Camp Jeep sat outside the New York Auto Show [see story/video], displaying a good range of Jeeps, but what about the show itself? Officially, Stellantis had no presence; but other exhibitors brought some Mopars in, and here they are…. with a brief video!
First, when we come in, we see this Emergency Safety Solutions Jeep, which was actually much more fun to look at with the flashing lights all around—none of which came up in our photos. Moving on, we went through a massive Ford display to visit Chevy Corner, part of Chevrolet’s quite expansive display—it’s about the size of their 2023 display plus Dodge and Chrysler’s 2023 display. We’ll have some pics from that later.
That was it for the upper floor, which had all the new cars and trucks from major manufacturers, aside from those used on the electric car test track downstairs. The lower floor, starting from the far right, was promising, with the New York City Police displaying some fine Plymouths from prior years—here’s a Fury and then a Diplomat to talk it down.
New York’s had some quite attractive colors; though the turquoise and black might not go that well together, few argue with the blue. Also the car below is actually a Gran Fury, not a Diplomat, despite the attempt at a pun.
Next we have two New York State Police Chargers, one in traditional New York blue-and-orange, the other in what appears to be gray with a purple reflection. These were cordoned off, as were the classic New York City police cars, for no clear reason.
By the electric car track was, with no explanation, this car by a plaque in the floor reading “Overland Park.” Overland, incidentally, was the company John North Willys was buying cars from to resell, when his supply of cars stopped. He travelled by train to the factory, found things in disarray, and essentially bought the company so he could keep selling their cars. Willys-Overland, as it was later called, contributed the Army Jeep’s six-cylinder engines, and with Ford made Jeeps for the war; but Willys kept making them after the war, too. The Jeep itself was mainly an American Bantam design.
History over, we move to the tuner section, which did have one Viper we somehow didn’t photograph at the end of a row of Hondas, Toyotas, Mazdas, and such; some had quite attractive modifications under the hoods. Finally, walking into the next room, all the way at the end of the next room—which had a stage and a National Guard display along with many other tables and booths and unexplained displays—we spotted a lonely Durango at the far corner.
Blocked by that Ram ProMaster was Mopar Row, about ⅔ of a row of modified Mopars.
At the end, in the next row, a lone Dodge Charger made up for being all alone with its sheer brightness, which can’t be displayed as a sole picture but really needs
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpgOnCk2cs[/embedyt]
Finally, if you happen to live down Route 4 in New Jersey, you may spot one more oddity that was linked up with Mopar a few years back… and for some reason has branched into all sorts of non-car-related businesses.
The New York Auto Show is now open to the public; it’s easily accessible via the ferry (midtown station, cross the street, go south a bit, and go up the hill, and you’ll be right at the entrance, which for some reason isn’t also at the back of the building) or subway (take the 7 to Hudson Yards and then you have a two block walk).
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.
David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.
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