When I hear the phrase “suburban,” the Chevrolet hauler comes to mind right away. For one very straightforward reason, I’m willing to wager that you do as well. As of 2023, the Chevy Suburban is still being produced. It was first created in 1934. In summary, it’s the world’s oldest-running auto nameplate and a renowned precursor to the contemporary SUV.
However, this term was not exclusively utilized by Chevrolet. Not one, but two automobiles received identical badges from the Chrysler Corporation. The first one was created by the now-defunct DeSoto company. The 1946 DeSoto Suburban was a long-wheelbase, four-door sedan with jump seats built into the factory that could accommodate eight passengers. In 1954, the model was dropped.
Then there’s the Plymouth Suburban, which arrived in 1949. Unlike DeSoto, Plymouth used the badge on a station wagon. And I bet you didn’t know that it revolutionized the market as the industry’s first all-steel body grocery-getter. The original series soldiered until 1956, when Plymouth decided to group all its station wagons under a separate series. Specifically, the Suburban line included wagon variants of the Plaza, Savoy, and Belvedere.
This strategy lasted until 1961 when the nameplate was discontinued. Plymouth revived the badge in 1968, but not as a separate series. Instead, it was used to designate a station wagon version in the Fury range. The name went into the history books for good in 1978, when the Fury was retired to make way for the Gran Fury.
What’s with the history lesson, you ask? Well, YouTube’s “Adventures Made From Scratch” just stumbled across one of the rarest and most ridiculous Plymouth Suburbans ever built. And you have to see it because it’s an eight-door behemoth with no fewer than four rows of seats. Is it a factory model? No, coachbuilding companies like Superior Coach and Miller-Meteor handled these elongated, multi-door projects. This Suburban, on the other hand, was manufactured by Armbruster Stageway.
Back in the day, Armbruster produced limousine versions of numerous cars and SUVs, including the Chevrolet Suburban, despite specializing mostly in funeral vehicles. The company’s limos, however, had closed interiors with plenty of space and soft seating for two or three persons. Armbruster concentrated on developing more practical stretch cars that could carry as many passengers as feasible. For instance, there are 12 seats in this eight-door, four-row Mopar. Additionally, it was probably ordered by a hotel that utilized it to transport clients to and from the airport.
Sadly, this Plymouth Suburban had a rough life once it was decommissioned. Last on the road in 2000, it spent more than two decades outside, long enough for the floor and the body to end up with rust issues. The interior doesn’t look any better either, with both the headliner and the upholstery ruined by decades of use and neglect.
The stretched wagon is based on the 1969 Fury Suburban, the first year of the fifth-generation full-size. And our host claims it’s powered by a 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) V8, which was the Fury’s range-topping mill at the time. It wasn’t quite as powerful as the four-barrel RB offered in the company’s muscle cars in 1969, but it developed a healthy 350 horsepower and 490 pound-feet (664 Nm) of torque when new – enough to haul a fully-loaded limo like this at decent speeds.
Unfortunately, the Suburban is not ready to return to the public roads. Although our host removed it from a location where it had been abandoned for more than 20 years, he had no intention of restoring it. The eight-door Mopar will soon go to the crusher unless someone appears to rescue it and give it a new life.