The Henry J was ahead of its time. It was an economical car built when gas was 25 cents a gallon. My grandpa had one. He loved it. But the trunk was a real pain. The only access was through the back seat. No trunk lid. The spare tire must have been next to impossible!!!
Man, car ads were so much more interesting when they talked about the way the car was made. Of course, the Henry J was a little bit of an oddity for its time. I have a neighbor who has a Kaiser-Frazer full size car that has been under layers of car covers for at least 30 years.
After my commitment to the vietnam obligation I took my 52 HJ along with some buddies & made a fine & very fast,(for the day) drag car, it also looked cool.
Interesting to see that although the company was Kaiser-Frazer, the model being advertised was the Kaiser. The more expensive Frazer had never sold as well as the Kaiser, and the '51 model was the last Frazier built.
And the '51 Frazer (not Frazier!) was not a planned model. It was just produced to use up the left over 1949/50 bodies which they could not sell. There were 10,000 of them and the car was so popular they got 60,000 orders. Ooops! The most demand KF ever had for any car was one that was not intended! When this commercial was made, they were likely all sold already so no need to mention the '51 Frazer.
You are right. They wasn´t the best quality. Kaiser made cars in Argentina, Carabela for us, your Manhattan, Jeeps, Gladiators, Stations Wagons /Estanciera, but was a beguining for us after came Ford, GM, Chrysler, Renault, Citroën etc. I remebered only a few Henry J imported...
The Rambler didn't sell all that well during the years the Henry J was built. It wasn't til aound 1958 that Rambler sales took off. By then, Henry J and Kaiser were long gone
The Henry J never stood a chance against the Nash Rambler...Kaiser moved way too quickly with that one. The little Rambler was the spiritual ancestor of the AMC Hornet / Concord which was still being made in the 1980s.
