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World
War II came, and auto production stopped, all the auto manufacturers
went into military production, which helped the U.S. overpower the Axis
countries. The war ended in 1945. So the 1946 models were the first
autos introduced to an auto starved country. The 1942 models were
4 years old already. The 1946 cars were warmed over 1942's, yet the
public wanted them, and they sold, even if it was a half production
year. 1947 models were very similar to the 1946's. Of interest in 1946
was the Town and country Hardtop which Chrysler built. They built only
seven of them along with 100 town and country sedan. These were
automobiles with wood bodies, but definitely not wagons. They also
produced convertibles till 1948. Chrysler was not alone with the woodie
convertible, Ford had a sportsman convertible, and was joined by Mercury
with a similar sportsman convertible. Mercury only built the sportsman
in 1946, whereas Ford continued into 1947 and 1948.
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Beautiful
1948 Ford Super Deluxe Sportsman convertible.
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1949
showed up as a turning point for the station wagon. Ply- mouth
introduced the Suburban, an all-steel bodied station wagon. This was quite
a time after the 1935 Chevy all-steel wagon. But this time it caught on.
In 1950 many other companies were making steel wagons, and sure enough, in
1951 all manufacturers were building wagons with complete steel bodies.
Pontiac, and Oldsmobile also built an all-steel wagon in 1949. Yet
because of price, the Plymouth was more popular.
Among
the new bodies introduced in the 1949 change- over was this new station
wagon, the first with an all-steel, no-wood body.
In
1947 a new automobile was introduced to the American people. It was really
2 autos, Kaiser and Frazer. In 1949 Kaizer had a Deluxe
Vagabond. It was known as the Traveler /Vagabond Utility
Car. A standard sedan with a double-door hatch cut into the rear
section, and a fold down rear seat. This was probably the first authentic
hatch-back. As the wood bodies disappeared in the early fifties, the
wagons got bigger, as did the standard line up of cars. The next big
change in wagons came in 1955, when Chevrolet came out with a wagon called
Bel Air Nomad.
It
was a blending of a hardtop and wagon. It turned out to be a beautiful
station wagon like nothing else before it. many of them are still around
today, also the '56 and '57 Nomads. Production figures were high, 1955
gave us 8530, 1956 almost as high with 8103.
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Nomads
first made
their appearance in 1955 as a specialty series in the Bel-Air line. They were an immediate hit despite a relatively high
price tag. |
In 1957 they had 6534. With those figures, that's the reason you can still
pick up one today. Many are in the hands of collectors at this time, still
some are advertised for sale by individuals at nominal prices.
Pontiac in 1955 also had a hardtop-styled Safari 2-door wagon. It was
based on the Chevy Nomad, and was built like that till 1957. They were
priced higher than the Chevy Nomad. Consequently less were sold, A total
of 9094 for the three years, 1955 to 1957 compared to Chevys's 23,167
total for the same years. It makes them more sought after and a real
collector car.
These
mid fifties station wagons were getting quite a number of owners. Many
people were moving out of the city into the suburbs. The wagon was ideal
for hauling, busing and camping. Many auto companies built them, some
2-door, some 4-door, some had six cylinders and some had eight
cylinders. These were the station wagon years. It's now 1957.
Fourteen manufacturers are producing station wagons. Ford, Chevrolet,
Plymouth, Mercury, Buick, Oldsmobile, Rambler, Studebaker, Chrysler,
Dodge, Pontiac, Willys, DeSoto and Packard. These are only auto
manufacturers, there were also a few truck companies that produced them.
I'm not going to mention the trucks at all. That's another area, and
I'm not familiar with it. Here now, I've only listed 14 companies,
yet these companies had a number of station wagon models they produced.
They competed with each other as to size, roominess and also style. A few
of these companies don't exist anymore, but their autos are still with us.
Will start our 1957 breakdown with the DeSoto, which stopped production in
1961.
For
1957 DeSoto had four new exciting station wagons in two great series, the
Fireflite and Firesweep. The Eireflite 4-door station wagon had the
Fireflite Explorer and Firesweep Shopper, while the Firesweep 4-door S W
had the Firesweep Explorer & Firesweep Shopper. The basic difference
was in the engine and transmission. Fireflite had a 341 cu. in., 4
barrel carb. with standard equipment torque-flite 3 speed automatic
transmission. With the Firesweep also having a V8 engine with a 325 cu.
in. displacement, and a 2-barrel carb. A 3 speed manual transmission was
standard equipment. The Explorer of the 2 series, sported a rear facing
third seat. The Shopper without the third seat, had more cargo space.
Fireflite featured new triple range push-button drive selector for it's
torque-flite transmission. These were long and low wagons, as were most of
the Chrysler line.
Chrysler
had 2 models, Windsor Town and Country, and New Yorker Town, and Country.
The difference between the 2 were again engine and transmission. The
Windsor had a spitfire, 354 cu. in. V8 engine. Transmission being manual,
3 forward 1 reverse. Torque-flite was available as an option. The New
Yorker sported a firepower V8, displacing a 392 cu. in. engine and it's
transmission was the automatic torque-flite with push button control.
When
we talk about Dodge in 1957, we see them list 5 station wagons. Custom
Sierra 4-dr. was available in 9-pass., with rear facing 'spectator' seat
or in 6-pass. with conven- tional seating. Then they had the Sierra 4-dr.
which was listed the same as the Custom Sierra, 9-pass. and 6-pass. Both
had a 325 cu. in. engine as standard equipment, the Custom had more power
with a 4-barrel carb. The fifth Dodge model was the Suburban Station
Wagon. A 2-dr. 6-pass. wagon that carried the same engine as the others,
but less power. As for the transmissions, the Torque-flite was optional on
all V8 models. These 5 models came with a fully automatic 2 speed
transmission with torque converter. Dodge also had the torque-flite panel
on the dash board. This was the age of push buttons. |
1957 Chrysler
