Collector Classics: 1950 Plymouth Deluxe coupe

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In 1958, when George Washington Hoy bought a half-acre lot to build his new home at 1130 River Road, Lulu Island, now the City of Richmond, there was a black 1950 Plymouth Deluxe coupe stored at the house next door.

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Mr. Hoy had purchased the property from the car’s owner, Mrs. Elizabeth Nicholson, who was too old to drive. The car had been left in the garage. Mr. Hoy’s wife was soon offering to drive their elderly neighbour to medical appointments and shopping. Mrs. Nicholson insisted they use her old Plymouth. “We’re using my car, my gas and my insurance,” she would say.

Mrs. Nicholson had purchased the rare three-passenger coupe at Begg Motors in Vancouver in August 1950. The ‘returning soldier’s’ insurance for the car cost $5. Her husband, James Nicholson, didn’t drive so Mrs. Nicholson was the car’s only driver. When Mrs. Nicholson passed away in the 1965, the public trustee auctioned her property as she had lost her husband and was childless. Mr. Hoy knew the old Plymouth coupe had traveled less than 15,000 miles and was in excellent condition. His bid of $366 plus $1 for a transfer fee bought the car. “Somebody else had put in the same bid so he had to increase his offer,” recalls George’s son Dennis, who now owns the car.

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George owned Custom Auto Conversions on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive specializing in installing side glass in windowless sedan delivery vehicles and ‘Pullmanizing’ cars by installing seats that would fold down into beds. He drove the Plymouth coupe back and forth to his shop with signs on the doors and trunk advertising his business. Sadly, George Hoy died in a climbing accident in 1970.

“My mother gave me the car in 1978,” retired Richmond school teacher Dennis Hoy says. “I was embarrassed to ride in it when I was a kid. I would hide when we passed my friends.”

Three-passenger business coupes were popular from the 1930’s to the mid-1950’s as traveling salesmen could carry their goods and wares in the extra deep trunk space. They were also the least expensive model offered in the Chrysler-built low-priced Plymouth cars.

The old Plymouth coupe eventually became Dennis Hoy’s ‘island car’ when he started building a home at Silva Bay on Gabriola Island. “I hauled a lot of bricks with the car and lumber that was sometimes sticking out of the side window or the trunk.

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As the years passed, the salt air took its toll on the car with rust starting to show. The rust was repaired with new metal and the car was painted by Morgan Lachmanec of Wild West Garage in Duncan. The Plymouth business coupe now looks very much like it did when Elizabeth Nicholson drove it away from the downtown Vancouver dealership in the summer of 1950. See a video on the restoration at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYA4QAtPT2w

Dennis Hoy gets emotional when he talks about the car’s history. “It will stay in the family. I lost my dad when I was 17 so this is very much my link to my dad. You kind of hang onto the memories,” he says

His mother nicknamed the 72-year-old Plymouth coupe ‘The Jewel’, a name that has stuck throughout the family’s ownership. With just 60,000 miles showing on the odometer and the car running and driving like new, Dennis plans to continue using the Plymouth coupe as his island car. Then he will pass it on so it will remain a family jewel.

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. [email protected]