Why are there sum old cars missing ?

Ever notice that there are alot of years of old cars you just dont see many of ? Is it because they were not as popular or what .I will give you a few examples of what im talking about.

1959 -1961 Plymouths and Dodges
1958 Impalas (not refering to 2 or 4 dr sedans here)
1957 -1959 Buicks ,Olds ,and Pontiacs
1957-1958 Cadilacs

Im not saying that these models are extinct ,but you just dont see them in the #'s of others ,why ???

 

Think there was a minor recession about that time.

 

Well the 58 Impala was a 1 year thing. It's hard to find sheet metal for one. They are neat cars if you can find one re-buildable.

 

Cool cars got saved................uncool cars go turned into toasters and mail boxes.

Frank

 

Agreed on the recession thing ( i wasnt alive for about 15 more years ,but my dad told me about this recession many times) .Why do you see a hundred 59 and 60 Impalas for every 58 though ???

 

I was there in the 50s and a lot of cars were undesirable from the day they were new. I remember the type of man who would buy a Rambler and if you saw one of those guys you wouldnt want to be ***ociated with him by owning one either. International pickups, 48-52 Dodges, the list goes on and on, in fact Fords were just about the only car used for traditional hotrods.
Traditional hotrods were almost entirely Fords until the small block chevy came out in 55

 

I guess thats how you "Sum" it up !!!!!!

 

Agree with you on the 58 being a one off ch***is deal ,even though it was still an "X" frame car as the 59-64's were but it is still abit different ,but 59 and 60 are one of a kinds body wise also .What i mean is 59 and 60 doors arent interchangable nor are the frontends ...

 

I have heard this story as well from my late father and this kinda makes sense to me .I just didnt know that alot of these cars were labeled as "turds" from day one.Wish i woulda been there to see all this stuff first hand ,then i wouldnt have to ask you guys.Your right about the 51-54 Dodge cars and the International truck thing as well .You dont see many of them either ...

 

As mentioned, there was a recession at the time and '58 was the first year for the Impala, only 125,480 Sport Coupes were made and it was a major departure for Chevrolet design. Plymouths were "Old Maid" cars, Dodge was **** and not very popular with the younger crowd. Any of the upscale GM cars were big and pricey making them less desireable.

 

Many cars that are cool now, weren't in the 70's and 80's. Some repairs would be more than the car was worth and therefore the car got s****ped. I knew a girl that s****ped a 66 Mustang convert in the late 70's because it needed a valve job or something

 

Keep these no BS answers coming guys im soaking it up learning fast ...

 

I hear ya. My mom's first car was a brand new '67 cutl*** convrt.
Been going to car shows for almost 10 years now, still have yet to see one. What I have seen, is about 500, '68-70's thou. Guess it depends on production numbers, how desireable they were considered back then. Some models that are coveted now, were seen as just another junker, way back when.

I do like the thought that my mailbox had a former life as a '37 coupe...

 

I had 2 '60 Plymouths. 1960 was the first year of uni-body construction, and as such prone to a lot of rot. Rot plagued Plymouths even before the '60 - typically when you find '57s and '58s, they are rusted out to the door handles especially in the rust belt. 1959 was a 1-year only body, stuck between the body style of the 57/58 and the new uni-body of the '60s (which also were a 1 year only body style).

 

My 57 is a prime example, hard to find parts... expensive!
Mechanically many parts are 55-57 Pontiac only!
Tri-Power/3 speed stick, less than 2% of 57's were stick cars!
When you find spare stick parts you buy them if you can, And put them on the shelf just in case!
Fast cars but they were tough to built compared to Chevy and Ford at the time.

 

Another good point that didnt occour to me.I owned and drove daily a 56 Pontiac with a factory stick shift .You are correct about the 55-57 Pontiacs being hard to find mechanical parts for and interchange only with 55-57 ...

 

Groucho makes a very good point. A lot of cars have only become "cool" long after they were built. The '58 Chevys were long overshadowed by the tri-five cars which were lighter in weight and frankly more stylish.(I'm sure I'll catch some flack over that statement). Same really holds true for the '57-'59 BOP cars. The Chevies of that era were more affordable and found in larger numbers. I don't think the 60's MoPars really became popular until they were used extensively for drag racing especially when the funny car phenomenon arrived on the scene. As for the Caddys, nobody I know could afford a Caddy back then, not that they weren't nice cars, just out of the reach of aspiring young hot rodders at that time. Just my musings. Feel free to object....Don.

 

With the Mopars as well...the Plymouths were available with the Commando V8's and Golden Commando V8's - the 1960 Golden Commando was a 413 with the famous long tube cross ram intake - but were not nearly as stylish or as heavily optioned as the Chrysler 300's and Chrysler 300 F's (letter cars). Few were sold, and as such, didn't have the performance reputation of other monikers.

 

Living in the rust belt in the 50' & 60's I can ***ure you the salt got the best of them in a hurry. My Dad's '57 Ply was already rusting by '61 though it was washed and waxed as often as possible.The Ramblers, later AM Motors were also unibody and a lot of them folded at the firewall, also remember the mentality at that time, buy new every other yr .Car designs were changing very quickly and people were "convinced" esp by GM to keep up with the Joneses.

 

...Excellent point... Those Chrysler "letter cars" were legendary performers, also priced way out of the reach of the average young guy at the time.

 

A friend of mines father bought a 58 Impala conv, with a 348. I thought that was the king of the road. Until my old man bough a turn pike cruiser. You know we had to race our old mans cars. I won Mark rolled the Impala. So that is why one is missing.

 

Groucho and Lothiandon1940 are onto it about '58 impalas. It's exactly because they were not as desirable as 55-57's that they made cheap first cars for a lot of baby-boomers. These same guys went crazy over them starting in the late '80's (because they used to have one) and prices of '58 impalas have been sky-high ever since.

'58 impalas are my favorite all-time car, but they're just too expensive for me now.

 

Those late 50's Mercs are another you dont see .I know where there is a running 4 door 59 Merc Turn pike cruiser for sale here in town .Although its a pretty nice car and cheap ,they guy hasnt been able to sell it .Its been for sale of and on for 3 years now ...

 

Remember how popular the 55-56-57- Chevies,Fords,Olds,Buicks were and still are ,well in 58 all of them had a drastic change to the dual headlight boxcars and nobody wanted them,but now they are popular,but just too late.

 

And lets not forget those Harbor Freight Tools !

 

I have noticed how high 58 Impalas are when you find one.Even a POS seems to be $7000-$8000 or more nowdays.I have seen a few right out of a pasture factory 348 Convertables priced for insane money .I used to own a 58 Delray 2 door sedan ,but it was wrecked when i bought ,and i never got it on the road .I like them too and almost bought another one just like it that wasnt wrecked a few years ago ...

 

(fords were the thing untill the small block chevy) MAN U MUST HAVE NEVER HEARD OF OLDSMOBILE

 

my first car was a 64 lemans 2 door convertible....3 on the tree, with a factory 250 chevy 6 banger...the column shift was replaced twice..my aunt Stella gave it to me the summer before my 16th birthday (oct bd)...i had a hell of a time finding parts for it...local parts store said i was full of bs when i took back some parts and brought in the the original stuff off the car to get the right stuff....found out later that my aunt and uncle got a steal on the car in dec 64...it had 24,000 miles on it...was a demo and everyone was always wanting to test drive it cause it was a vert...

i stuffed a spark-o-matic shifter thru the floor and drove it till the 1974 hail prior to the tornado trashed it..no top left and the hood and rear deck lid looked like someone spent a weekend trying to bounce bowling balls off it...

back on topic, i have hunted for years trying to find one...best i've come up with is a few 64 GTO's and a couple of lemans turned gto clone convertibles...

wasn't an ugly car, smaller then the 65 ponchos....drove well and handled nicely...i tried once to find some production numbers on the 64 lemans convertibles, but came up empty handed....

 

Interesting comments..........some more accurate than others. There was a recession in the '58 to '61 period which reduced car sales volume siginficantly, but not as bad as recent years, percentagewise. Although I am something of a Mopar fan, the Plymouths and Dodges built through '52 had Briggs bodies and were much more solidly constructed than subsequent models. The '53/'54 models were downsized and not very popular, and somewhat poorly built, especially when compared to GM bodies of the time. The combination of the recession and the **** ugly styling of the '60 and '61 Plymouths was a double whammy.

An interesting trivia item.....'57 and '59 were the only two years Ford outsold Chevy since 1937 up to that point. The '57 & especially the '59 Chevys were somewhat controversial when new. Yet today, a '57 Ford seems much scarcer than '57 Chevs. Same for '59's I think.

For those critics of the '49/'52 Plymouths and Dodges...they were very substantial, excellent riding, dependable vehciles for the day. Stodgy? Yes..no question. But remember, Ford/Chevy/Plymouth ran a very close 1st, 2nd & 3rd in sales volume...The Low Priced Three!

Ray

 

those chrysler products were rusted by the time they hit the end of the ***emble line! i would bet that those big heavy cars were more valuable as s**** at the time they hit the point that all cars get to when a major repair needed to be done.