Mopar and Mopar logos: an illustrated history

Chrysler bought Dodge Brothers in 1928, partly to obtain a large enough plant to support Plymouth. With the increased size and complexity of the company — Dodge Brothers was larger than all of Chrysler combined — there was a clear need for a dedicated parts manufacturer, supplier, and distributor. Thus was born the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation (CMPC) in 1929.

From 1933 to 1937, CMPC used a circle surrounding the letters D,C,P, and D, for Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, and DeSoto; the P was clearly larger than the others, representing Plymouth's size and importance.

During that time, sales promotion manager Nelson I. Farley created a group (the Activities Council) to generate new merchandising ideas. In 1937, the Activities Council came up with a new name for marketing antifreeze, by combining the words Motor and Parts: Mopar. It was quickly trademarked and a logo was commissioned.

The first design, penned by Burke Bartlett, was bright purple, in the shape of a downward-pointing arrow; Nelson Farley turned it down, disliking both the arrow and the purple.

While the logo was being brainstormed, the Activities Council created a character, Mr. Mopar, in the form of a camel — to fit with the Chrysler float in the national Shriners convention in Detroit. The float was made of engine parts; it was pulled by the camel, and “led” by a mechanical man, Accy (for accessory), who had been made by Vern Dupuis from various parts. 11 years later, in 1948, Dupuis himself was in the merchandising group; he modified Accy to speak and move, and renamed him Mr. Mopar. Eventually, a newer version of the robot appeared on television.

The logo, meanwhile, appeared in a form acceptable to Farley — a roughly oval badge/seal design — and it was used in that form from 1937 to 1947, at which point it was modernized and simplified, with purple making a return. Over the years, it would be simplified and modernized again, numerous times.

At some point after the war, Chrysler dropped its own depots and went back to using wholesalers. But, as the company dropped into sales troughs, executives realized that aftermarket sales could provide a sales cushion for bad years. In 1963, Chrysler announced plans to drop its wholesalers and return to the depot system again; this plan was implemented in 1964 with 18 depots at the area, regional, and national levels. In 1965, the company used a dealer parts group to distribute to dealers, and an independent aftermarket group going through franchised warehouse distributors (these would be dropped by 1972). Coinciding with this change, in 1964, Chrysler stopped printing the names of all of their brands in the Mopar logo, dropping the oval/circle theme for the first time and moving to the word MOPAR in block letters, with the stylized “M” above it.

With this change came a new direction; Mopar sold racing parts as well as replacement parts, and created a Mopar Performance Parts division to accommodate the new direction. They sold some unique parts developed in-house, and some parts from vendors which had been tested and proven. There were also package cars based on the 1962 Plymouth Belvedere and Dodge Dart; these cars continued to be launched until 1968’s Plymouth Barracuda and Dodge Dart Hemi Super Stock cars, and the performance parts continued to be made and sold.

The “Omega M” logo rationale and creator are unknown to us, and we’d appreciate any input. The combined graphic at the top of the page is from cartype.com.

In 1972, the company gave Mopar another new logo, used through 1984; it reflected the Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth dealership signs, with a white pentastar in a blue rectangle block on top, Mopar printed in a white space in the middle, and an empty red bar underneath. This was the first use of the Pentastar with the Mopar logo.

The next logo arrived in 1985, a modernized version with a larger word “Mopar,” printed in blue with a pentastar-in-a-square and "Chrysler Corporation Genuine Parts" underneath in white over a red or blue bar. Starting in 1991, the lower part was simplified, becoming “Chrysler Corporation Parts” in a regular line (rather than white-on-color). For 1998, the words “Chrysler Corporation” were omitted, and the word "PARTS" stood in white against a blue line under the still-unchanged, spelled-out Mopar logo and pentastar. Finally, in 2002, the current form appeared, reverting to the 1964-1971 design except in blue, with a larger Mopar symbol and a smaller word “Mopar.” 

In 1987, Mopar’s Direct Connection brand was renamed to Mopar Performance Parts.

In 2009, the Mopar brand launched its first branded car, the race-only 2009 Mopar Challenger Drag Pak (officially, by VIN, a Dodge); a 2010 version was also made, and in 2011 the Mopar Challenger V10 Drag Pak was launched. The first Mopar-branded car to be sold at retail was the Mopar ’10 Challenger, followed by the Mopar ’11 Charger.

The omega-M with MOPAR printed below (at right) was current in late 2010.