Dead Brand Trucks: Fargo and DeSoto – Still Being Made In Turkey Well Into the 21st Century
– Posted on November 22, 2020
Chrysler's pentastar and old brand names ended up in some odd places. Fargo branded trucks were being built in Turkey well into the 21st century, and DeSotos (bottom) for almost as long. But don't look for a Chrysler big block V8 under their hoods. Or just about anything else you might find familiar.
Fargo was an independent truck maker, starting in 1913, but apparently the name petered out in 1922. Chrysler re-introduced it in 1928, after they bought what remained of the company. That was also the year Chrysler bought Dodge, and the Fargo brand was re-introduced as a badge-engineered Dodge. But in the 1930s, the Fargo brand was phased out in the US.
But in Canada, Fargo was kept very much alive, in order to give Chrysler-Plymouth dealers a comparable truck to sell as Dodge. This was done since many towns in Canada had only either one or the other dealer.
Fargo was also used in export markets, on trucks built at the Dodge Lynch Road plant in Detroit. And if that weren't enough, the DeSoto brand started to be applied to exported Dodge trucks too, giving Chrysler three truck brands abroad. Export markets worked differently, since in certain locales one of Chrysler's brands might have a strong local presence, and trucks were needed as part of that.
The Fargo brand, along with Dodge, was also used by Barreiros in Spain, which tied up with Chrysler in 1957.
In 1962, Askam was founded in Turkey, as a joint venture owned 60% by Chrysler. This brochure is from 1973, and it shows that it had a Perkins 6-354 diesel engine. And the cab is obviously the same one used for the following some decades, as the picture at the top of this post shows. In 1978, Chrysler sold its interest in Askam, at a time of crisis when Chrysler was rapidly off-loading foreign assets.
I'm not sure how long the big trucks were built, but the last truck to bear the Fargo brand was the Fargo Fora van, essentially an LDV Maxus, which was a joint venture by LDV Limited and Daewoo. LDV has a very complicated history, having been formerly Leyland DAF vans, it fell into Russian ownership and then ultimately into Chinese ownership (SAIC) in 2010. Talk about dead brands.
The Fargo Fora was built by Askam until 2015, when Askam went out of business. One more dead brand.
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Poking around older Dodge trucks in the junkyards, models into the 80s still had data plates attached to the door jambs that read "Dodge Plymouth Fargo DeSoto".
Google showed me this example from an '80 model:
https://moparforums.com/forums/f96/1980-d100-data-plate-21225/#&gid=1&pid=1
Posted November 22, 2020 at 12:27 PM
I never understood why that data plate lasted as long as it did. Sure a year or two could just be using up existing stock. Of course now that we know the brand names continued to be used outside of North America long after they were discontinued here it makes more sense.
R&DMan
Posted November 23, 2020 at 8:01 AM
A friend of mine's '73 Power Wagon data plate just had Dodge, Fargo and DeSoto on it because the Trail Duster hadn't been born yet. And the three names were in a line at the bottom of the plate.
Neither would make sense, but it sure looks like Brigadier headlamp bezel and Ford spoke hub.
The second DeSoto truck seems to have continued the front end of the last DeSoto car.
You mean the last American-built DeSoto, I assume? Cause they sold locally-assembled Valiants as DeSotos in South Africa till 1963.
Stéphane Dumas
And the Dodge Dart/Polara as the DeSoto Diplomat for 1962. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/23221754299974939/
Also I saw this photo of these South African DeSoto Rebel along with a Dodge "Power Giant" pick-up truck badged as a DeSoto. https://www.flickr.com/photos/140658418@N03/30319063076
https://www.africanmusclecars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13116
Here's a Fargo I found in Turkey on vacation in 2015.
Out of curiosity, are many (or most) Turkish heavy trucks painted red as a point of national identity? All of the Turkish trucks in this post are red, as is the one in your photo, and a great number that I've seen online. Just curious about that.
It's been five years now since I was there but there really weren't that many uniquely Turkish vehicles. Most of the big over-the-road semi's were the usual (for Europe) DAF, Scania etc. in company livery. Smaller commercial stuff like Transits, Sprinters, Ducati's etc were usually white. I do recall red being popular on the locally built Fiat 124's which we're still quite common.
1973IHC
Use of dead brand names is often to keep a trademark alive. I didn't know if it's still the case, but Sears Kenmore refrigerators said Coldspot on the serial number tag long after the name was retired
George from Brooklyn
Chevron owns the Standard Oil brand and maintains a Standard gas station in San Francisco to hold onto the trademark
There is still a Standard branded station in Bellevue Wa too. It was an old fashioned service station with the old torch logo well past the time that other locations had gone to Chevron branding. I was sure that when they tore down the old 2 bay in the 90's and put up a c-store that it would switch branding. But it has remained Standard as I happened to drive past it a couple of weeks ago.
Redwagon
Use of "retired" names may also have to do with ownership. For example, recently Super America gas stations near me were rebranded as Speedy stations. But then I found 2 that were still SA. When I asked I was told they were independently owned franchises and not corporately owned. They are still entitled to support from the head office but not all advantages that would accrue as Speedy stations. They made the choice to stay as SA stations.
Well in that case it was probably due to the fact that they would be expected to pay for all the new Speedy signage and they didn't want to, or couldn't afford to.
Never noticed that! I just checked my 2001 Kenmore refrigerator, and sure enough, the serial number tag says "Kenmore® Coldspot®".
Hardboiled Eggs and Nuts
As much as I hate to say it, maybe it's time for an export version of a Ram truck to keep a dead brand alive. Name it Chrysler. That would give them 3 models to sell.
The styling of the pre-war Canadian Fargo truck is the same as that applied to the Plymouth pickup trucks here in the US.
Fargo was the Chrysler truck brand sold in NZ for a very long time untill Rootes commercials began appearing with Dodge badges
Thomas Merjanian
Thanks for the info on Fargo and De Soto trucks. I have caught bits and pieces over the years about them.
Our Kenmore refer, probably 10 years old now, no longer has Coldspot on the ID tag.
Early on in the Fargo saga, they also made these cool buses, around 1930-31. There was a "city" version as shown here, designed to replace small streetcars, and a "suburban" version with only the front doors.
The squared-off cab, like the GM efforts we've seen recently, was designed by Chrysler in the US for emerging markets, with Turkey as the manufacturing point. Pretty sure the DeSoto versions all went to Spanish-speaking countries.
A quick search of the USPTO trademark database shows that Coldspot is still a registered trademark of the successor to Sears, Roebuck and Co. Too many hits for Fargo to wade thru. Perhaps tonight.
Daniel Stern
But don't look for a Chrysler big block V8 under their hoods. Or just about anything else you might find familiar.
I see standard 7″ and 5¾" round headlamps! 🤓