Canadian-only Oddity: 1955 Dodge Mayfair 2dr

[vonVeezelsnider]

Just browsing the classifieds and saw this one for sale and figured I'd share it. The Dodge Mayfair had a Dodge body and a Plymouth interior and components.

[Drew Dowdell]

Canadians are weird eh.

[balthazar]

Desoto Diplomat; Plymouth body, DeSoto smile :

[NeonLX]

Hey, it's a Plodge!

Nice color combo.

I always enjoyed Canada's Cheviacs, too...

[Gord]

But us wierd Canadians build the cars Americans want the most

[ocnblu]

Tail end of the Mayfair is Plymouth, is it not?

[balthazar]

^ Yep: Dodge front clip, Plymouth side trim & rear clip.

Sure seems like a lot of trouble for 'half a dozen of the other'.

[ocnblu]

That Diplomat is cool and it learned me some Mopar history.

[vonVeezelsnider]

^ Yep: Dodge front clip, Plymouth side trim & rear clip.

Sure seems like a lot of trouble for 'half a dozen of the other'.

My educated guess would point to the contributing factor as our comparatively low population density, quite a bit less then even than now, coupled with an even more rural based population at the time. In Canada, especially then, the "next town" was not as close by or handy. Same reason there was a Mercury truck line. Small farming communities often could not support two franchised dealerships and these standalone dealers complained to head office about not having a complete product line that they could offer that met a greater amount of the needs of their rural customers. That meant cheapo Mercuries and expensive Fords, a bargain-basement Desoto, Mercury trucks, a Nova clone for Pontiac dealers, and of course, a gussied up Plymouth sold as a Dodge. I guess they could afford the overlaps.

[knightfan26917]

I always enjoyed Canada's Cheviacs, too...

I'll never forget our family road trip out west, 1991. We were at a rest stop in California when we saw Pontiac's version of the Corsica ... named the Tempest. Had never seen it before. It wasn't until we got home that we learned that it was a Canadian car ... LOL.

Cort | 38.m.IL | pigValve + paceMaker + cowValve | 5 MCs + 1 Caprice Classic

CHD.MCs.CC + RoadTrips.hobbies.RadioShows.us66 = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"It's snowing in the pines" __ Alabama __ 'Christmas In Dixie'

[Robert Hall]

I'll never forget our family road trip out west, 1991. We were at a rest stop in California when we saw Pontiac's version of the Corsica ... named the Tempest. Had never seen it before. It wasn't until we got home that we learned that it was a Canadian car ... LOL.

I remember first seeing one of those around '89 down the Florida Keys...lots of Canadians in the Keys back then. Another Canadian model I recall seeing occasionally in Michigan in the '90s were Chrysler Intrepids..

[balthazar]

^ Yep: Dodge front clip, Plymouth side trim & rear clip.

Sure seems like a lot of trouble for 'half a dozen of the other'.

My educated guess would point to the contributing factor as our comparatively low population density, quite a bit less then even than now, coupled with an even more rural based population at the time. In Canada, especially then, the "next town" was not as close by or handy. Same reason there was a Mercury truck line. Small farming communities often could not support two franchised dealerships and these standalone dealers complained to head office about not having a complete product line that they could offer that met a greater amount of the needs of their rural customers. That meant cheapo Mercuries and expensive Fords, a bargain-basement Desoto, Mercury trucks, a Nova clone for Pontiac dealers, and of course, a gussied up Plymouth sold as a Dodge. I guess they could afford the overlaps.

There was also a trade barrier / high import tax that ended around '70 IIRC. Prior to it's end, there were a host of 'shuffled' brands in Canada: Pontiacs on narrow Chevy chassis's with anemic 1bbl I6s (and a few hairy 427s), and such. Once that/those barriers were removed, the nonsense stopped.

Makes sense- if your U.S.-built Plymouth gets heavily taxed crossing the border, mix-n-match Corporate parts, assemble it Up North, give it a new model name and BAM!, a 'Canadian' car.

[NeonLX]

That's why I love this place--every time I visit, I learn sump'n' new. Never had heard of the Corsica-based Tempest before (or the Tempest-based Corsica, whichever way it's supposed to go).

[vonVeezelsnider]

^ Yep: Dodge front clip, Plymouth side trim & rear clip.

Sure seems like a lot of trouble for 'half a dozen of the other'.

My educated guess would point to the contributing factor as our comparatively low population density, quite a bit less then even than now, coupled with an even more rural based population at the time. In Canada, especially then, the "next town" was not as close by or handy. Same reason there was a Mercury truck line. Small farming communities often could not support two franchised dealerships and these standalone dealers complained to head office about not having a complete product line that they could offer that met a greater amount of the needs of their rural customers. That meant cheapo Mercuries and expensive Fords, a bargain-basement Desoto, Mercury trucks, a Nova clone for Pontiac dealers, and of course, a gussied up Plymouth sold as a Dodge. I guess they could afford the overlaps.

There was also a trade barrier / high import tax that ended around '70 IIRC. Prior to it's end, there were a host of 'shuffled' brands in Canada: Pontiacs on narrow Chevy chassis's with anemic 1bbl I6s (and a few hairy 427s), and such. Once that/those barriers were removed, the nonsense stopped.

Makes sense- if your U.S.-built Plymouth gets heavily taxed crossing the border, mix-n-match Corporate parts, assemble it Up North, give it a new model name and BAM!, a 'Canadian' car.

Ah yes, the 1965 Auto Pact.

[GMTruckGuy74]

That's why I love this place--every time I visit, I learn sump'n' new. Never had heard of the Corsica-based Tempest before (or the Tempest-based Corsica, whichever way it's supposed to go).

I remember seeing one on a trip to Lancaster with my parents back in '89 or '90. I was dumbfounded seeing it! It took me about 3-4 years to learn that it was a Canadian car (pre-Internet). This is similar to what I saw:

[ocnblu]

Those little L-bodies ran forever. That Tempest is a clean one.

[SAmadei]

Due to Wildwood, NJ being a popular destination for beach going Canadians, I remember these invading south Jersey every summer for years between '88 and '95. It was especially interesting to me, as my car was what I thought was the last of the Tempests ('70). Some days I'd see 2-3 of them.

Needless, to say, in those days before the Internet became popular, it was MUCH harder to explain what was going on. Had they made a coupe, I may have seeked one out, simply for its novelty factor.

Edit: Typo.

Edited December 31, 2011 by SAmadei

[NeonLX]

Thanks for the pix, GMTruckGuy! Cool looking machine.

Where I work, we used to have a '90-ish Corsica with the 3.1L V6. It was surprisingly quick.