1973 Plymouth Fury Custom Suburban

27-Years-Owned 1973 Plymouth Fury Custom Suburban for sale on BaT Auctions - ending April 23 (Lot #144,259) | Bring a Trailer

 

That’s one thing I always wondered about. How did Plymouth and Chevrolet have a Suburban at the same time.

 

from a car & driver article:
Chevrolet didn’t trademark the name “Suburban” when it introduced the industry’s first steel-bodied, eight-passenger truck-based wagon back in 1935. Other marques subsequently used the term, and it didn’t officially become General Motors’ until 10 years after Plymouth discontinued its Suburban station wagon in 1978.

 

When I was younger I completely identified the Suburban name with the GM truck based hauler. When I first heard people calling Plymouth wagons "suburbans" I assumed it was a joke, alluding to their girth. Almost like the "yo momma so fat" jokes that were prevalent at the time. Back then the big car obsession of the 70's had waned in popular culture and the more compact "big" cars of the 80's had become the "it" style. Additionally station wagons were decidedly uncool to most young folks and they often had derogatory names for them. So I figured that referring to a station wagon, which was a car, as a suburban (thinking GM) which was a truck, was just one more way of degrading them. ie "your station wagon is so large it thinks it's a SUBURBAN!"
It wasn't until years later that I realized that they were both actually called the same name.

 

Sold for $8,000 on 4/23/24