1958 Plymouth 9-Passenger Sport Suburban (all photos by Russo & Steele)
(first posted 1/25/2014) When I looked at Russo and Steele’s list of cars to be auctioned at its 2014 Scottsdale event I was knocked out to see the exact car my dad had purchased for our relocation from Andover, MA to Mexico City, Mexico in 1958: an Iceberg White over Arctic Turquoise Plymouth Sport Suburban.
This car is listed as a second owner, older restoration, capable of 800-mile trips with no problem. I should hope so. For five years our Sport Suburban was our annual means of getting from Mexico City to Massachusetts and Illinois on our annual home leave. In pre-interstate days my parents would routinely drive 600 or more miles a day. The Sonoran desert isn’t a place you want to linger.
Biiig Car
Whereas the non-station wagon Plymouths in ‘58 rode on 118” wheelbases, the station wagons were a whopping 122”. Great long distance cruisers, but not exactly “sporty.”
On our car the rear tailgate window could be controlled from the driver’s seat, from the rear seat, and by key from the tailgate. Nicely thought out.
The penalty box
The third row seat was used occasionally by us kids, but more often than not, my fellow little league teammates and I would share the rear end of the wagon with our baseball equipment with the rear seat folded flat. My dad was the team manager. It was a great platform from which to flip off following drivers. I’m not sure if my dad understood why some of the passing drivers were so pissed off. As a dad doing soccer mom service I learned from some of my son’s teammates that girls had “baginas,” whatever those were. They must have thought that I was deaf.
On our long home leave trips, I would often hole up in the back with the luggage and read Zane Grey or other mind candy.
The cockpit
This was pretty much the way our car looked, with power steering (the first car my dad had with this option), the push button TorqueFlite, AM radio and heater. That was about it as far as options went.
The lusty Golden Commando
My dad’s car came with the 2 bbl 318 rated at 225 hp. I saw it nudge the 100 mph mark on more than one occasion in northern Mexico. My 1960 Plymouth with the same engine and transmission was good for an indicated 104 mph. A friend’s dad’s 1958 Belvedere 2 dr hardtop had the Super-Pak 318 with a 4 bbl carb and 250 horses. I was envious.
The engine in the Russo & Steele car is the 305 hp Golden Commando 350 with dual quads. Ethyl Corp’s “Brief Passenger Car Data” for 1958 indicates that this engine was capable of 315 hp with fuel injection, as does the Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980. I don’t recall Plymouth, or the Chrysler Corp, ever having offered fuel injection in this era. Any thoughts?
When heaters were still options
Just found this. Although the total price for the Sport Suburban was $3700, you can bet my dad, a real horse trader, didn’t pay that much. The used car allowance was for my dad’s 1956 Olds 88 two-door sedan, probably with close to 60k on the clock. I can’t believe a dealer would pay that much for a car with so many miles. In ’58, 60k was an awful lot of miles. My dad, as a salesman for Socony Mobil in the northeast, put about 30k a year on his cars which is why we generally got a new one every year.
Depends upon your definition of “for keeps”
Our family owned the Sport Suburban from 1958 until 1961. It made the annual Mexico City to Illinois trip each of those three years. On the last trip in 1961, it blew its engine in Nevada, MO due to a blown head gasket. The first thing my dad always did when we spent our first night in Texas was to get and oil change, a radiator flush, and fresh antifreeze, of course, at a Mobil service station. The head gasket would have been fine but the flush cleared out a corroded channel in one of the head gaskets, permitting antifreeze to seep into one of the cylinders. Antifreeze is not a very good lubricant.
We limped on to Aledo, IL after my uncle replaced the head gasket at a Chevy dealer in Nevada. I later got to help him tear down the engine. Mein gott! Do you know what high ash content oil does to an engine? It took a half hour to just to scrape the gunk out of the valley beneath the intake manifold and another several hours to wire brush the crap off the intake valves. The Plymouth made it back to Mexico without incident where it was replaced by a new ’62 Mercedes 190 with a rolled and pleated leather interior. That car was a game changer. Who knew you could have a great riding car with terrific handling? End of story.
Kevin, Chrysler briefly offered the Bendix Electrojector EFI system briefly in 1958 in 2 Plymouth Furys’, 12 Dodge D-500s’, 5 Desoto Adventurers’, and 16 Chrysler 300-Ds’. Unfortunately, it was quite unreliable and was replaced with a carb in all but 1 car, a 1958 Desoto Adventurer Convertible. A story on the car can be found here:
http://www.allpar.com/cars/desoto/electrojector.html
Yes they did, complete with vacuum tubes in the control box!
Actually, it looks like the Electrojector was replaced on every single car originally equipped with it. The one-of-one car that was returned to it’s original state (and runs) was due to the Adventurer’s owner being able to locate an original EFI system removed from a car in 1958 (maybe from his car) that a retired Chrysler field rep had hung onto and kept in a box for decades.
It’s a fascinating story, rivaling that of another factory engineering experiment where but a solitary running example still exists, that being the Chrysler Turbine Car.
Are you sure about there being only one functioning Chrysler Turbine Car?
The reason I ask is because I recently read there were at least four, two of which are privately owned by Frank Kleptz and Jay Leno.
There are multiple operational Chrysler Tubines. One is in St. Louis.
Yeah, sounds like there’s more than one running Turbine Car:
From what I can gather (Wikipedia), of the original nine that weren’t destroyed, three were kept by Chrysler in running condition, with the other six being deactivated and given to museums otherwise intact. Of those six, two of them have been (evidently) put back into operation. So that makes five Turbine Cars that can be driven.
Leno has one of the three Chrysler museum cars, and Kleptz has the one that was originally in the Harrah’s museum, presumably not running when they got it. The last deactivated car that seems to now be running is the one in St. Louis.
And with modern electronics components, it seems to run pretty well, too.
Since this comment there are now 2 Mopars from that era with EFI. I believe Jay Leno found a Chrysler 300-D that originally had it. He has since restored the system on that car.
Of course I can’t find it online now, but I remember at some point coming across an old B&W photo of a ’58 Fury with the (awesome) Fuel-Injection badge. There may have been only two built with it, or there may have been a few more. Production records from back then aren’t always that accurate, but it was definitely a very small number. AFAIK, the EFI setup was only available for a few weeks before they all got recalled. In theory, the car shown here could have been ordered with the Electrojector setup for a brief moment, but none of them actually were. Tom White’s story is incredible and his Adventurer originally cost more than $6,000 when new! Compare that to this Sport Suburban at $3,700, which is also a pretty schnazzy ride.
Thanks for another great read Kevin.The 58 Plymouths were nicer lookers than the opposition especially from GM that year.No one makes wagons like the Americans!
That was great! I can’t believe you have the receipt, amazing. That must have been quite the experience driving from Mexico City to MA in the 50’s. I wonder what the “safety package” consisted of.
That must have been quite the experience driving from Mexico City to MA in the 50′s.
If there are few enough people in the car, and you are small enough, it’s a snap. My Aunt, Mom and I made a couple road trips in my Aunt’s 61 Chevy wagon. No tail gunner seat in that wagon, but I had the back seat all to myself.
Instead of Zane Grey novels, I had a pile of comic books to read. The best feature was, back then, I wasn’t quite as tall as the back seat was wide. On at least one occasion, I was so quiet that Mom started to wonder if I had been left behind at the last stop. A look in the back revealed that I was stretched out on the seat, sound asleep.
What an awesome old Plymouth! If the auction hasn’t happened yet, one could always get this Plymouth to keep miles off the Subaru.
Nevada, Missouri, would be a horrible place to break down. It’s a lot like Mexico – don’t drink the water. It’s sulfur content is comparable to that of diesel fuel from 10 years ago.
A beautiful wagon that brings back memories for me.
Our family had a 58 Suburban 9 passenger wagon like this one in 1967.
It had the 3 speed Torquefite ,but was powered by the standard wide block 318.
Our Plymouth left the factory with an orangish-red type color, but at some point received a decent metallic brown repaint that didn’t look at all out of place on the wagon.
I notice that the bill of sale lists this wagon as having a Powerflite transmission, but the interior picture shows a Torqueflite?
I remember intently reading its owners manual , and answering a question my Dad had about the occasional flickering of the Plymouths oil pressure light at idle
(turns out it was normal).
Unfortunately, as was the case with many of my family’s 10 year old vehicles, Minnesota winters with its road salt was its undoing.
This Plymouth was rusting so badly that the drivers seat actually started dropping due to the floor pans rusting away.
A common occurrence on the early Forward Look cars I am told
Dad pop riveted in sheet metal to get another years worth of use out of the Plymouth , but then sent it on its way.
Great story. 2 questions about the car: like Imperialman, I saw that the order form showed the 2 speed Powerflite as the automatic. Do you recall if your car had 4 buttons or 5? Second, I would figure that if anyone would rate air conditioning then, it would be an oil company exec going to Mexico. Oh, and best color combo ever.
I once owned a 59 Fury sedan with the same engine and the Torqeflite. It was a marvelous road car with a smooth ride, good handling and plenty of power. I do not doubt your memories of top speed at all. That was the car that simply ruined my ability to suffer pre1965 Chevrolets.
That underhood shot reminds me how I hated that power brake booster that sat right on top of the master cylinder. A class A bitch to check or add brake fluid (especially in a car with a leaky wheel cylinder).
Oops my brain isn’t working well this morning.
“I notice that the bill of sale lists this wagon as having a Powerflite transmission, but the interior picture shows a Torqueflite?”
The bill of sale isn’t for this particular wagon…….
Thanks for this… We had the plainest Suburban in Red… Back doors would always stick, was sold off for $100 in 1961, when Dad bought a slightly used 2 door American.
That’s one cool station wagon. ’57 and ’58 Plymouths were such good-looking cars. I’m guessing that you’re not too tempted to bid on it, though. It would bring back memories of driving through Mexico with no air conditioning.
Using inflation adjusted dollars, the AM radio in this cost $665.00.
Wow. The Radio/CD/MP3/etc Sony deck I put in my Cherokee was $140 in 2010 dollars.
Sure but, good luck getting FM, CD’s or MP3’s in 1958. AM Radios then could pull in a station well over 100 miles away. Important for long trips.
I really enjoyed this piece. Thanks for sharing Kevin!
I love the Forward Look cars, and the station wagons were just so grand-looking. Great styling, and a great color.
That’s a pretty drastic transition from a lightly-optioned Plymouth Sport Suburban to a Mercedes 190. Probably a huge head-turner back in ’62, when Mercedes-Benzes weren’t all that common. I guess Mobil was good to your father.
Great story. The car up for auction even has power windows (see the 4th picture). This has to be nearly the most expensive Plymouth to go out the door in ’58. Your dad’s car was up there as well. A top shelf Plymouth wagon with some options was like buying an SUV today vs. a sedan.
The ’58 Mopars really were nice cars. Some minor tweaks over the ’57 cars generally improved their appearance, and I understand they did quite a bit to improve the quality over the ’57s. As Gem Whitman noted, they were also better looking than most stuff from Ford and GM that year. Too bad the ’58 recession and the ’57 quality reputation cut into the ’58 production like it did.
I was going to say the same thing that the bill of sale example shown for the Plymouth was, by ’58 standards, kind of expensive. Of course, of the “low priced three,” Plymouth had the advantage in wagons because all the Chrysler Corporation wagons then shared a common 122″ wheelbase. Essentially, you were getting Town and Country size for a lower price. Not sure about ’58 advertising, but the ’57’s played this up to the max.
One tweak for ’58 I didn’t like were the tailights. The ’57 had a long, vertical lens, with a round reverse lamp below. The ’58 tailight has the same frame, but it looks likes somethings missing.
In 1960 Dad bought a ’57 Belvedere 4 dr hardtop, 3 speed torqueflight, power steering and brakes. 301 ci V-8. Don’t think the 318 came in the non-Fury models until 1958. In three years the car practically disintegrated. Door handles broke, locks wouldn’t work, various parts fell off regularly. Engine rebuild at 60K. Amazing how poor the build quality was. The only thing not troublesome was the excellent torqueflight. Dad blamed it on being a used car and never bought used again. Traded in on a ’63 Olds 88, a much better car.
FWIW, the original Wagon Queen Family Truckster was, indeed, a ’58 Plymouth Sport Suburban Six.
Here’s the ‘Vacation ’58’ short story by John Hughes upon which the National Lampoon’s Vacation movie was based upon:
http://www.bizbag.com/Vacation/Vacation%2058.htm
As Editor, I just took a stab at that headline. Dumb luck!
Thanks for posting the link to the original 1950’s Vacation story….I found it an entertaining read although it seems a wise decision that some of the plotlines were altered for the Chevy Chase film….
The short story version has Clark robbing a motel by stealing cash while the movie version has him swapping a check into the drawer for the money……and the finale was more grim in the short story with Clark shooting Walt Disney and ending up in jail while the family flies home……while in the Chevy Chase movie, Clark buys a toy gun and forces a security guard to allow them on the rides but all turns out happily in the end in the movie version.
OK, I’ll take care of the various comments in a single shot.
The invoice states that it was a PowerFlite transmission but I think that was a typo. I remember the 1, 2 and D button.
Mexico City’s altitude is about 7500 feet (2286 m). The year round temperature is fairly steady and for those of us from the north it is the equivalent to springtime the entire year. We took our home leave in December and January, the two months when school was out. At that time the Sonoran desert could be downright chilly. Air conditioning wasn’t needed.
What did the safety package consist of? Good question. It probably was the padded dash which only covered the right two-thirds of the dash. I asked the salesman why there wasn’t any padding in front of the driver and his response was “if you get past the steering wheel the padding probably won’t do you much good”.
The president of Mexico’s brother had something to do with the importation of Mercedes Benzes so a 190 was about the same cost of a Chevy Biscayne, even with the leather interior. This pissed of my dad’s boss who felt that he had pulled an end around, which he had, and refused to pay for the leather.
The water in Nevada, MO probably was no worse that that in Aledo. Super high sulphur content with a rank smell to go with it. Something you get used to.
Mobil treated its employees very well. Life was good.
My Grandfather had a 59 Plymouth in the same colors, but a Savoy sedan with a flathead six and three on the tree.
Tinworm got to it in record time and it was replaced with a 66 Belvedere
I saw the car at R-S and spoke with the seller. It was, to me, the most interesting car I saw at this auction. There was also an ivory and gold ’58 Plymouth Fury two door hardtop but the wagon was the nicer car. It was in excellent condition and the seller told me he had owned the car for something like 24 or 28 years. He was very proud of the car and very pleased to discuss the car with someone who obviously liked wagons and knew a bit about ’50s Mopars.
My mom drove, for about two or three years, a ’55 Plymouth Suburban two door wagon in blue and white; it was also replaced by a Mercedes sedan. That car was a black 220S that my dad imported directly from Germany back when the US dollar was very strong and the D-Mark was cheap.
What did the car sell for? I tried to find it on the R&S website but to no avail. R&S isn’t quite as evolved as Barrett-Jackson when it comes to online info.
“I don’t recall Plymouth, or the Chrysler Corp, ever having offered fuel injection in this era. Any thoughts?”
Chrysler did, indeed, offer Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) in 1958. It was called ‘Electrojector’ and was developed by Bendix for the new 1957 AMC Rambler Rebel. Although no production ’57 Rebels were installed with it, it was technically the first EFI system offered by a domestic company.
The following year, Chrysler did install it as an option on highline Chrysler products. It’s unknown how many cars were sold with Electrojector fuel injection (a Desoto plant manager where the systems were installed claims a total of 54 units were built). Most of the EFI units went into the Chrysler 300D, where records show sixteen were built.
But the problems still hadn’t been sorted out well enough and most of the EFI systems were quickly retrofitted with carburetors, making a 1958 Chrysler product still with its original EFI system quite rare.
Here’s an engine compartment photo of the only known 1958 Desoto Adventurer convertible to still have its original Electrojector system intact:
Nice car but sport nah its more of a bus.
I bet the dealer who paid that much for a 60k car gave it a haircut before selling it.
Haircut? You mean rolled back the odometer?
Yep nice clean car make the mileage suit the condition, locally known as a haircut
I’m pretty sure this was more or less standard procedure until digital odometers became prevalent. I still see older cars with 5-digit odometers advertised all the time as if they really have “ONLY 9K MILES SINCE NEW!!” (aka clearly 109k or 209k plus/minus whatever the used car dealer did to it 20+ years ago).
Rolling back a digital odometer is easy with the right gizmo, so odometer fraud is still common. This video shows how, skip to 2:20 to see it done.
Hahaha! Guy I used to carpool with when living up in Solano County, California did that to his ’86 Ford Tempo. He just simply disconnected it and drove it that way for about a year and a half then reconnected it before trading it in for something else. He kept it real clean and well maintained. I was living in Suisun City at the time and would drive to his house in Hercules (Contra Costa County), park there and we’d continue onto Alameda. I’m guesstimating he ‘shaved’ off about 18-20K miles leaving his odometer disconnected for that year and a half.
Common thing in New zealand on diesel cars where the fuel tax is mileage based on a prepay system, speedos only work at inspection time.
Halarious kiwibryce. Myself and a friend did a similar trick on a ‘driveaway’ car we were contracted to take from New York to San Francisco. We had a pre-determined set mileage to get us across America, so in order to do some rapid side trips involving many extra miles, we disconnected the speedo cable at the turning points.
Weirdly, the brakes were much safer after doing this. The engine would normally rev under braking but this disappeared upon disabling the speedo. An emission control adaptation for Californian laws perhaps?
And as another aside, a few years later as a 16 year old with a drivers permit, I had the opportunity to log a bit of driving time behind the wheel of Dads current wagon at the time a 60 Plymouth .
Point being it ,like the featured 58 had the dash mounted rear view mirror.
Already being 6’2 in height the placement of that mirror was perfect for me!
A fantastic line of sight in the mirror,and over the top of the mirror, when looking thru the windshield.
All review mirrors should be dash mounted, safety be dammed!
My experience with my 59 was the opposite. With the low mount of the mirror, anyone sitting in one of the middle seats would completely block my field of view. And I am fairly average at 5-11.
Same experince here JP. Visibility to the back almost zero with people in the back seat.
But, it was little quirks like this that differentiated the manufactuters back then. This and the push button transmission for Chrysler products, the key on the left of the dash for Ford, foot starter for Buick, and the removable key for Chevrolet. I’m sure they’re others as well. Now its instant copy cat and standardization.
Didn’t the early ’50’s Chevy Belair hardtops also have the dash mounted mirror?
Like Imperialman, I also drove my mom’s 1960 Plymouth wagon while I had my learner’s permit.
That dash-mounted rear-view mirror was fine for taller folks, but not for shorter people. My dad, at 5’9″, and I, at 5’11”, thought it was great. My mom, at 5’4″, frequently complained that it was right in her line of sight, and she always drove the car while seated on a thin cushion to overcome the problem.
My parents had one of these – it was the car I was brought home from the hospital in. I am not sure what engine it had but I know ours had air conditioning, power steering, power brakes an automatic transmission.
Very similar to your family Kevin, my family took an annual trip. We traveled from Beaumont, TX to my parents’ hometowns in Iowa and Nebraska. I don’t know how they did this with 5 kids before the interstate system.
I would bet that my parents at some time met yours. Our fathers both worked for the same employer and we lived in neighboring towns in CT.
For all the experiences I’ve had with 1957 and 1958 Plymouths not one of them was a station wagon. The owner of the garage where I tended to hang out bought a fleet of 1957 wagons from some sort of wholesaler in Tacoma who had used them for delivery cars. They were about as unlike this lovely Sport Suburban as could be – gray six-cylinder three-speed cars with little hubcaps and no radios, and I don’t think any other options either. I think all three or four of them ended up being scrapped.
Here’s a shot of my family’s display at the 1958 McKeesport, PA Auto Show. The Plymouth on the left is a Sport Suburban. My dad, who was working there at the time, picked three all white cars to show against a red carpet – the wagon, an Imperial LeBaron, and a New Yorker convertible. Really stood out against all the two and three tones in the background. Incidentally, the ’58 Fury poking in from the right wasn’t from our dealership, Standard Auto – it was from Galen & Jones, the local DeSoto-Plymouth franchise located 2 blocks away! Bonus shot of the LeBaron included.
“What did the car sell for?”
Kevin – I do not know. I did not stay around long enough. Maybe it did not sell because, as I indicated, the owner was very proud – and rightly so. I saw the car and spoke with the seller at about 11am on Thursday – well prior to any cars being auctioned.
The R-S was not just one step down from B-J but rather many steps down. The location was dusty and muddy at the same time. It was very poorly designed for traffic and pedestrians. The site is primitive and the planning was amateurish. The event was crude compared to the crass but well run B-J. I will never again go to the R-S auction in Scottsdale and but for seeing a few cars that interested me it was a waste of time and money. The condition and authenticity of at least 50% of the cars was so repulsive that for those I just walked directly away without stopping. The Plymouth wagon was one of the only 5% or so of the cars I considered excellent at the event.
I like the facelifted front of the ’58 Plymouth compared to the ’57, with the harmonized upper and lower grilles and the quad headlights (although the tiny triangular turn signals between the headlights were probably not very visible when the headlights were on).
But the rear end facelift was contrived, putting the taillights where the backup lights were in ’57, and relegating the backup lights to the bumper (very vulnerable to damage in the wagon and only a single center-mounted lamp in other body styles).
My aunt bought a new ’57 Savoy 4-door sedan, white roof with the rest of the car red. It had the same dashboard as the ’58, and the seats were similar with black and white cloth and vinyl. The car had the ancient flathead six and an automatic, probably the Powerflite. I remember the push buttons on the left side of the dash. The car also had an AM radio with optional single rear speaker!
I was too young to remember the details, but the car was very troublesome (big surprise) to the point that my aunt swore off Chrysler for good and traded the Plymouth in on a new ’59 Chevy Bel Air “batwing” 4-door sedan.
Have to agree that where the ’58 Plymouth front end styling was an improvement over the ’57, the rear end treatment was just the opposite. The best car would a ’58 Plymouth front end combined with the ’57 rear.
It’s rather like the ’68 and ’69 Dodge Charger. The front end of the ’68 was great, but the rear end, not so much, whereas the ’69 had those terrific full width taillights, but took a step backward with the split grille.
I actually preferred the rear of the ’68 Charger. Here’s the view Steve McQueen had in Bullitt.
I’ll say it since no one else has…
Christine wagon!
Now that that’s out of the way, the ’58 Plymouth is such a great looking car, its easy to see why they command the prices they do today, the movie notwithstanding. The lines just flow so much more gracefully than the 1958 Chevys and Fords. Everything about the car just looks GOOD.
Yes the ’58 was a looker. This wagon must have been Christine’s more matronly sister 🙂
This is very similar to the stationwagon we had when I was young – but it’s confusing because although I distinctly remember it as a 1959 Dodge, I’ve had trouble finding a combination of front and back end which matched it.
I suspect it was a “Plodge” – a combination of Plymouth and Dodge elements for the Canadian market. Specifically, the back end was exactly as your example, but the front end looked like this.
The closest I’ve found online was this 1958 Dodge Suburban (most of the images are gone but Google can find them), although ours was a four-door – which makes me think that maybe ours was a 1958 instead, or maybe the Canadian market just didn’t get annual style changes.
Anyway, I always think of ours as the ultimate 1950s car: tailfins, pushbutton automatic (which I broke once, so my mother had to drive across the lawn and to the service station using only 2nd gear), and two-tone salmon-pink and metallic bronze. We got it sometime in the mid-1960s and it served well for five or six years before the engine got something terminal. It then sat for another couple of years behind the house before my father admitted he was never going to get around to fixing it, and it was towed away.
My dad’s first new car was a ’57 Bevedere; I remember that distinctive IP with the downturned face. The Del Sol had a similar shape, as does my 9-3.
My Kia Sedona’s IP is shaped very much like that of a 57-58 Plymouth. I wonder if I could rig a pushbutton setup from a new Lincoln MKZ to complete the concept. 🙂
Simply beautiful car ! .
-Nate
I’ve always liked Mopars of the 1950s and 1960s. I’d buy a 57 or 58 Plymouth if one were available in original running condition.
As a side note: The early 1957 Plymouths had 6 rather large vertical holes in the lower grille. Due to customer complaints about the large openings looking unattractive (as I understand), the design was changed so as to have a slender vertical bar in the center of each of the 6 holes.
The later (and most common) grille.
First car I remember that the family had was a 58 or 59 Plymouth wagon like this. We would sometimes tow both a small travel trailer and boat. People were impressed at the boat launch backing the boat into the water hooked to the back of the trailer. One time the boat became unhitched while driving but was quickly recovered and hooked back up without incident. Shortly afterwards the law was changed allowing double towing.
When we lived in Turkey during the 60s and 70s they used a lot of these late 50s Plymouths for taxis. They were 6 cyl. 3 on the tree. What surprised me was the sound of the starter motors, cranking slowly off a 6 volt battery. that were the same as the ones in early 50s Plymouths. I figured by the late 50s they’d be using 12 volts with a faster cranking starter.
My father brought a brand new 1958 Belvedere convertible. We went to Maloney Motors in Canton, OH looking for a used 1957. The used car salesman with a pencil line mustache asked what my father wanted to pay. This was like asking him if he still wore woman’s underwear. He finally stated “about $2800.” The salesman stated that he could have a new one for that. I think my father was in shock. No further bargaining. $2800 plus tax. Deal was done and car was ordered. White, white top, blue interior, 318 2BBl, PS PB Torqueflight, am radio and blackwalls. Trade-in didn’t matter much as it was a 1951 Dodge Diplomat 2 DR HT in no-sale green.
We had it four years. No problems. Since I washed it almost ever day during the Winter. No rust. (we had drains and hot/cold water in the garage for my convenience) I took my driver’s license test in that car. It was traded on a 1962 Catalina Convertible in Bamboo Cream with tan top.
I recall Car & Driver making one of their project cars, like the xke with the pontiac ohc 6 and the Penske style Camaro, of a Plymouth wagon, circa 1968.
Does that ring a bell for anyone ?
Yes, they used a 1965 Plymouth Fury wagon as a project car, which they dubbed “Boss Wagon.” It was replaced by “Boss Wagon II,” a 1968 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser.
This was my first car. Paid $15.00 for it. It belonged to a door to door salesman and all the valves were carboned open. Did a valve job and drove it all through my senior year of high school.