Same color, but ours was a two-tone with a dark blue top. Source: dailyturismo.com/1951-DeSoto-custom.
The first family car I remember was our ’51 DeSoto. As far as I can tell, the ’51 hasn’t yet had its day in the CC sun, perhaps not surprisingly because the model year brought only a second minor facelift for the so-called “second series” 1949 models, Chrysler Corporation’s first new post-war designs.
The second-series models Chrysler Corporation unveiled early in the calendar year 1949 flew in the face of the burgeoning “longer, lower, wider” philosophy most effectively espoused by General Motors’ Harley Earl, beginning with 1938’s seminal Buick “Y-Job” concept car and translated into GM’s production cars for decades afterward.
Engineering-focused as ever, Chrysler not only resisted that trend as their ’49s were being developed, but consciously determined that their first truly new post-war cars would be shorter and narrower than their predecessors. Overall height, however, remained the same as the automaker’s pre-war sedans, catering to the conservative, hat-wearing folks favored by Chrysler chief K.T. Keller.
As a new car, the ’51 DeSoto Custom four-door sedan carried a base price of $2,438 ($28,790 today), but I’m guessing our DeSoto was purchased as a used car, perhaps influenced by my maternal grandfather’s daily driver at the time, a classy black ’51 Chrysler Windsor sedan.
One very vivid memory involves your writer, at age three or four, standing in the driver’s-side rear seat foot-well, hanging onto my father who was driving, and peering excitedly around his shoulder to see the odometer click over from 99,999.9 miles to 100,000.0. As I recall, the DeSoto also had a fairly impressive faux woodgrain instrument panel treatment (impressive to a four-year-old, anyway).
The ’51 DeSoto dash. Again, not ours. Source: Randy von Liski on Flickr.com
Aside from Hernando’s abstract visage on the hood ornament, other details that impressed me at a young age were the DeSoto’s toothy grille and substantial front and rear bumpers. I also thought the delicate taillights, separated into three segments by their bright chrome trim, were quite attractive (the separate, barrel-shaped inboard backup lights, not so much). The DeSoto logo integrated just above the trunk handle was also cool, though I always wondered why it didn’t also include a central brake lamp, like Chrysler’s previous-generation models.
Source: www.oldcarbrochures.com
I must have missed Paul’s recent CC on the subject here but I never knew that DeSoto offered its own alternative to the ’49-’50 Kaiser Vagabond/Traveler “hatchbacks,” the “Carry-All Sedan” shown in the lower right of the screenshot above. The DeSoto seems to carry its spare tire in the conventional location, as well as retaining four operational doors (unlike the Kaiser, which mounted its spare inside a non-functional left rear door, which was welded shut in the Willow Run body shop). It’s a neat concept, definitely decades ahead of its time. Wish we had had one of those in the driveway, instead of our relatively boring normal four-door sedan.
At any rate, the ’51 DeSoto was the first Chrysler Corporation car in our family, having replaced a late-1940s Pontiac two-door sedan. Another Chrysler product- the Hansens’ first new-car purchase- would go on to replace the DeSoto, but that’s a story for another COAL…
My dad’s third car was a used ’52 DeSoto 4 door sedan in the same blue as the lead photo. IIRC, the trim on the hood was different, but other than that, essentially the same car. His had the small (?) Hemi, which he opened up on the Ohio Turnpike as we moved from Wisconsin to New Jersey in 1954. I believe the speedo touched 110, and my mother all but had a NOISY heart attack! She was NOT pleased with the exhibition of speed.
Had I then known about tires, suspension, brakes, etc I would have been as petrified as my mother was in that old DeSoto. That was our lil families first and only trip that maybe cracked the “TON”!!!! The car did take us back home to Wisconsin in 1957, a very good thing as far as we were concerned.
My memory of the back seat in Wisconsin winter’s was of always being cold: no heat-such as it was-ever got past that big front bench seat. He finally $old the car at a price that silly: that Hemi, even then, was worth more than the $125 he sold it for. I was just “getting into” cars via hot rod/kustom car mags and was beginning to understand some automotive things that had value. Sadly the DeSoto, to my dad, was simply a piece of well worn transportation that he drove from 1954-1959……..sigh. 🙁 DFO
DeSoto was probably a better choice for hotrodders. It had the Hemi, and it DIDN’T have mandatory semi-auto transmission. Probably because of the taxi business. All Dodges had either fluid drive or semi-auto, and all Chryslers had the semi-auto.
Hi Polistra, My old research on my first COAL’s transmission came up with this from https://www.allpar.com/d3/squads/taxis/taxis-postwar.html.
” … The virtues of a Plymouth of this era as a taxi – reliable, durable, inexpensive to purchase and similarly inexpensive to operate – are so obvious that one might wonder what could have prompted a fleet operator to spend the extra money to purchase Dodges or DeSotos, especially in areas that allowed use of conventional sedans. Two words: “Fluid Drive”. There was a school of thought that believed the longer clutch life and related relief from downtime that accompanied the Fluid Drive transmission more than offset the additional cost of one of the senior makes that offered it. In a city such as San Francisco, noted not just for hills but for stop signs at the top of hills, there is no doubt that Fluid Drive would have paid for itself. ”
Old NYC photos show a lot of big Desotos and Checker cabs on the prowl, especially in Manhattan. One could drive a fluid drive Desoto cab all day and never touch the clutch pedal.
I come from a taxi background and my experience of Fluid Drive was my dad’s 1949 Chrysler Windsor. In my opinion, Fluid Drive was a better solution to less shifting than the early automatics, which were expensive and heavy. For city driving, the long stroke six made more than enough torque to pull the car in second gear with no complaints. I heard taxi old timers talk of Fluid Drive and how they loved its simplicity and reliability. I certainly have a soft spot for Fluid Drive and that 1949 Chrysler. It was a nice car that drove better than one might expect from the no power assist era.
As for driving all day without touching the clutch pedal, cabs spend a fair amount of time in reverse and to shift between ranges on Fluid Drive you had to use the clutch. That said, it was easy because there was no slipping necessary.
As many CC readers recall, my first COAL was a 1953 Chrysler convertible which I documented in painful detail at:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1953-chrysler-windsor-convertible-love-at-first-sight/
Unlike DFOs ’52 hemi Desoto (above comment), my ride had a flat-head six, weighed as much, if not more, as the sedan Desoto, and would never get to 100 even if I was inclined to do such, which I wasn’t. TBH, I was afraid any high speed runs might break something I could not afford to fix.
Your Desoto surely had a semi-automatic fluid drive transmission which was called Tip-Toe Shift; Chrysler called the same transmission Presto-Matic, and Dodge called it Gyro-Matic. They were all the same thing, and these semi-automatics were last used in 1953 models.
The dimensions of post war Chrysler car products fell victim to the longer, lower, wider mentality of the masses. But as Paul N has noted, the current popular CUVs (e.g., RAV4) measurements are almost identical to post war Plymouth station wagons.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/mini-comparison-1949-plymouth-suburban-wagon-and-2017-toyota-rav4-almost-identical-dimensions/
Everything Old Is New Again.
I like the Club Coupe……
I miss these stodgy old “Keller” Mo Pars .
-Nate
Like the full-size Kaisers and Hudsons, and to a lesser extent the HenryJ, the DeSoto was one of those former brands that was already disappearing off the roads when I became car-aware in the early Sixties. Old cars usually driven by old people. Maybe a few DeSoto cabs were still around. I wonder what my kids think about Saabs or Saturns; I suspect Mercury and Oldsmobile are not even on their radar.
I only knew about DeSotos because my maternal grandma was still driving a 1955 model in the mid 1960’s. I thought they were cool.
You mention that you stood in a rear footwell – I suspect that you were probably standing on flat floor (that probably had a really small driveshaft bump in the center). I think actual “footwells” were restricted to Hudsons in that era, which I think were the only cars with floors that dropped below the tops of the frame rails.
New cars are always exciting, so I look forward to reading about the one in your family next week!