The Hillman Avenger, Plymouth Cricket, and Chrysler Sunbeam

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The Plymouth Cricket was a Hillman Avenger (made by Chrysler Europe) adapted for use in the United States; the Chrysler Sunbeam was a Cricket/Avenger-based subcompact (smaller than Horizon and a 2-door hatchback) released in 1977, which gave rise to the 1980 World Rally Champion Sunbeam-Lotus with 2.2 Lotus Esprit engine. The Sunbeam-Lotus was a very similar concept to the Omni GLH - high performance in a small package.

We have a huge amount of information on the Hillman Avenger from which the Cricket and Sunbeam sprang, including the development story - click here to read it.

When the Cricket was brought out in the UK in 1970, Chrysler Europe was still known as the Rootes Group with the Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam and Commer brands. Not until 1971 was the first Chrysler-badged model (the 180/2-Litre) introduced, but by 1976 the last of the Rootes-branded cars (Hillmans) became Chryslers.

The new car, a small-medium (B-class) sedan and wagon to compete with cars such as the Ford Escort, Austin 1300, and Vauxhall Viva. It was to be similar in size to the Arrow range introduced in 1966, but these sold in a higher price class, competing with the Ford Cortina; they were also available as Singers, with wood trim and chrome in a luxury style.

The new car was to be just a basic Hillman, so no frills, but a low price and conventional (yet contemporary) technology such as a live rear axle suspension, four-speed manual gearbox, sedan and wagon bodies, and overhead-valve all-iron engine of 1250 or 1500cc capacity. Compare that with the Austin Maxi, a competing product launched the previous year - 5-speed gearbox, front wheel drive, overhead cam engine, hatchback body, independent gas suspension...yet the Avenger was just right for the British public who were scared of new-fangled technology and it is said used spark plug access and cheap exhaust replacement as primary considerations when choosing a new car. This was the Hillman Avenger, to be sold in the US as the Plymouth Cricket.

Selling in basic DL or plusher GL form to begin with, the Avenger's semi-fastback styling, with unusual L-shaped rear lights and the distinctive Hillman feature of having the petrol cap in the rear panel between the lights (license plates ended up under the bumper).

Someone at Chrysler US must have seen the subcompact herd coming (in the form of the AMC Gremlin, Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto) and decided that Plymouth needed a competing product. As nothing was in the pipeline they went down the "captive import" route; this is where a domestic company imports a car from another country and puts their name on it. Usually it is from one of their subsidiaries in another country, in some cases (e.g. the Dodge Colt from the same era) it is from another company which it has shares in.

Plymouth made a few changes to the Avenger to make it become the Cricket. Only the 4-door sedan and 5-door wagon were ever offered. The 1500cc engine was offered, the 1250 obviously a little underpowered for US tastes, probably due to the high sales of power-sapping automatics. Front disc brakes were standardised; these were originally optional in the UK. [David Rosicke adds: In 1970-71, the single carb/manual choke was standard. In 1972 forward, the single carb/auto choke, dual carb, and air conditioning were options.]

As per Federal requirement, front seats with integral headrests (in a high-backed tombstone style) were unique to the US cars, head rests coming much later in the UK (when it became a Chrysler, and then these head rests were separate from the seats and adjustable), and side markers were fitted, again unique as there was no law for them in the UK. A seat-belt warning light system (operated when a weight of 20lb or greater was put on a front seat) was fitted starting in 1973. Also, later in its life, in order to meet the bumper impact standards of the time, large rubber-tipped over-riders were fitted [according to David Rosicke, this was optional in 1971 and 1972, standard in 1973].

Otherwise the only way the car differed externally was by the use of the uplevel UK model's four round headlights - Washington hadn't okayed the use of rectangular lights yet, or it would have had two of them instead like the lower Avengers.

Additional notes

The B Car was developed by Rootes using Chrysler's money; it was only a matter of time before the parent company in the USA decided to import it into the USA.

As a result, Chrysler sold the Linwood-built Avenger in the most demanding of markets under its Plymouth brand. Sadly poor quality and a lack of youth appeal meant that sales would be limited. The Cricket makes an interesting case study in how not to market an imported sub-compact in the USA. British Leyland committed the same crime with its Austin Marina.

This table, compiled by Graham Arnold, summarises the Cricket's life in the USA:

Model	Date	Notes
Cricket	20 Jan 1971	1,500cc (91.41 cu in.) 69bhp (net). 9.2:1 compression ratio. A Chrysler Plymouth press release dated 30 June 1970 stated that the Cricket was going to be shown to the automotive press for the first time in November 1970. The first shipment of 280 Crickets from the UK arrived in the USA on 20 November 1970.
Cricket	23 Aug 1971	Optional twin carburettor available on the four-cylinder engine adding 15 horsepower and bringing the total up to 70bhp. The standard engine now also comes with an automatic choke.
Cricket Wagon	Spring 1972	1500cc (91.4 cu.in) 70bhp 8.5:1 compression ratio. It was fitted as standard with the optional twin carburettor set up of the sedan. Manual transmission standard, automatic optional. A Chrysler Plymouth press release issued on 23 February 1972 stated that the Station Wagon version was going to debut in early Spring of 1972.

The Cricket looked little different from its up-spec European cousins, as its 1971 launch precluded the addition of 5mph impact absorbing bumpers. This picture appears to have been taken back in the Whitley design centre in the UK.

The Plymouth Cricket stops chirping

Apart from these changes and the badging, the car was pretty much as we had it. Launched in 1971, the car was sold for only two seasons, being withdrawn after the 1973 model year. Why? I think there are several reasons. The first is due to falling sales, mainly attributable to the poor workmanship of the product. Alas, this was typical of most 1970s UK products. Perhaps it didn't help that the car was launched in the US so soon after it was in other countries (to allow bugs to be ironed out), and it probably wasn't tested enough for US conditions. Maybe the price was too close to the Dart/Valiant, a much bigger, roomier car. Remember too that before 1974 no-one even imagined anything about a fuel crisis, so why bother with a small car the price of a larger one?

The poor workmanship may have been highlighted even more by the 1973 introduction of the "can't-beat-em-so-let's-join-em" Dodge Colt range of Mitsubishi cars, the beginning of a long-standing alliance with the manufacturer. I wonder too if Plymouth's advertising and promotion of the car may have been half-hearted; after all, a small car makes a lot less profit than a big one...

Think about the 1973 withdrawal date - just before the heightening emissions standards. I wonder if the Cricket's engine could have been made to accept a catalytic converter that easily? It certainly wasn't done here. And if it had, the performance of a low-compression 1.5-liter sedan would have been mild at best, especially when it was the only engine offered - at least the others had options of engines over 2 liters. [David Rosicke notes that the car would have passed the initial emissions tests, possibly until 1979. Hondas [and some VWs] didn't get catalytic converters until 1980. It would have failed with the dual carb version which had a hotter camshaft. It was not high compression to begin with. Only 55 BHP single carb, 70 dual carb in US trim.]

I think at the end of the day the Cricket was a good car. It had sweet handling, decent room for its size (remember that it was a lot shorter than Pinto or Vega), had practicality (4 doors where the others had 2) and decent standard features on its side. If only it had been around for the gas crisis...

Just as an update, it seems the Cricket was sold alongside both the Dodge Colt and the Simca 1204 (the 1100 with 1204cc engine, from which the Horizon developed).  Apparently Chrysler confused the public by offering these 3 captive imports but not developing their own domestic Vega/Pinto rival! 41,000 Crickets were sold from 1971-1973. This info was taken from a web page called "The British Car in America". [David Rosicke notes that the Hillman Avenger, the same car, was available with larger engines.]

[Trish Noon wrote: My first new car was a 1971 Cricket. My Cricket was the best car I have ever owned. If it needed anything (parts, tune-ups), I had a local Plymouth dealer in Rhode Island (Petteruti's) that could fix anything. It was wonderful.]

The Volkswagen Cricket and other facts

Thanks to Colin McCormick for letting us borrow this material from his Web site, which has more information on the Hillmans, Crickets, and other vehicles than we reprinted here.

Though English production of the Avenger/Cricket ceased in 1981, the car was made until 1990 in Argentina by the Volkswagen-Audi Group as the VW 1500. It was also made by Chrysler do Brasil from 1972 to 1981 as the Dodge 1800 and, later, the Dodge Polara (a name applied to a much larger car in the US).

The Avenger was completely new, even though it looked like the existing Hillman/Arrow Minx/Hunter. The engine, though all-iron with a pushrod valve, seemed low-tech but was strong and quiet and could rev to 7000 rpm. The design of both engine and suspension was carefully thought out and executed. It had light weight with a computer-designed body shell that resulted in strength and good handling. Unfortunately using a special primer and paint system on the floor plan to avoid underseals may have caused rust out on many Avengers.

Another design aim was that the car would be easy to service all over the world. It all comes apart and goes back together with ease. [David Rosicke adds that you can change the oil without ever getting under the car. The oil drain plug is on the side of the pan and can be seen and reached from above the motor.]

A good Avenger will still delight its passengers with a quiet smooth ride, lacking in some car designs from decades later. The larger engined 1500 and 1600 units were far better at high speed, they had a higher final drive ratio set by the differential. [all US cars came with 3.89:1 rear axle ratios].

Four door saloons were the first to be released, followed by two door saloons and five door estate cars. There were many models over the years, from basic models to "super" models. (Avenger models - Mk1: DL, GL, Super, GT, and Tiger; Mk2 - LS, GL, Super and GLS [Luxury])

Mitsubishi-built Plymouth Cricket (Canada only) - Cricket Formula S

Mike Sealey wrote:

Chrysler Canada marketed a badge-engineered Colt as a Plymouth Cricket after they stopped bringing the Avenger-based (UK) Cricket over.  (This was the 2nd generation Colt with dual headlights rather than quads, possibly best remembered in this country in its cute 2-door hardtop version. An interesting note is that the Plymouth equivalent to the Colt GT was another A-body model name revisited: "Plymouth Cricket Formula S"!

The Japanese Cricket (1974-1975?) had different grille and taillights from its Colt sibling, unlike Canada's "Dodge Arrow" which as far as I remember only differed in emblems. (Lar Kaufman wrote: The Plymouth Cricket wasn't "Canada only" and wasn't a Canadian model in 1976. [It was] also sold in Puerto Rico as a Plymouth.)

Lanny Knutson, editor of The Plymouth Bulletin, wrote:

Canadian Mitsubishi Crickets were marketed under the Cricket OHC name, to distinguish it from the pushrod British model. Actually there was a quad light Japanese-Canadian Cricket, offered mid-year '73 when the original Cricket was withdrawn. Chrysler Canada continued to offer the Cricket through the 1975 model year. In '76 it was replaced by the Plymouth Colt, identical to the Dodge Colt except for the nameplates, several years before the US saw a Plymouth Colt.

Lar Kaufman wrote:

I have a Chrysler Corp. manual entitled "1976 Colt Service Manual" and on the title page "Service Manual Sub-Compact 1976" which covers Dodge Colt, Plymouth Colt, and Plymouth Cricket for Canada, United States, and Puerto Rico.

The vehicle identification chart lists the car as sold in all three markets in 1976 as the Dodge Colt in Canada, as the Plymouth Colt (some models), and in Puerto Rico as the Cricket (a subset of the Canadian Plymouth Colt models). I conclude that the Cricket was not a Canadian brand for 1976. (The body work section shows no differing headlights and grille for the Cricket.)

The 1976 Cricket (Puerto Rico) was offered only as "Custom" and "Super Deluxe" sedan models (types 6H41K and 6P41U) and corresponding station wagon models (6H45K, 6H45U) with manual or automatic transmission, and were apparently the same as the corresponding US 49-state versions of the Dodge Colt.

The Canadian Plymouth Colt lineup offered the same models as the Puerto Rico Crickets, plus a "Special hardtop" model (5S23K) in manual or automatic.

The Dodge Colt was offered in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico in the same versions as the Canadian Plymouth Colt, plus "Coupe" (6M21K), "Super Deluxe hardtop" (6P23K and 6P23U) models. The Canadian Plymouth Colt models parallel the Dodge Colt models, but have a "5" prefix whereas the Dodge models have a "6" (e.g. 5S23K, 6S23K). The VIN code scheme used distinguishes between Canadian and US models, but not between Canadian Dodge and Plymouth offerings. Again, the Puerto Rico Cricket models are the same as their U.S. 49-state Dodge Colt counterparts.

The "Body and Sheet Metal" chapter of the manual shows that the coupe and hardtop shared chassis components; the hardtops are identified as "CAROUSEL" and "GT" styles for purposes of locating trim tape (remember the vinyl trim tape?).

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We have a huge amount of information on the Hillman Avenger from which the Cricket and Sunbeam sprang, including the development story - click here to read it.

Click here to visit Colin's site for excellent buyers' and owners' advice.

Visit the Hillman Owners Club (H.O.C) in England.

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