Paul’s post of about a week ago showed a quartet Dodge dealers doomed to a third model year’s beating. Look at their posture and their faces—plainly they know they’re hosed, no matter the actual merits of the incoming ’59 cars. Those “Swept View Windshield” and “Full Time Power Steering” banners stood no chance versus the lousy reputation created by the ’57s and ’58s.
The man in today’s pic, taken somewhere in Idaho, looks a lot more chipper. Just look at that 225-cubic-inch smile on this salesman’s face as he presents the features of a brand-new 1962 Dodge Lancer GT, probably a red one. The Valiant-Lancer range was getting wide acclaim; its design and size were quite a bit less rejected than that of the B-body Darts and Polaras, and there was a long list of real engineering and durability improvements over the ’61 Lancer. So this guy had plenty to talk happily about—or at least he had a well-practised game face on.
Click the pic for a much larger view, and we see there was still room and need, though, for Chrysler’s massive build-quality improvements of 1963; the front bumper of the feature car doesn’t appear to be properly level to the body.
Donno why all these Lancers are parked under all that Dodge Truck propaganda, but I’d surely like to have that neon Forward-Look sign we see in the upper right corner below that, uh, birdcage-lookin’ thing. And that Kentile floor is the most!
Not really all that much to smile about: Lancer sales started out quite modest (75k) in 1961, and dropped to 64k in 1962.
And the 1960-1962 Valiant had a similar trajectory, dropping from its 1960 high.
The Corvair handily outsold the combined Valiant-Lancer those years, and by a healthy margin.
But salesmen know how to smile, even when things aren’t exactly peachy.
And good salesmen know how to smile and lie at the same time! 🙂
A good salesman never tells a lie to sell a product. The real money is in residual income, getting your old customers back and selling them again. This won’t work with dishonest salesmen.
I sell stuff pretty much every day. I’d say 90% of my clients are either already clients or referrals. It took decades to get there. One lie and it’s all gone because you won’t stop lying when you see it makes you quick money.
Amen, oyez, preach it!
He would probably be smiling from ear to ear if that had the Hyper-Pak kit installed and he took it for a spin around the block!
To be fair, he’s smiling about the interior. Chrysler’s interiors were usually more comfy and more ergonomic than the competition. Valiant and Lancer were definitely better than Falcon in the comfort department, and the seats held up better. A smart dealer stands behind the good stuff and stands in front of the awful stuff.
I see banners for Dodge trucks AND cars hanging from the walls.
And I didn’t realize that Dodge trucks were aligned with Cummins diesel back in the early 60s.
And I didn’t realize that Dodge trucks were aligned with Cummins diesel back in the early 60s.
What else to power their big Class 8 trucks?
Considering what the downsized, warthog-nose, full-size Dodge looked like, the Lancer was probably the only thing to smile about for 1962.
I know their flathead sixes were around longer than the competitions, but by 1962 to highlight overhead valve sixes as in one of the signs, seems a little desperate. And what is meant by TorsionAire ride? I know about the front torsion bars, but were air springs an option on Dodges? Or does the “aire” spelling avoid truth in advertising requirements?
Extree, extree, read all about it.
Thanks, Daniel-great stuff!!
Chrysler sixes were about the last of the flatheads. The Slant Six came out in 1959. It could be that those banners weren’t new for 1962. I thought it was at a 30 degree slant because it was based on the old tall block but Wikipedia differs on that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Slant-6_engine
Your suspicions are correct about TorsionAire. There was no air other than that inside the tires. GM and Ford had come out with optional air suspension systems in ’57 or ’58 and some copywriters came up with that name for the new in 1957 torsion bar front suspension. The secret of that suspension wasn’t really the torsion bars but that it didn’t have the A-arms everyone else used but links (?) like showed up in later cars, and I guess better geometry.
Almost all those air suspended cars ended up with the normal steel springs being retrofitted in pretty quickly. A few years back I did see a loaded Oldsmobile at Sotheby’s with intact air suspension. The hood was up and between that and the AC there was a LOT of plumbing in there. Oddly, air suspension has come back particularly in high end SUV’s recently.
Not quite the last. AMC had a flathead six as the base engine in the American through the end of the 1965 model year.
Also, the Ford flathead V8 found its way into the French Ford (later Simca) Vedette, which was later sold in Brazil as the Simca Esplanada through 1969, though I’m unclear on whether the flathead was used after 1966.
Maybe it’s just gas…
Pshaw. The downsized 1962 Plymouths and Dodges are awesome, particularly in Sport Fury or Polara 500 guise. One of them would definitely reside in my Top Ten Cars Ever garage. In both those bucket seat models the exterior trim deemphasized the actual sculpturing of the cars and added an upper line that wasn’t really there for extra coolness.
The Lancer in the photo is a GT, also the bucket seat model.
How about a metallic brown Fury wagon? *sigh*
“Full Time Power Steering” banners–if there was ever a car with part time power steering, I’d like to know about it, and I’m sure the commentariat will enlighten me!
old Chrylser products were notorious for what we’d call today over boosted power steering, the ‘drive with one finger’ floaty steering feel. Of course, strictly speaking, all power steering is active at all times when the engine is running (on older cars) but the PS control valve is designed so that the power assistance only engages during turning with effort. The Chryslers were set up to make a feather touch for turning.
There is/was a feature on some cars called…variable-assist power steering. The idea was that the amount of boost was increased at lower speeds (for tight maneuvers) and then it tapered off as speed increased (to avoid a feeling of dartiness…no pun intended).
If you have ever driven any car from the 50s WITHOUT power steering, and then any Chrysler products from the 60s-70s you would understand why ” part time ” power steering might be an attractive feature.
My own personal experience with Chrysler products from the 60s-70s is that the steering feel…doesn’t.
If I recall correctly, the GM power steering systems were designed so that the power assist only kicked in when a specified amount of pressure had been applied to the steering wheel. The GM system thus was not working at highway speeds (when power assist was not really needed), but would kick in during parallel parking situations. This was not, however, the same thing as variable-ratio power steering.
The Chrysler system really was “full time,” in that it was always providing power assist, whether the person was parallel parking, or driving at 75 mph down the highway. As others have noted, the problem was that the power assist made the steering feel very “floaty” and disconnected at higher speeds. Chrysler’s full-time power steering system really was a unique feature, but it wasn’t necessarily an advantage.
The smile is just required salesman standard equipment, no one wants to buy a car from a sourpuss.
He’s also smiling because he has learned about the soon-to-arrive Custom 880 truly full-sized Dodges he’s needed so badly since the 1962 Dart-Polara introduction. The Custom 880 will make good on the promises he made to loyal Dodge customers looking to trade in their three and four year old Custom Royal Lancers. He fears they will be attracted to the new low-priced Chrysler Newport before he has the Custom 880,
Wait’ll he sees the restyled 1962 compact Dart that’ll replace that Lancer!
> I’d surely like to have that neon Forward-Look sign we see in the upper right corner below that, uh, birdcage-lookin’ thing. And that Kentile floor is the most!
There’s another of those birdcage-looking things at the far left over the door. I have no idea what it is either. Beware the Kentile floors though – they were made of asbestos-laced vinyl until 1986, a few years before the company went bankrupt fighting thousands of lawsuits. Google “Kentile” and nearly every link is about asbestos litigation and compensation. The woman in this ad not as ‘smart’ as the narrator thinks…
Right, but it wasn’t such a big deal back then; people filtered their air through cigarettes, you see.
…except at least one brand of cigarette had filters made with asbestos, so I guess people who smoked those ones were shìt outta luck (and lungs).
Kent, from 1952-1956, had asbestos in the filter. Lots of mesothelioma-related lawsuits followed.
Wow, two ways to get lung cancer, now in one convenient smokable cylindrical package…
Mad Magazine, around that period, satirized Kent cigarettes with their “microproton nuclearcosmic” filter…
Wow. I was actually better off smoking non-filtered Camel’s.
There was nothing wrong with asbestos flooring as installed. Insulation on ducting is the same. The flue on my gas furnace is asbestos cement. As long as it is encased and not disturbed there is no danger. Litigation is about workers making such products and those installing insulation on ships and large buildings, not putting down floor tile.
We legally and safely removed all asbestos materials from a 1930’s house before it was torn down.
Agreed, especially on the asbestos comp. floor tiles. The asbestos is completely encapsulated in the product; zero risk to anyone. And one can legally remove it and haul it to the dump in garbage bags as long as it’s removed properly: heating it with a heat gun and removing it whole. Chipping or cutting it is what releases the fibers.
I did that in an old house too before I tore it down.
I still see it in older commercial buildings. Our neighborhood hardware store, for example. Wears like iron.
Yeah, I’m gonna say this guy’s more grimacing than smiling. The toilet seat trunk and general rear end is unfortunate and I feel was a hard sell even back then.
Also, the “birdcage lookin’ thing” plainly seems to be a light fixture?
Ooh, sorry, no; there was no toilet seat trunk lid on the Dodge Lancer. Thanks for playing, though; here’s yer toaster! ;·)
I’d say the salesman is smiling exactly because there isn’t a toilet seat on the trunklid “You see the Plymouth across the street, ahhahaha!”
The “toilet seat” on the trunk lid was removed from the Valiant for 1962.
Later Mercedes-Benz SLC used the same “hardtop-trick”.
It is so sad to see a car salesman happily hawking a potato with wings for fenders.
Yeah! Every car in 1962 should have looked just like the Ford Falcon, just like it says in the Bible!
I like the styling of the first-generation of Mopar compacts. I would not call them beautiful, but they are a unique design, with lots of neat details that catch one’s attention. The hardtop coupes, in particular, are interesting. I do prefer the grille of the 1961 Lancer over the grille of the 1962 version.
Love how that one banner is cut off in the photo to say “UGH” …