The station wagon became a huge new segment in the 1950s, and the Plymouth all-steel wagon was one of those responsible for that boom. But there was something of an antecedent to them, or just an early alternative, to see what folks would buy. That was the convertible sedan, like this DeSoto Carry-All, the Chrysler Traveller, and of course the Kaiser-Frazer Vagabond (below), which had a larger rear opening, big enough to accommodate a pony even.
Of course these general concepts came back with a vengeance with the hatchback. Neither of these convertible sedans sold well, meanwhile wagons sales took off. Station wagons were the hot new thing, and any lingering negative stigma was long gone, so there was no need to have to pretend to be driving just a sedan, even if there was a pony in the back.
I used to think the RWD Mazda 626 from around 1979 was the first sedan to have this feature but it just goes to show there is nothing new under the sun.
Do you think these were influenced by the Citroen TA “hatchbacks” more than a decade earlier? We’re there other European cars taking this approach too? The 2CV certainly had similar goals as well.
Skoda used this layout in the 1990s. Possibly the most successful approach of this design ever. I had one -Skoda Octavia- and it was very practical. Outstanders simply could’t figure out if it was a hatchback, sedan or station wagon. But nonetheless it makes no sense. If you need a station wagon – buy a station wagon.
I knew these had been marketed, but the ads are brand-new to me. I’d have expected sleeping as another possibility to be shown, but who knows? Years later, mid-1970s Pontiac Ventura’s hatchback leaked, but I really could treat it like a station wagon:
I see Popular Science (April 1949) gave the car its cover and several pages inside–including this illustration of changes like right-rear door welded shut, and some inoperable windows:
*left*-rear door welded shut, that is…..
I’m guessing that the spare tire narrowing the back seat, nonopening door and nonlowering window were kind of a impediment to sales. Kind of like the convertible version with an extra little window between the front and rear side windows.
It looks like they fixed that spare tire problem with the rebodied 1951 Kaiser. There’s a round hatch in the trunk floor.
But the 1949 Desoto station wagon has the spare under a cover on the outside of the tail gate. I wonder what the Carry All did with it? The ad shows both rear doors opening. The Carry All continued through 1951. The brochure mentions loading from both doors, no doubt a message to those familiar with the original Kaiser version.
This is another post that brings back personal memories! Friends of parents had a DeSoto Cary all, same color as this,while we had a 1950 Nash AMBASSADOR. On several occasions Dad and friend used the DeSoto for hauling supplies for home improvement supplies. The owners spent winters in Florida and found the DeSoto very useful for the trips. Believe at the time, DeSoto had a lighted hood ornament. Subsequently they bought a 55 Fireflite and parents bought a 55 Firedome. I learned to drive on that Firedome.😃.Loved that black beauty and couldn’t understand how parents could trade it for a 62 Plymouth Belvedere! The 62 Plymouth has to be one of the UGLIEST cars ever built! 🤮. Also believe that up to 53 think DeSoto and Chrysler were unique in offering larger sedans! DeSoto was a great brand 👏. So sad it was squeezed out by Dodge and Chrysler! 😔. One of my ultimate dream cars is 61 DeSoto, last of Exners fabulous finned fantasies! 🏆
D
Rick W, I can agree with everything you wrote except the UGLIEST year Plymouth. My vote is for the 1961, the last of what was left of the 1957 and up platform, not ’62 which was the beginning of all the MOPARS into the 1970s to 1976. With a little tweaking the strange looking ’62 became the ’63 which looked better and the ’64 even more so. Just my opinion.
Lemme see.
One ad shows a calf, milk jug, pitchfork, and 2 bushels of fruit/veggies in the rear of the vehicle.
The other a pony, bale of hay and a ladder.
Sounds reasonable to me.
Apparently the people who made the two Kaiser ads thinks that livestock get potty trained.
Kudos to anyone who could get a horse to back up into a car and be still for the ride!
A Kaiser, a pool, and room for a pony.
Nice! But would Hyacinth approve?
I forgot to mention…
the Bourgeoisie class gets the color ad
the Kulak class gets the B&W ad
The Carry-All was really just a four-door business coupe. Several sedans in the ’30s had foldable rear seats (and missing bulkheads) without giving it a special name. Nash’s bed worked that way before 1949.
Yeah, amazing how different things were back in the day. The business coupe (or, in this case, sedan) was a working vehicle, sort of like a predecessor of today’s small, city cargo vans.
Although a much closer vehicle would be the old, retro Chevy HHR (competitor to the PT Cruiser) with the rear seat removed and/or quarter/rear side windows blanked off. Even the rear door handles were shaved off.
With the rear seat delete option, the seat was replaced with a plastic cargo platform that would serve almost exactly the same purpose as the Desoto Carry-All. I don’t know what the take rate might have been, but I vividly recall seeing them on dealer lots in various configurations: some had the window delete, some did not, and the windows could be deleted in whatever manner the customer desired. A real a la carte proposition, there.
This strikes me as a short wheelbase version of the DeSoto Suburban. It has the same pass-through from the trunk to the passenger compartment, the same varnished wood floor and the same flexible seating arrangement – except that it only has 2 rows of seats and not 3.
I know that DeSoto kept the long wheelbase cars into this generation, but do not know if the Suburban with this style of interior layout was offered in the later cars.
An Edsel convertible sedan would have dovetailed nicely with their “win a pony” promotion.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/curbside-classic-automotive-history-1959-edsel-corsair-and-a-history-of-edsel-dealers-a-different-perspective/
DeSoto used all of the existing four door sedan sheet metal, meaning tooling costs were zero. A few sold to test the market still may have still made a profit. Even steel bodied station wagons cost more to build, but far less than labor intensive “woodies”.
I thought the circular chrome armrest was odd looking and intrusive until I noticed that it also served as the “table” leg with the seat bottom folded down. Clever! I’m guessing the driveshaft tunnel provided support in the center.
Reminds me of my dad’s infatuation with the ’66 Dodge Charger and his perception of having enough room to sleep in it comfortably overnight while traveling. As a grade school kid, I was excited at prospect of us getting a ‘cool’ car and not another ultra practical Chrysler product. Apparently old dad tried his camping theory in the showroom, found it a bit cramped, and said “nope”.
I had a Dodge Lancer ES turbo for years. I’ve often said that it kept me from minivan ownership back when I had infants and toddlers. Money was tight and trading in a perfectly good car for another car payment was an anathema to me.
The combination of the mid sized car with a full hatchback was incredibly useful. Why they ever fell out of favor is something of a mystery to me. Maybe they were too expensive to build the variations on the sedan chassis. Plus, with the rising popularity of SUV/CUVs of all sizes, it was far more profitable for the manufacturers to build those instead.
Ironically, all of those SUV/CUVs are hatchbacks…
This is purely anecdotal, but I’ve been surprised at how many hatchback versions of the newest generation Civic I’ve seen on the road around here. At least as many as the sedan version. I’m curious to see any actual sales figures of the two body styles.
We had a LeBaron GTS turbo which teenage me loved. Looking at the steeply raked windows of sedans today esp. Accord, K5, Sonata, etc., and their tiny little trunk openings, I just wish sedans were like this with one big “liftback.”
I can’t claim to know anything about late ’40s farm life, but the odds of a farmer transporting a pony or a calf in the back of a brand new hatchback sedan would have to be about nil. Who knows better than a farmer what the business end of an animal is all about?
Old promotions for the DeSoto and the Kaiser came to my attention in the mid ’70s. If you were used to mostly large American sedans, such fold down seats were quite novel to me.
Now, of course, the remaining sedans virtually all have a fold down split rear seat – a saving grace in the age of dinky mail slot trunks. The primary cars my wife and I use are an F-150 and a Fusion, rather opposites in most respects. But, the Fusion has served well for 99% of Costco trips thanks to the fold down seatback.
Huh! The configuration and two-cars-in-one marketing remind me of the origin story of the coupé utility (“Ute”, in Australian) body style. From the CC post on the subject: The story goes that in 1932 a farmer’s wife wrote to Ford asking them to make a vehicle that they could drive to church on Sunday and use to take their pigs to market on Monday, but also with proper weather protection and a smart appearance.
This one has a full roof and a back seat, though. Neat!
Say you didn’t have a station wagon available in your line-up when the Plymouth All-Steel station wagon appeared. What could you do to match it? You created these. Then you did all you could to create a station wagon as well.
That’s what happened. Those who could provide a station wagon body style – did, and those manufacturers that couldn’t – did this instead.
You notice that neither Ford nor Chevy had this type of vehicle. They had wagons.
If a pedal wagon was made for Cindy on the Brady Bunch show, it would have been called a “Kiddy- Carry All”…LOL
Pretty much the same setup as my C5 Citroen hatch the rear seat converts into a flat load floor and with self leveling suspension you really can not overload it.