and bought more North American-built cars than ever
before.
The British auto
industry found itself in deep trouble at the beginning of the 1970s. Union and
management clashed, resulting in severely compromised product quality. Whether
it was the Austin Marina or Ford Cortina, many of the vehicles shipped to
Canada from the UK arrived with major defects. The Firenza from Vauxhall was so
shoddily built that angry owners sued GM Canada in the nation’s first-ever
class action suit.
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Sadly, Cricket suffered
the same shameful indignities as its other British counterparts and was
withdrawn from the Canadian market in mid 1973.
The name lived on as Chrysler
immediately rebadged the successful Dodge Colt—already sourced from Japanese
automaker Mitsubishi—as the Plymouth Cricket. With that change came a two-door
hardtop model. A total of 4,807 Crickets found favour with Canadians during the
1973 calendar year.
Thanks to Kevin
McCabe, Chrysler Canada historian, for the Plymouth Cricket price list. He can be
reached at k_mccabe@cogeco.ca
Copyright James C. Mays 2015 All rights reserved.
Visit my old car website at: The Oilspot Eh!