Now this is interesting. Are you saying the Belgian
Dodge-DeSoto outlets got Diplomats but not Kingsways?
This sounds like the same dealership structure as
Canada but with different results. The Canadian
Dodge-DeSoto dealers had a Plymouth-based Dodge that
was much like a Kingsway but had its own model names
plus the different Canadian Plymouth powerplants.
As I understand it, most of the rest of Chrysler's
world had three dealership chains;
Chrysler-Plymouth-Fargo Truck, Dodge-Kingsway-Dodge
Truck, and DeSoto-Diplomat-DeSoto Truck (I'm rattling
off Kingsway and Diplomat as if they were separate
makes to show how Chrysler tried to give each dealer
network rough equivalents). So I'm guessing the
Belgian Dodge-DeSoto dealers got Dodge trucks but not
DeSotos?
I wonder if the smaller DeSoto dated from that brief
period before 1934 when DeSoto was considered slightly
downmarket from Dodge?
--- Vincent Van Humbeeck
<vincent.vanhumbeeck@WANADOO.FR> wrote:
> I always thought so far that DeSoto Diplomat/Dodge
> Kingsway line was offered for sale outside the US as
> the only Chrysler product in a given country.
> Well, it seems I was wrong. The '54 to '58 Chrysler
> bulletins I bought in Belgium had every year an
> issue which presented the new line to the dealers.
> Each year the DeSoto Diplomat was presented as a
> unique brand aside the others five. It was not
> presented within the DeSoto range, even though it
> bears the same name ! It meant you could buy in
> Belgium a DeSoto Diplomat or a Plymouth, which
> were basically the same cars.
>
> It's funny because everyone could see on those
> bulletins that it was a DeSoto front clip on a
> Plymouth, even the customer. The customers and the
> dealers must have thought that Chrysler was acting
> loony ...
>
> The key there was the grouping of brands within the
> network. Even for a small market and a small
> country such as Belgium, the network was divided
> into Chrysler-Plymouth outlets and Dodge-DeSoto
> outlets.
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