I ran across the listing for this black 1953 Chrysler Custom Imperial sedan due to an embarrassing error by the noted British auction house Bonhams, whose catalog had incorrectly listed this C-58 Imperial as the much bigger, much rarer C-59 Crown Imperial. Despite its misclassification, I found that this Custom Imperial had a few delightful features of its own, including Airtemp air conditioning (a rare and very expensive new option) and a lovely green broadcloth interior.
I don’t know the backstory of how Bonhams came to catalog this car as a Crown Imperial limousine rather than a Custom Imperial sedan, and the auction site offers only a terse correction at the bottom of the listing, which still otherwise describes the car (which sold for $44,000 back in 2017) as a Crown Imperial. I hope someone was duly mortified.
The difference between a Custom Imperial and Crown Imperial in 1953 amounted to an entire foot of wheelbase, over 4 inches in width, a number of significant mechanical differences (including completely different brakes and a different electrical system), nearly half a ton of shipping weight, and a stack of cash tall enough to buy a new Buick. In 1953, a C-59 Crown Imperial limousine started at a towering $7,044 (a relative worth of almost $127,000 in 2025 dollars), while you could have a Custom Imperial sedan for as little as $4,260. Production of the big C-59 cars totaled only 159 units for 1953, while the Custom Imperial accounted for a comparatively vast 7,793 sedans, plus 823 of the new Newport hardtop, added late in the year, and 243 Town Limousines based on the Custom Imperial sedan.
If you find yourself tempted to reflexively correct me for calling this a “Chrysler Imperial,” I’ll tell you right now that you’re wrong: It wasn’t until 1955 that Chrysler attempted to register Imperial as a separate marque. Nonetheless, it was still in a pretty lofty tax bracket. A Custom Imperial sedan was priced within $50 of the bigger, more powerful Cadillac 60 Special, while the Crown Imperial listed for over $1,000 MORE than the similarly sized Cadillac Series 75. The Imperial didn’t have the prestige of the Cadillac, but you couldn’t fault Chrysler for lack of ambition.
The Custom Imperial sedan was in many respects a dressed-up Chrysler New Yorker De Luxe with an 8-inch wheelbase stretch and some extra equipment, including electric windows and an electrically adjustable power seat; a heater still cost extra ($78.25). The Imperial had the 331-cid (5,433 cc) Chrysler FirePower V-8, with 180 hp, backed by the semiautomatic Fluid-Torque Drive (replaced late in the model year by the new two-speed PowerFlite automatic). Power brakes were standard, power steering was optional for $177.35, and you could add wire wheels for $290.25.
All that is very prosaic, and depending on your age and tastes, you may still be thinking, “I dunno, all these early ’50s cars look the same to me.” The exterior of the Custom Imperial is best described by process of elimination: It’s much bigger than a 1953 Chevrolet, not as toothy as a 1953 Buick, lacks the drooping chrome mustache of a 1953 Oldsmobile, and doesn’t have the Kermit the Frog stare of a 1953 Lincoln. Shrug.
However, what’s that behind the glossy black exterior and Solex tinted glass?
Look at that: a cheerful but eminently tasteful green-on-green interior. There are several distinct shades of green here, but they’re neatly coordinated, and I think very pleasing to the eye.
Cadillac copywriters would probably have come up with some more romanticized description of this interior combination (“Shillelagh cloth in Antique Shamrock Green” or something along those lines). The Chrysler data book simply calls it green broadcloth, which is descriptive, but lacks a certain poetry. The front seat does, however, have a fold-down center armrest and foam rubber padded cushions, luxury items at the time.
The Bonhams listing unfortunately doesn’t include a good shot of the Safety-Eye Instrument Panel, which is a fine piece. Here’s a closer view from a different 1953 Custom Imperial:
It’s not as Flash Gordon-ish as late ’50s Chrysler dashboards, but it’s attractive presented, save perhaps for the exposed screw above the crown emblem.
The black car has a Benrus Moparmatic 15-jewel steering wheel watch, a pricey optional accessory. The Moparmatic was self-winding and had a red resettable pointer that could be used to measure elapsed time. Curiously, this was installed in addition to the electric clock in the dashboard, standard on the Imperial.
As I mentioned, electric windows were standard on all 1953 Imperials, although the abundance of power accessories was starting to leave the 6-volt electrical system a little pressed. (Only the Crown Imperial had a 12-volt system in 1953.) Since the data book would probably have said if the pentagonal woodgrain panels into which the door pulls were set were real wood veneer, I assume they’re not, but they are tastefully integrated. I also love the biscuit-and-button pattern of the door trim.
The black car is not a limousine, although Chrysler did offer a Custom Imperial Town Limousine with a divider and electric partition lift. Nonetheless, back seat passengers in the regular sedan were hardly slighted, with a bolstered seat back offering assist handles and a robe cord as well as repeating the biscuit pattern of the door trim. (A robe cord was for holding lap robes — heavy blankets for the comfort of rear seat passengers in cars without heaters — they were an anachronism by this time, but some high-end luxury marques still offered them.) Cigarette lighters and ashtrays were provided in both rear doors, and there was a fold-down center armrest like the one in front.
A Custom Imperial feature that’s hard to see in the Bonhams photo is the rear foot hassocks, seen here in a different car. These were standard on the Custom Imperial; Crown Imperial rear passengers had folding footrests instead.
The black Custom Imperial also has Airtemp air conditioning, a new option for the Imperial late in 1953. I couldn’t find the original price for the air conditioning, but based on what Chrysler charged in 1954, it was probably around $600, a real luxury price tag in those days.
As Tom Halter has previously described, much of the equipment for the Airtemp system was mounted behind the rear seat. Chrysler claimed that this didn’t reduce usable passenger or luggage capacity — a very careful choice of words, since the system obviously took up some trunk space.
The Chrysler Airtemp system normally used fresh air, but there was a recirculation setting, although you had to open the trunk to access the switch. Chrysler claimed Airtemp A/C had “the highest cooling capacity ever engineered for passenger car use” and was capable of cooling the interior from 110°F to the 70s in just three minutes. The air conditioning ducts inside the car were aimed at the headliner rather than directly at passengers.
Big Chryslers handled reasonably well for cars of this size and vintage, although the extreme lightness of Chrysler Hydraguide “full time” power steering took getting used to. Brakes weren’t bad for the time either, although the 12-inch drums didn’t have the fade resistance of the Lambert-type discs in the Crown Imperial (which weren’t offered on the Custom Imperial).
Speed Age, testing a late 1953 Custom Imperial with the new PowerFlite transmission, recorded an two-way average top speed of 104.9 mph and 0 to 60 mph in 13.5 seconds in Drive, quite brisk for this era. They were able to trim 0.9 seconds off their 0 to 60 time by using Low to hold first gear for longer, but it’s hard to see most people driving a car like this that way. (Even without a divider window, the Imperial seems like a car to ride in rather than to drive, much less thrash.) Its weight also made it rather thirsty, and Speed Age averaged only 13.4 mpg on premium gas. With a 20-gallon fuel tank, that made for a modest cruising range, even in steady 45 mph highway driving.
Candidly, I like the inside of this car a lot better than I like the rather bland and anonymous exterior, which I don’t think was different enough from the much cheaper Windsor and New Yorker — Virgil Exner’s stylish 1955 Forward Look cars arrived none too soon. However, I like the minty-green interior an awful lot, and it adds a welcome touch of character to what could otherwise have been just another shiny black ’50s luxury sedan.
Related Reading
Cold Comfort: 1953 Chrysler Airtemp Air Conditioning (by Tom Halter)
Curbside Classic: 1953 Chrysler Imperial – Easing Back into the Luxury Game (by J P Cavanaugh)
Automotive History: The Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaetons – The Royal Treatment (by J P Cavanaugh)
Chrysler’s Unusual 1949–1955 Four-Wheel Disc Brakes: A Very Different Kind of Disc (by me)
I have to agree that the interior of this car is just gorgeous. And the instrument cluster is almost a precursor of the AstraDome that would come later.
In that shot of the AC unit, that rear bumper looks as though it would have complied with the 5-MPH requirements mandated two decades later.
This thing looks brand new, which is amazing for a 72 year old car. Impressive.
I remember looking at the terribly worn interior of the 53 I wrote up years ago, imagining how beautiful it must have been when it was new. Now I no longer have to imagine!
The names “Imperial” and “Crown” have been confusing. The “Crown Imperial” was a great name. But a few years later, the base car was an “Imperial Crown”, a name that never really sounded right. I think people often called those later cars “Crown Imperial” anyway.
Around 40 years ago a 53 Desoto Sedan Lived by my then-girlfriend and now_wife’s door. It was metallic green with black interior, and as most Mopars, wasn’t all that different from this imperial. It also had tinted windows….and AC.
I recall a specially built 54 🤔 Chrysler, I believe an Imperial, built for Queen Elizabeth’s visit. It was called, The CORONATION, in royal purple and white, with an elaborate matching interior. That was a truly INCOMPARABLE Imperial. Anyone know if and where it survives.
1953 Coronation Imperial, based on the limousine version of this Custom Imperial sedan. I don’t think it was ever actually presented to her. No idea if it survives, I think probably not.
So that’s where “Plum Crazy” came from… I get it now. 😉
Standard electric windows and seats but power steering is optional? Well,I guess some owners were still leery of the lack of road feel of power steering, especially Chrysler’s.
Great interior and IP, but yes, that exposed screw would not likely have even on a Cadillac.
As a kid, I could appreciate these big Chryslers of this time, but the big letdown was their styling; they just looked too much like a bigger Plymouth. The really should have had a different greenhouse or something to make them look more distinctive.
I have owned one since 1977. It has the same green interior, but the paint is a dark green. It has around 65K miles, and is about 95% original.
A few comments:
With the rare two speed automatic transmission, acceleration is not not great, but it keeps gaining momentum, like a freight train.
By ’50s standards, fairly easy to drive. Visibility is quite good, with the Clearbac rear window. I learned to drive on 40s-50s luxobarges (49 Cadillac, 50 Packard), so no big deal here.
Power steering feel is minimal. If a fly landed on the steering wheel, it probably would move.
Chrysler still had strong build quality, choice of materials, etc, as late as ’53. Of course, this changed in ’57. Next time you are at a car show, take a look at any early postwar, low mile Chrysler product survivor, including Plymouth. You will see what I mean.
Interior quality (and room) surpasses Cadillac and Lincoln.
Korean War chrome means casting plating iffy in places, like the grille. Hood ornament eagle still looks good. There is a lot of stainless for the side trim, so it looks fine.
Wide white radials. Helps handling and steering a bit.
Virgil Exner did what he could re styling. It certainly is an improvement over the ’52s. The squared off trunk helps, and also the one piece windshield.
That steering wheel mounted clock is a rare option, in the featured black Imperial here.
Design language similar to Packard Patrician, Buick and Olds C body.
What was the market for these cars? Old, conservative money, someone who also would consider a Packard.
What a stunning car. Love the interior color and it really makes me feel sad at how we are offered so little in the form of interior colors any more. There’s a lot to like about that entire car, but that clock on the steering wheel hub is my favorite.
In your writeup you state the Crown Imperial was not only a foot longer, but 4 inches wider. I don’t see it in the photos I called up. Now extending the wheelbase is relatively easy. However widening it almost means a whole new car! Different bumpers, grille, hood, doing God knows what to the chassis, new instrument panel. Obviously you need a new roof anyway for the limo, and the crown limo trunk seems different in the pictures. This could explain why it cost approximately $18k more in 2025 money than the Fleetwood 75, but could you verify this?
I forgot that heaters were optional until the 60s on some cars. There used to be a used car pitchman on TV in the 60s who would show a car bragging that it had “radio, heater, and WHITEwalls
Nope, because it wasn’t widened through the front end. The Crown Imperial had a wider rear axle and wider rear fenders to accommodate it, allowing the rear seat to be set farther back in the body (the wheelbase was stretched a foot, but the increase in overall length was only about 10 inches) without the rear wheel arches encroaching too much on seat room. The rear tread width was increased from 60.375 to 66 inches and overall width increased 4.375 inches, which was all in the back; front tread width increased only 0.6875 inches, I think mostly because the Crown Imperial had wider wheels.
This photo shows the rear of this car compared to a 1954 Crown Imperial. They aren’t to scale, but look at the relationship of the body to the rear fenders of each car, which makes it clearer what they did with the Crown Limousine — notice how the Crown Imperial fenders stick out farther from the body sides.
The photos reminded me how older Chrysler power steering units were driven off the back of the generator rather than having their own belt. The length of the generator combined with the power steering pump could be challenging to work around when you needed to access the driver side valve bank for things like spark plug changes or gasket leaks. At least the 1st gen hemis had hydraulic lifters.
What a beautiful car! I like it a lot more than future Imperials, which kind of went too far with Bulgemobile styling. The interior of the featured car is simply gorgeous. However, at that price, it is no surprise so few were built.
Aaron, just want to say, thank you, your articles are always a pleasure to read, very well researched and engagingly written, there’s always a gem or two of otherwise forgotten or lost knowledge. Thanks again. On another note, how awesome are steering wheels with a boss that doesn’t rotate with the rest of the wheel, that clock mounted on the steering wheel boss is magic.
How much longer is it then a “53, Plymouth”? The tinted windows probably add to the “cheerful green”, interior.Quite a remarkable, time capsule.
A 1953 Plymouth was 189.125 inches long on a 114-inch wheelbase, so the Custom Imperial was 29.875 inches longer — just about two and a half feet, in round figures.
What an elegant, classy interior, and the green color enhances the effect.
The “other” ‘53 Imperial featured in your excellent article (via Bring a Trailer) was mine, until recently. Early production with Fluid Torque (which I wanted) prior to the two-speed fully automatic transmission. High quality everything. I kept bias-ply tires for originality. The car was extremely comfortable to drive, and seating is high by today’s standard. Beautiful, beautiful. I list my butt when it sold, but very happy to have had it. A real diamond.
Simply beautiful .
-Nate