1962 Plymouth Walkaround and Overheads

Chrysler Corporation's newly redesigned 1962 standard-size Plymouth was a sales disappointment, as were Dodges sharing the same body platform.

That said, the design is of interest from a styling standpoint because it was the final mass-production design created under the leadership of famed stylist Virgil Exner who was replaced as Chrysler's styling vice-president by Elwood Engel in 1961.  This Wikipedia link (as of January 2025) states:

"Unfortunately, a rumor that GM was reducing the size of their cars caused the president of Chrysler, Lester Lum ("Tex") Colbert, to order Exner to do the same to his 1962 design–a change Exner disagreed with, thinking it would make his cars 'ugly'.  Exner with his associates had completed work on the second full-sized finless Plymouth since 1955, this one for 1962, described as a strikingly attractive automobile.  While he was still recovering from the heart attack, the 1962 models Exner took credit for were downsized by associates.  This downsizing drastically changed the cars' appearance.  This reduced the cars' appeal and caused a significant drop in sales.  It turned out that the Chevrolet rumor was false and consumers disliked the smaller Plymouth and Dodge cars introduced for 1962, the styling of which was bizarre compared to more sedate Ford and GM products."

Those original designs are:

As was fairly standard styling procedure, design proposals featured different themes on each side.  For example, the belt line hump seen in the upper photo was carried over in altered detail on production Plymouths.  The raised sculpting theme on the front and rear fender areas was also found on production cars.  Ditto the grille mesh concept.  So the design theme that went into production was Exner's, and the execution and detailing were simply modifications of the theme shown here.

Another design theme precursor to the 1962 Plymouth was the 1960 Valiant (soon renamed Plymouth Valiant), one of America's first-generation "compact" cars.  Some of its features are seen in the images above.  Valiant photos lead the Gallery images.  All photos there are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1960 Valiant
Those projecting sculpted elements on the fenders are part of the theme seen above and on the '62 Plymouth photos below.

1960 Valiant
Note the the horizontal creases of those element, front and rear, are aligned -- a professional styling touch to enhance visual integration.  They do not align in the styling models shown above.

1962 Plymouth Savoy
Savoy was the entry-level standard-size Plymouth model.  It's shown here because it has fewer chrome decorations than more upscale Plymouths.  The grille is interesting because it looks like a concave version of an electric shaver head.

That concavity is better seen here.

The creases on the front and rear sculpted elements align here, as on the '60 Valiant above.

The beltline hump by the after side window is a carryover from that in the design shown in the top image.  Here, it's not related to the after side sculpting.

Broad, flattened shapes are found front and rear.  What Exner came up with once tail fins had become unfashionable.

1962 Plymouth Belvedere
Now some views from overhead.  One marketing problem was that the body was too narrow for acceptance by early 1960s American car buyers.

Those sculpted extensions of the hood and trunk do provide some width ...

1962 Plymouth Belvedere
... but they also, by contrast, emphasize the narrowness of the body in the passenger comparment zone.  Presumably this is a different car from the previous example.  This photo depicts side sculpting and contrasting basic body width a bit better.