It’s a great idea to have a way to feature cool cars we have found for sale on the internet. I came across this very rare 1953 Allstate Series 4 Coupe the other day and this is the perfect way to share my find.
You couldn’t exactly purchase this car through the Sears Catalog. But they were sold in Sears stores in certain geographical areas. Sears wanted to get their foot wet retailing cars, but the experiment didn’t end well. The full CC story on it is here.
What is surprising is finding one of these in this condition. The ad says only 200 of this trim level were built. They were a less expensive version of the Kaiser “Henry J” two door sedan that débuted in 1950. These must have been one of the least expensive new cars of the day. The entry-level Series 4 Standard Model 210 sold for $1,528 which works out to be $14,009 in today’s dollars.
It got me thinking about what you get for the same money in an entry level new car today. I picked the Chevy Spark because like Sears in the fifties, there is a Chevy dealer close by no matter where you live in most of America. And the price of the base model $13,875 is actually just slightly less expensive than the Allstate would be today. It’s amazing how much more we get for the money today.
The dealer is asking $16,500 for this one. I have no idea what the market for early fifties economy cars is like these days, but that price seems reasonable to me. The ad is here if you would like to see it. The website always has an interesting selection of vintage cars for sale.
I’d much rather have the Allstate than the Spark. Just me though.
Ditto. Same for most of us here, I suspect. 🙂
Not me. I’ll take the Spark, thank you very much. If I’m acquiring a car from the 1950s – which is unlikely, anyway – it’d have to be something a bit more “special” than this Allstate. Rare/obscure isn’t good enough…
Oh, I’d definitely love to end up with the Allstate. Or a Henry J for that matter. If it’s in original, or restored to original, condition.
Over the past couple of decades, I’ve seen maybe five of these cars in the metal. And every one of them was hot-rodded with a small block Chevy or other engine in it. All that was left original was the body itself.
While, as you well know, I find this sort of thing incredibly annoying (second only to broughams), in each case the car was a, at best, rolling basket case. Most of them were minus engines and interiors. Which, in my eyes, is the closest justification you’ll get to taking an antique car and putting it thru this treatment.
I’ve never seen an Allstate in the metal, much less one in this restored condition.
Same here. Nobody needs one airbag, let alone 10…
Can I quote you on that?
I just love this kind of comment, because on my daily travels, I NEVER see ANYBODY driving a 50’s car. Anybody can, all one needs to do is buy one, fix it up and drive it. It would probably cost less than a new Spark.
I have always been a “talk is cheap” kind of person. If 50’s cars make such wonderful daily drivers, why don’t I see them being used as such? I certainly hear plenty of old guys singing their praises.
Which make the comments about their “safety” rather moot.
1952 Ford truck- still 6 volts
I like the compare and contrast between the Allstate and the Spark. Both are the low price model from a dealer network that was nationwide and rather ubiquitous in America. Both are small cars, albeit the Spark is smaller overall. However, the biggest difference is in standard safety and conveniences on the Spark. Safety items are, for the most part, mandated by government standards, but the whole infotainment system probably adds a few thousand to the cost of the car. Remove those, insert a radio, and the Spark would probably run closer to $13K flat, but it would still have more comfort and conveniences than the rebadged Henry J ever could, plus better mileage and reliability. Hey, I love old cars, thus I am on this site, but we lose track of how good modern cars are compared to ones from 60 or more years ago. The better comparison would be to a modern eastern european car like a Dacia, or perhaps something from China like a Chery. Without the import taxes, they would have closer safety and convenience to the Allstate, and would be closer to $10k if they sold in the USA. And, with Sears not always having a service department, a smaller dealer network would be a better comparison for ease of service.
Exactly. 10 airbags! In one of the cheapest cars in America! We have it good…
And for those who say, “Ah but the Spark has no character”, I bet they’d change their tune taking one for a drive.
We have C$10k cars here in Canada-the Spark and the Micra.
They don’t sell well.
I’d love a Micra S 5 speed. 2302 pounds, 109 horsepower
The Note only offers an unreliable CVT that sucks away all the sport and weighs 2460 pounds.
Well, my 2015 Kia Rio weighs 2300 lbs and has 137 hp.
Here was the problem with the Allstate, the Henry J and all the rest of these early 50s compacts. Here is a 4 cylinder car, a small car that everyone considered cheap. It cost $1528.
The Studebaker Champion Custom (lowest level) came with a small 6 and would seat 6 people. It was still very economical and smaller than most other cars (it only weighed 2665 pounds), and cost $1574. A larger, nicer Chevy 210 Club Coupe was $1581 (prices according to the Classic Car Database). The Allstate was not a smart savings.
And the Chevy dealer took trades, had a service department, etc.
Nobody buys a cheap new car unless they want to. Back in the 50s, there were fewer used cars in the market, mostly postwar models, so new was more standard than an option. Some folks had to go cheap, and it was more the fashion of the day. You raise good points, but in that vein, a slightly higher MSRP will get you into a larger car than the Spark. No, it won’t have a 6, and it maaaaay seat 6 (if they really love each other). That is why smaller cars are a hard sell. If you are counting pennies and want something bigger, it usually then makes buying a used, but larger car the option. People who buy new small cars usually want that small model for whatever reason, but when cost is the driving factor, a used car will win every time.
The Allstate, like the Henry J, was the car of cars for skinflints: cheap to buy, cheap to operate. It had a downside: poor resale value. A July 1955 NADA Used Car Guide list average as is trade-in value for a ’53 Allstate Series 4 as $350, only $435 retail. Even the Henry J 4 cylinder was $380 as is, $475 retail. Allstate buyers had one options: drive the cussed thing until the wheels fell off! It wasn’t a car most self-respecting people were happy to be seen in, shouted “I’m cheap (or poor)” to all and sundry. Buyers with the $1,500 were better served buying themselves a good used Big Three or Rambler or Studebaker six cylinder two door and calling it a day.
It went from $1528 to $450 (70% depreciation) in two years?? I thought modern cars depreciated badly!
I was going to chime in to say something similar, $1528 wasn’t all that inexpensive against other manufacturers. Maybe the 4 banger would be more economical to operate, but I have to imagine that the small sixes from Studebaker and Rambler would be really close in operating costs to the four.
Neat car, though. You rarely see them stock. Up until 20 years ago, I had never seen one in stock condition, all of them were drag racers.
I meant to say, I’ve never seen the Henry J version of this car in stock form until recently. I don’t recall ever seeing an Allstate, ever…
To see an Allstate or Henry J in the metal, attend a Kaiser-Frazer Owners Club (KFOC) meet. Usually at least two or three Henry J’s show up, take time to meet and talk with the owners…..they fit a certain personality profile.
Regarding depreciation, recall that by mid-1955 Kaiser and their various models were done in the retail car market, that failure caused resale values to plummet. This was true for any orphan make; for the bargain hunter, many good used orphans went for give-away prices. Consequences for the cars themselves weren’t great: bought cheaply, run into the ground, junked when any costly repair arose.
The Henry J/Allstate 134 c.i. four cylinder was the Willys Go-Devil L-head well known in the CJ Jeep. Durability wasn’t a problem, though an overdrive would definitely help, otherwise probably Studebaker or Rambler six would do as well on mpg.
They should have sold it for $1,499. That missing $29 would have been a great incentive to get people into the store, like the $1,999 Maverick.
You have hit upon the primary reason why the great independents all went out of business. They could not hope to match the Big 3 in economies of scale.
Nice little car, but those whitewalls have
got to go!
You’re absolutely right, they’re very jarring.
Not to someone born in 1953! To me, they help dress up a very bottom-spec car.
One more for whitewalls!
I check Coker ads all the time, but they really don’t have range of WW’s that is often presumed.
And, gotta love those little finlets. I got a charge out of those, even as a kid in ’50’s.
Este automóvil pudo haber sido tranquilamente el equivalente al Volkswagen escarabajo de los norteamericanos tiene un look y una prestación muy únicos un diseño en confundido lo siento mucho los Estados Unidos de América se perdieron una gran oportunidad para tener su primer auto global tiene el tamaño justo y necesario
The companion Kaiser Henry J was very popular with drag racers, I’ve often wondered why? Does anyone know the specific reason why?
Here’s one I’ve photographed recently. More photos can be found here.
http://automotivetraveler.fotki.com/1951-kaiser-henry-j/?view=roll
It’s light and had a pretty short wheelbase, but longer than an Anglia.
Light and cheap and enough room to shoehorn in a V8.
The short wheelbase was a key factor, as it substantially improved weight transfer to the rear wheels under acceleration. It’s why all the cars in this class (gassers, etc.) were the shortest wb possible. The Willys, Ford Anglias, Bantams, and other short cars were the ones to use. Also explains the special factory drag cars like the Dodge Ramcharher with its forward located axle.
Light weight considering what was available at the time, extremely cheap, and easier to “build” than other 50s compacts like Ramblers since they used a conventional frame with plentiful space for V8s and headers. They were likely the newest equivalent of a 1920-1930s based hot rod there was.
Looks like this car might outlive Sears itself.
Sears is defunct in Canada. They are liquidating as we speak. I worked for this company from 1991-2009 and I’m not surprised they are going out of business.
I worked for Sears from 2008-2009 in the Chicago tech office. Really sad- they hired some great people, but the boneheads at the main campus out in the burbs screwed up things at every turn. We had a prototype iPhone-controlled garage door opener back then, but it never got produced–and as far as I know a similar product didn’t hit the market until 2012.
Meanwhile, the downtown Sears store that was under my office closed a few years back and is now a Chicago Public Schools building, and the childhood Sears store that I would go to all the time with my mother and grandparents just closed earlier this year. Considering that this city was literally the home of the Sears Tower, the fact that they now only have one store left in the city is quite damning.
It’s sad, at least to me, but as you said, it’s certainly not surprising.
What happened to my comment? Sears is a joke. NOBODY goes there anymore!
Yeah, millennials killed it.
That’s kind of a dumb comment. Sears failed to navigate a quickly changing retail marketplace. Retail is always re-inventing itself. What happened to all the other once-big retailers? Woolworth? Montgomery-Ward? Etc? Nothing stays the same. Don’t blame it on one demographic; if anything, it’s the boomers that killed Sears, since its decline started decades ago when the parents of millenial babies didn’t buy their baby clothes at Sears anymore.
It seems like most complaints about how millennials are killing [whatever] pretty much boil down to “How dare young people like different things from older people!”
Speaking of Wards, I work in what used to be their main warehouse. Now the building is Groupon HQ and houses a number of high tech firms and startups. Blocks from where the Cabrini-Green towers used to stand (and the row homes still do), it’s now becoming quite an affluent area.
Car companies, retailers, neighborhoods— adapt or die.
Anybody out there remembers a late 70’s (78,79) Car Collector issue with an article about a KF dealership, which restored anything from an Allstate 4 to a Virginian and had a stock of ready cars?
I just remembered the title. “The Manhattan they saved for me”
Yes, that was Fred Walker’s Auto Pride restoration shop in Monument, Colorado. I visited there a few times in the 1980’s, even got to visit “The Land” where he stored hundreds of Kaiser-Frazer cars. Fred was a neat guy, very knowledgeable, had been involved with K-F since 1947 when he had a new car hauling business.
I spoke with him about the ’49-’51 Kaiser Virginian hardtops and low-production convertible sedans at KFOC meets. Years afterward, when I would encounter him, he would recall I was interested in those cars particularly. I photographed at Fred’s shop in the late 1980’s a bare Kaiser Virginian body shell: structurally a true four door hardtop.
This car really was a stretch for anyone who wanted a new car. Back glass was sealed, no A/C back then, but it did have a trunk opening!
With so many better cars available used, I can’t imagine anybody that could afford something new wouldn’t shoot a bit higher for a used “real” car – unless the tin worm acted faster in those days!
Interesting dealership. I’m loving the blue 1948 Ford sedan.
Rambler was the only small car maker in the early ’50s who had the right idea – a small car dressed to the nines that wasn’t a penalty box, and something that didn’t scream “cheapskate!” to all the world. Their cars had whitewalls, a radio, cigarette lighter and nice upholstery. Most others, including Kaiser, didn’t really get this.
I figure my grandpa, who had a rambler, would appreciate my mini. A small car but appointed nicely.
I remember one of these lurking in the back corner of my hometown Sears store in the 1950s. Parked right next to the insurance desk. Perhaps so that there was someone handy to write up the deal.
In 1961 I purchased a new Ford Econoline pickup for $1635 total. Just $100 more than the Allstate, and 8 years later.
Kaiser just didn’t have the scale.
I remember seeing a few of these as a kid. Less common than the still-rare HenryJ. There was no Sears in the town I grew up in, so an expedition to Oakland to shop at Sears was a big deal. Oakland also featured the HQ of Kaiser, which was open to the public and had a rooftop garden with great views, which my mom liked. I preferred the Kaiser car display in the lobby, but honestly, I can only remember seeing an early Wagoneer, none of the earlier passenger cars. By the way, my current home town still has a Sears, as well as several car dealerships (Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Ford, Nissan, VW, Dodge/Ram/Chrysler) but no Chevy or any GM store.
It’s nice to see one of these that hasn’t been turned into a hot rod or gasser.
I bet a lot of Henry Js and Allstates were junked when they weren’t worth fixing any more.
Only 200 built of this trim level? Wow! I knew Allstate production was a lot less than Henry J production, but not that it was THAT low.