THE ‘DANDY’ DODGE

The Dodge Coronet and Dick Landy are names that wouldn’t be familiar to a lot of Aussie car aficionados, even amongst the Mopar crowd. On the other side of the Pacific, recognition for both the Coronet and Landy is far greater.

So, how did the car featured here come to be in Australia and what’s its connection to Dick Landy? Read on and find out!

IN AND OUT

In the interwar years, Dodge cars were prominent in Australia, thanks to a range that was tough and reliable. Most Dodges from this period featured locally-made bodies on imported chassis and running gear. More often than not, those bodies came from T.J. Richards & Sons in SA, which was Holden Motor Body Builders’ main rival and would go on to be a cornerstone of Chrysler Australia.

In those early years, the distribution of Dodge, as well as Plymouths, Chryslers and DeSotos in this country was something of an ad hoc affair before a group of 18 distributors formed ‘Chrysler Dodge DeSoto Distributors (Australia) Pty Ltd’ in 1935.

Responding, in part, to the launch of the Holden by GM-H in 1948, the local