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Wikipedia: Plymouth De Luxe
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Plymouth De Luxe page on 26 April 2018, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Plymouth De Luxe is a full-sized automobile which was produced by American manufacturer Plymouth from 1946 to 1950. It offered in two trim levels, the De Luxe and the top-of-the-line Special De Luxe. As the war in Europe wound down, the U.S. government slowly began allowing the automobile industry to return to the car-making business. It had been four years since any new cars had been built, and those cars still on the road were beginning to show their age. “The more you know about the new Plymouth… the more convinced you are that not all the beauty is on the surface. You can't see them all, but you can feel them in action.”
Plymouth's new models for 1946 were once again offered in two series, the P15S De Luxe and P15C Special De Luxe. De Luxe body styles included a four-door sedan, two-door sedan, club coupe, and business coupe. Special De Luxes added a convertible coupe and wood-body station wagon to the line-up. Waiting lists were common at dealerships. Those wanting a new car placed their name, and often a cash deposit, with the dealer. Customers hoped that as new cars became available, they would move up the list until it was their turn to take delivery. Car buyers with their name on every dealer's list in town were not uncommon; reports of money paid under the table were common, as were scalpers who would put their new car on the market at a price considerably higher than they had paid for it.
The first post-war Plymouth, a P15S De Luxe, came off the line October 22, 1945. Special De Luxes would follow four days later. Bodies for the P15 Plymouths were virtually unchanged from 1942, with only minor trim differences. “Engineering magic greets you right from the start. You don’t grope for a starter button or pedal. You don’t pull on a choke. You simply turn the ignition key- and the engine starts.”
