The first brand-new postwar Chevrolet was introduced in January 1949 at the Waldorf Astoria in NY. On its arrival, a reporter said that it “looked like a Cadillac without the fins.” A fair enough description for the ’49-’54 Chevrolets.
Here’s a nice 1954 survivor, shot by Matt Wilda at the Cohort. Reviewers at the time referred to the ’49-’54 styling as ‘sexed up,’ and under its GM-trendy wrapper, the long-running Chevy “Stovebolt 6” gave faithful service to thousands of households.
As a previous CC post noted, the ’49-’54s pale in fame against the ’55s; one of GM’s greatest hits ever. No shame on that for this ’54; after all, the company was on an endless streak of hits back then. And there’s no fault in being a lesser-known one.
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air – A Message From 1953, Pt. 1
That’s a 54 Chevrolet, not a 52
Fixed it. It actually appeared at the Cohort as “1953?”, which I knew it wasn’t. Yet, I still managed to type the wrong year.
When I was born, out ‘family car” was a “54 Chevrolet”, I only remember it in “photo’s” and “fleeting knowledge of a green , something” in front of our house.
It got traded for a “57 Merc” , in “early 63”, I believe. Don’t recall anyone ever referring to the Chevy as “Caddy like”.
My very earliest car memory is dad trying to start his ‘52 (?) Chevy. It was cold with snow on the ground and the loud moaning of the starter scared the toddler version of me. This would probably have been the winter of 1962-63 in Ohio. Fortunately, we were at home at the time.
I like the colors on the featured ‘54. I believe the good ol’ stovebolt six had been upgraded to full pressure oiling by that time, IIRC. I’m beyond owning one for myself, but would love to catch a ride and drive an example as nice as this.
For most of the 1960’s and 1970’s the ’49 ~ ’54 Chevy’s were used car lot poison ~ hard tp sell at any price and worthless if beat up in spite of being sturdy, easy driving cheap to maintain and roomy inside cars .
Good to see they’re getting more love and respect .
-Nate
Grandpa traded in his two tone green ’53 Belair sedan on a Studebaker Lark, double used car lot poison when he traded the Lark for his final car, a 1965 Belvedere.
I’m a little bit more slanted towards te ’49 ~ ’52 Business Coupes but I should have bought the survivor factory red 1954 two door sedan for $3,500 and old man was trying to pimp to me a few years ago .
I knew I’d not keep it (too big and slow) but in spite of the badly faded red paint it really was a nice little car needing just the usual Mechanical fettling to be a really good daily driver or touring rig .
It turns out many of those old 6 volt car radios are simple to repair ~ replace the vibrator with a transistorized one, go through the replace all the aged out capacitors and install a new speaker or have the rotted original one re coned and you’re good to go .
-Nate
-Nate
The 54 just looked old compared to the popular revolutionary 55-57. But ironic that the 57 is so popular when it’s the last year of a redesign and so old compared to the 56 Chrysler and Ford products.
You said it Rick ! .
they looked old when they were new, end of styling cycle .
My self I have always preferred the ’55 Chevies to the ’56 or ’57s .
Nate
I think the 55 was more pure. The 57 seemed to have a lot tacked on to try and make the body look longer. I preferred the 57 Ford to the 57 Chevy. Then the 57 Plymouth was beautiful and futuristic. Then Ford took the 57 Ford and added a lot of clutter to make the 58 ugly. Then they squared it off and made or it heavy by 59. Plymouth kept the 58 pure and then the 59 got ugly with the extra trim and the “toilet seat”. Then the 60 got bulky. It seams like the initial year of a redesign is great, like the 55 Chevy. Then each redesign gets worse.
Just so ~ the 1955 Chevrolet was a well balanced design that was pleasing to the eye from any angle .
Then they spoiled it with extra flash in ’56 and ’57 was simply over the top, remember when new the ’57s didn’t sell all that well .
Also agreed that the 1957 Fords were beautiful unlike the ’58s & ’59s .
Chrysler’s “Forward Look” was fitting for the times .
-Nate
I believe Ford outsold Chevrolet in 57. Line up all the 57 cars and it’s the GM cars that look old when they looked so fresh just two years earlier.
My grandparents had one of these, a black 4 door sedan with Powerglide. My mother told me that my grandmother’s brother bought it for them as a “spare” car for any of the relatives that lived in town to use. Mostly it was used for taking my grandparents to doctors appointments or shopping. My sister told me that one day each year my grandfather would get a ride to a nearby city, load up the car with flowering plants, and spend a week putting in pansies.
I just remember that car as a huge, but friendly machine that almost never left the garage. My mother explained, years ago, that neither grandparent had ever gotten a driver’s license after my grandfather was involved in an accident.
The car was neither a top of the line nor the bottom, and certainly never struck me as a down market Cadillac, just as 1 of many alternatives to my own family’s 55 Ford Country Sedan.
I never understood how a Country SEDAN could be a station wagon.
Ha!! I remember thinking the same thing!
Dad’s ’54 BelAir hardtop is one of the ones I remember very well, mainly because it was in the coral with a white top color combination that matched the dealer promotion model that sits in the cabinet next to my desk.
The 1949 to 1952 Chevrolets were always my favorite designs, especially the 2-door hardtop (no B pillar) which looked a bit like my parent’s 1950 Buick Riviera but with a more modest grill.
And these years had the Fleetline, which always made me think of the 1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback.
In my mind, the 1953 and 1954 Chevrolets were completely different animals, bulkier and not as sleek as the earlier post-war models. Also the ’53 and ’54 models had (IMO) less attractive dashboards.
A 1951 Chevy hardtop with all the windows rolled down.
Change the grill and add P-38 tail fin lights and you got a Caddy (almost).
GM had to to a major facelift by ’53. The ’49 body was four years old and Ford was all new for ’52. Yes, the ’53-’54 looks kind of “fat”, but for some reason the Ford styling of that period just leaves me cold.
My first car in 1960 was a 1952 Chev bought out of a junkyard for $35.00. Got it running and drove it a good while. Then I moved up to s 1948 Plymouth 4 dr sedan! Eventually, my new job got me a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville 4 dr hardtop just after I turned 20! Uncle Sam called and I got an all expense paid trip to South East Asia and I had to sell the Pontiac.
When I was a kid there was an elderly woman in the neighborhood whose husband died in 1954. She never had a drivers license, her husband having performed all driving duties. Driving had always seemed to difficult to her, with all that shifting and wrestling with a big car. However, she was determined to get on with her life and her son said cars now were easier to drive. She got her license and bought a 1954 Chevy 210 with Powerglide and the then rare power steering. She loved that car and kept it for years.
I read about this year of Chevy a long time ago; it was referred to as “The Stovebolt’s Last Stand.” From perspective of the time, it was not really a crisis at Chevrolet (yet); they were beating the world, even with a car that was already six years old. But some could see that Chevy was getting into a rut before the effects could really be felt; even back then, Chevys were starting to be considered grandpa-cars. Youngsters drove Fords. Chevrolet asked their engine expert, Edward H. (“Crankshaft”) Kelley, to make a V-8 that could be as famous as the Stovebolt 6 he created back in 1929. But his heart was just not into the task, forcing Chevy to start from scratch. The Stovebolt was as reliable as any engine Chevy would ever offer, but its power potential was just not there. Chevy needed power to keep its slight edge over Ford, and they were already being left in the dust even by some of their stablemates, to say nothing about their rivals. Chevy ended up being one of the last big marques to enter the V8 contest as a consequence.
The trim refit for this year was, in my opinion, the finest done for this series, especially for the more-upscale Bel Air. If I were to see a Stovebolt on the road or at a show, especially of ’53 or ’54 vintage, it would garner my attention much more than any of the series that followed (especially the ’57s, which have become just SO over-clichéd). That says a lot coming from a man who doesn’t really give Chevys of any period a second glance…though, admittedly, there was one unmolested ’56 I once saw that grabbed my attention. That one looked like it came out of a time capsule.
That said, though, a word about safety does need to be said. Simply, “NOT.” Yes, back then it wasn’t something people were overly concerned about; but by ’55 they began to take notice. When they did, it became painfully clear that Chevys were built to be affordable, not safe. Chevy ranked at the bottom of the list of Car Life’s 1955 safety review, one of the first ever of its kind. Because safety meant higher production costs, Chevy didn’t even bother addressing it until they were forced to by government mandates taking effect. That explains the notoriously-popular video on YouTube showing an argument between a ’59 Bel Air and a 2009 Malibu, which the latter “won,” if you want to call it that.
But, back to the last Stovebolt. I do offer it respect, for its last brave stand. It looked good for a fat grandpa-car; and it would be certain to get you home, though not very quickly, and contingent on not crashing along the way.
The 216 C.i.D. “Babbitt Pounder” Stovebolt six was easily hopped up to make serious speed .
The 1954 engine was a one year wonder that had full pressure lubrication to the connecting rods, always a weak point in the previous sixes .
-Nate
A High School friend of mine had a ’53 Chevy 2 dr, unfortunately he took a shop class and repainted his car. Earl Schieb at $29.95 would have done better. The car was ok for him until one day he when he was driving past our house. We lived on a large circle and as he went by his left rear wheel departed his ’53……and passed it!! Not long after he bought a huge, used ’59 Pontiac 2 dr hard top. I don’t remember for sure which model it was, but it did have a V8 which he thought was really “HOT” after his stove bolt 6!! 🙂 DFO
I used to think that the 53-54 Chevy was a different car from the 49-52. Chevy did a good job of restyling the cars and even changed the window line. But Ford already had the integrated rear fenders since 49 and GM cars were looking very stodgy by then. But look how far they had come from 48 to 55. My father had a 52 sedan when my parents got married. Replaced with a 56 210 sedan and then by a 63 BelAir wagon. But their first NEW car was a 72 Kingswood wagon. But after that he said that Chevy had lost their way and he moved to Volvo. The malaise years. Chevy was never to be the same again.
I always thought these looked so old-fashioned with the big bulging rear fenders and high humpy hoodline. They looked different from the ’49-52 models, true, but not better. I’m surprised Harley Earl and co. didn’t try harder to keep the Chevy up to date.
Both my grandfathers bought ’51 sedans a year before my parents even met. We had one as my dad’s DD (so I rarely rode in it) until ’68, my spinster aunt in Towson MD inherited the other in ’64, then she got a new Cutlass in ’69. I have a vague memory she had a Nash Metropolitan before that, but I was not quite 4 when he died.
GM styling did a complete about-face in the first years after the war. The 1948 C body cars and 1949 A bodies were sleek, fluid cars. But then everything went thick and blocky, starting with the 1950 C body redesign, and the 53-54 Chevy was the one that joined the rest of the company’s product look.
The 54 did a nice job of smoothing out the 53’s details, which seem overly crude to me now.
Agree with J P Cavanaugh.
Anyone who saw a Cadillac in this car must had been severely nearsighted?
The 49 Chevrolet and the 49 Cadillac had a resemblance. It was not there by the time the 53-54 came out.
Yes, I can see what you see in the 1949 models.
Dad had one identical to above but the base was light blue with the white top.
Six kids crammed into the car with Mom & Dad.
Across the back of the front seat was a plastic tube (the ‘O Shit cord) to hold on to when Dad took a hard u-turn.
Yesterday I was out in South Central Los Angeles and chanced upon an elderly gent driving his clean un restored Bel Air rag top ’54 Chevy, top down of course, it was very nice .
-Nate
All true but you could hit the trunk lid with a sledge hammer and barely scratch the paint!