Jim Kennedy’s Car Collection

Although difficult to comprehend today, the Plymouth Reliant was credited with saving the Chrysler Corporation from bankruptcy in the early 1980s (a fate the company would eventually suffer 28 years later). Of course, shameless promotion by Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca did not hurt. In fact, the Reliant (with its corporate sibling, the Dodge Aries) was Motor Trend Magazine’s Car of the Year in 1981. I remember 1981 as the year I graduated from college, and the year the Boston Celtics defeated the Houston Rockets for their 14th NBA Championship. It was also the first year of the Reagan Administration, which I try to forget. In any event, it was the most exciting year for Plymouth since, well, 1976, when the Volaré was introduced—which gives you an idea of how low the “excitement” bar was at Plymouth during that period. 

This 1980s contribution to my Plymouth collection was ordered from the Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in Hutchinson, Kansas by Troy F. Riggins, an insurance agent who worked part-time selling used cars at the dealership. He and his wife, Margaret, the head teller at the local branch of Central State Bank, drove the car locally for over 25 years. After Troy’s death in 2005, Margaret continued to rely upon the Reliant for a few more years (she died in 2014, at age 91). In 2011, her children sold the vehicle to a family friend, who listed it for sale online, where I found it. Upon arrival in California, it underwent some immediate repairs at Jack L. Hunt Auto in San Rafael, California. Despite numerous attempts over the following seven years, I could never quite restore the Reliant to the glory it displayed in the days when Blondie ruled the radio, Dudley Moore’s Arthur dominated movie theatres, and it was “morning in America,” so we parted ways.

Marvin E. “Ed” Castleberry assumed ownership of Hutchinson’s Chrysler-Plymouth and AMC-Jeep dealerships in 1978, purchasing the interests of Earl Kirk, whose family had operated automobile agencies in the city since 1909. Mr. Castleberry had served as Kirk’s general manager for the previous three years, after a decade as a sales executive in Chrysler’s Kansas City sales zone. Castleberry Chrysler-Plymouth-AMC-Jeep-Renault remained in business only three years, falling victim to high-interest rates and challenging economic conditions. At the end of September 1981, the operation was sold to Hutchinson’s Rayl Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership. By June 1982, the dealership had vacated its premises, which were sold to Sunflower Electric; Sunflower continues to occupy the building today. The Rayl Chrysler-Plymouth franchise was purchased by McCurdy Motor, Inc., in late 1982. Ed Castleberry appears to have transitioned to the truck leasing and sales business, and eventually relocated to the northwestern United States.