Text by Patrick Bell.
Dodge had been regarded as a medium priced line during the era we’re featuring today, but they always had a successful line of low priced cars as well. It obviously worked for them because today the medium priced DeSoto and the low priced Plymouth are both long gone, and the medium priced Chrysler is hanging on by a minivan. Join us as we look at some Dodges from the decade of change, the 1950s.
Our first image appears to have been in farm country somewhere, with a sharp 1958 Royal Lancer 4 door hardtop in the driveway. The Royal was middle series during the last half of the 1950’s, between the entry level Coronet and the top of the line Custom Royal. Standard power was the 325 cubic inch Super Red Ram V8 with 265 horsepower.
The style in the early 1950’s was actually introduced a year earlier, as seen here in this 1949 Coronet 4 door sedan that appeared to be taking a photo break while out on a country drive. It had New Jersey license plates and looked in good condition. The only engine available was a 230 ci Get-Away 6 cylinder with 103 hp.
1950 brought some minor changes including a new grille and taillights. Shown here was a 1950 Coronet Club Coupe with a sun visor, outside mirror, radio, and whitewalls. The license plate was a California issue with a 1953 renewal tab, and parked behind it was a 1952 Ford.
There was big news in the 1953 model, with a new slightly down sized body style and Dodge’s first V8 engine. The sedans were five inches shorter overall, and the new Red Ram V8 was 241 ci with 140 hp. The featured car was a V8 equipped 1953 Coronet 4 door sedan with an outside mirror, radio, grille guard, full wheel covers and whitewalls. In the street was a 1949 or 1950 Chevrolet Fleetline De Luxe 2 door sedan.
The red hat family was shown here in a 1954 Meadowbrook 2 door Club Sedan that had seen better days. This was the entry level Dodge for the year with a base list price of $1983. The standard Get-Away 6 was now up to 110 hp, and this one also had two tone paint, a whitewall on the front and a snow tire on the rear.
The Forward Look arrived in 1955 and this Custom Royal 4 door sedan looked good with two tone paint, full wheel covers and whitewalls. The Red Ram V8’s were now up to 270 ci and available in three states of tune, with the 183 hp Super version standard on the top of the line Custom Royals. Behind it was a 1953 Oldsmobile 4 door sedan.
The Royal was introduced as the new top of the line series in 1954 bringing the number of trim lines up to three. They were shuffled again in 1955 when the Meadowbrook was dropped, making the Coronet the entry level, the Royal mid level, and the new Custom Royal at the top.
Shown here was a two tone 1955 Royal 4 door sedan with a Washington state license plate used from 1954-1957 and issued in King County. To the right was a 1949 DeSoto.
The 1956 models received a few upgrades, the most obvious being the sharper quarter panel lines that had joined the fin craze. This one was a Custom Royal Lancer 2 door hardtop that was parked at some sort of roadside attraction, where it was among the newest in the crowd. The standard Red Ram power for the Royal and Custom Royal was now up to 315 ci with 218 hp. The image details were a bit fuzzy, but you can see there were a variety of makes in the background.
The Swept-Wing Dodges for 1957 were a complete restyle that took them even further in the longer, lower, and wider direction. The above car was the entry level Coronet series in a 4 door sedan. It was available with either six cylinder or V8 power, though the V8’s were nearly six times as popular. Grandma was showing her frugality as it had the standard hub caps and blackwalls, but she did spring for a radio.
These folks were gathered around a 1957 Coronet or Royal 4 door sedan at a campground. The Coronet sedan was by far the most popular Dodge that year. The Red Ram V8’s were now up to three versions of a 325 ci, and a 354 ci D-500 with 340 hp that was available on all models. On the left edge was the second Dodge in this image, a 1955 model.
This one was a 1957 Coronet Texan 4 door sedan that was about to enter Texas. As best as I can put together, the Texan was a unique trim package for the Coronet that was available for and installed by Texas dealers from 1956-1958. It included an upgraded interior with special emblems on the glove box door, deck lid, and fins (seen in image). There are no production numbers that I could find, but apparently it was/is quite rare. The dual exhaust indicate it had at least the Super Red Ram V8 with 260 hp, plus a rear mounted antenna and full wheel covers.
We will close this decade at Zion National Park in Utah, with a 1959 Custom Sierra wagon that looked close to new. It was part of the Custom Royal line, so the top of the line wagon for the year. Standard power came from the new (for 1958) 361 Super Ram Fire V8 with 295 hp. In the background was a 1957 Ford Country Sedan.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
‘59 is my choice…owned mine from 1983-2024 when it was gifted to my son, so still in the family!
Very gorgeous car.
Thanks!
When i was a kid our family car was a ’59 Coronet. Lasted for along time but i never got to drive it. Beautiful styling!
I really enjoy these old period pictures because I was a child in the 1950-60s. Unfortunately all my old photos were lost in fires, 1959 & 1971.
I really like this image, probably taken in the 1960s. (1959 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer)
Thank you Patrick for a wonderful “tour” of ’50’s Dodges. I had just turned 6 years old at the start of the ’50’s and really became interested in cars at age 8. My Dad had a Dodge dealership so I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time at “the store” with new Dodges, learning everything I could about them.
To me, the ’50’ were the absolute high point of progress in automotive development. Dodge, for example, experienced massive horsepower gains — more than tripling the output from 1952 (103 gross HP) to 1957 (340 gross HP for the D-500) — in a period of only 5 years! Other great leaps forward during that decade included transmissions (only a 3-speed manual or a 3-speed manual-based fluid drive in 1953 to a 2-speed automatic PowerFlite in 1954 and the excellent 3-speed automatic TorqueFlite in mid 1957. The introduction of Torsion-Bar suspension greatly improved both ride and handling. Unfortunately, rust prevention and factory quality hit a new low in ’57. GM and Ford had similar improvements during the 1950’s.
Styling dramatically improved — from dowdy to WOW! My personal favorites are 1956 (My Dad’s demonstrator that year was a Coronet 2-door sedan in tri-tone colors of white, coral and charcoal with the D-500 engine, PowerFlite and HiwayHiFi — how I wish I had that car today) and 1958, which I believe was the best year for Dodge styling in the ’50’s. My favorite Dodge of that era however, was the 1960 Dodge Dart. Great styling, good engines, decent rust proofing, good ride and handling. A ’60 Pioneer is what I drove in High School.
Again, a great article. Thank you!
My first car was a 1957 Dodge Corornet 2 door hard,I mowed a yard for it at 15 and drove it home. My Dad about died,no drivers license,insurance or tags
I also turned 5 in 1950. So I remember and will always appreciate the Mopar era. It will never be equaled.
The Texan was built in 56 and 57. Lum “Tex” Colbert was the CEO of Chrysler at the time and wanted a model for his state. My understanding is dealers in other states were made they couldn’t get it so they just dropped the model in 57. We have a 56 4 door.
the photo with the red hats – is that a Levittown type of development rushed out in the postwar era ?
Was my impression, guess.
Once again — great photos, B/W & color.
Those new, clear-cut, housing developments must be shaded by now ….. if not consumed by McMansions.
The memorable connections we make with the cars of our early days —
A friend’s dad had a ’57 Dodge. A family-oriented 4-dr hardtop.
He had a successful catering business …… and a 5-digit number tatoo’d on his lower arm.
My mom said it meant he was a Holocaust survivor.
I did the math, and saw that he must have been a teen, or maybe even a kid like me, during that time. Wish I knew his story. Meantime, any ’57 Dodge brings me back
My mother’s father was a confirmed Dodge man and unfortunately I never got to ask him why.
Ive always thought of 1950’s Dodge as equivalent to Pontiac, Dodge and Dodge truck dealers like Pontiac and GMC combined dealerships.
By the ’60’s pickups became more popular as personal vehicles and Dodge cars went downmarket, crowding Plymouth into irrelevance. Without trucks, a Chrysler/Plymouth/Imperial dealership was less valuable than Dodge, that could compete at a Chevy and Ford level.
Nice pictures of (to me) over the top flamboyant cars .
-Nate
My family always drove Dodges. As a kid, I remember we’d drive all over New England in our black 1936 Dodge sedan with the spare tire on the rear deck. It had 3-on-the-floor gear shifter and an engine we could work on. Then it was a 1950 Dodge 4-dr in English Racing Green. Solid and reliable. Then came the 1953 Dodge Meadowbrook 4-dr sedan in green and white with a Fluid Drive transmission. I learned to drive in this car and used it for dates. All were very conservative cars, but they conveyed security and reliability. As a 17-year-old in 1957, I’d have loved to drive any of those Forward-Looking Dodges, but that never happened. So thanks for this presentation on the Dodges of the 1950’s.