My very first car was 1956 mercury Montclair phaeton. Bought it from the original owner she was 94 in 1985. The car only had 40,000 miles on. It was in her garage and only going down to the DMV to register every year from 1975 to 1985 . It was a great car but I did not like those windshield wipers. The padded dash and the headliner were still in perfect shape she told me the backseat was never sat on because her children left before they bought the car.
Thank you for the care and dedication to provide this excellent content! It's truelly a blast from the past that would otherwise be lost to the ages. *Ping!*
Drove both many miles. The merv was just a deluxe ford and was uncomfortable above 65 while the DeSoto was comfortable at over 80. The merc was work to drive in town with it's hard steering and brakes, no so with DeSoto which was really a re- trimmed Chrysler.
Despite all the Desoto advantages, Mercury sold three times as many cars in 1956...it fact it was only a thousand cars less than the previous, record year.
younger brothers first car, his best friend had a 1956 Merc for his first., the plus was when they were "drag racing" no one knew it!! He broadsided a 1960 Ford (who ran stop) pushed the guy across 6 lanes and destroyed the side of Ford, went home and rubbed the paint off the undamaged bumper guard !! Later sold it to a scrap dealer by the pound, think he made several million.
To me the 1956 Mercury was far more attractive than the Desoto. It's sleek styling started in 1955 and it's sales sure proved most people preferred it to a Desoto. Another thing the depiction of the Mercury without the fender skirts was not the standard. It was only a few years later, the Desoto was completely discontinued where Mercury set new records in design and sales.
I think the DeSoto is a far better looking car. By '60 not so much. Plus it was foolish for Chrysler, the smallest of the big 3, to be running 5 divisions. Every time Ford tried to expand to four they quickly contracted back to three.
As a 56 Desoto fireflite sportsman owner I can say the Desoto has a way better style. the mercury looks like something grandma would drive even though they are both good looking cars and the 330 ci hemi is a way more efficient engine then the y block ford. ford motor co was always years behind Chrysler and General Motors. but my family always had mercury sedans I’m the first one in the family too have a Desoto although I do own a 1995 mercury oddly enough.
as far as styling goes...thats up to the person looking at both cars..i think the merc looks good,,and even better as a 2 door hard top ..the DeSoto looks like something your grand parents would drive ,,chrysler brags about larger brakes..you probably need them with the bigger and heavier DeSoto
The Montclair Sport Sedan was a modified version of the regular 4-door Mercury, brought out the previous year to challenge the 4-door hardtops from Oldsmobile and Buick...it was discontinued mid-season when Mercury got its own version.
and to think all 57 chrysler products mounted the rear view mirror on the dash and became useless if someone sat in the middle seat of either the front or rear seat
Considering Mercury was still essentially a gussied-up Ford for 1956, there was no comparison between DeSoto and Mercury. I think DeSoto's major competition was next door in the Chrysler-Plymouth showroom...and as for "Blackie Carbon," isn't that what Bardahl was for back then?
The only Desoto, I have ever seen was on an Early Episode of Happy Days. My uncle had a few Desoto Firedome(translation HEMI) Engines laying on the ground at his Farm.
As a big Mercury fan this was quite interesting. Looking at these 2 cars side by side the Mercury looks kind of clunky, almost stubby, it even looks a year or 2 OLDER than the Desoto. Because I am a Ford/Mercury fan, and because styling is subjective...for some odd reason I find the " smaller " Mercury more appealing. BTW, Mercury's base prices in 1956 started at upper Plymouth prices with half the models under the Desoto's starting prices. So it was inevitable that in 5 years Desoto would be gone.
Honestly I'd take the Desoto just because of the Hemi engine. The push button shift was REALLY prone to problems but there's also a 3 speed manual. My grandpa had a Desoto I believe it was a 1955 or 56
De Soto was Chrysler's mid-level car, comparable to Ford's mid-level Mercury. The De Soto lay between Chrysler's lower-priced Plymouth and Dodge and the upscale Chrysler, while the Mercury lay between the base-level Ford and the luxury Lincoln. Both brands have been discontinued, the De Soto in 1961, while the Mercury lasted until 2011. The fact is that there really wan't a whole lot of point to either of them, anymore.
Mother Mopar made DeSoto redundant on the lower and higher end of its range thanks to higher end Plymouths and Dodges, and lower end Chryslers. And Ford neglected Mercury until it went on life support, then pulled the plug.
The all new Grille is just a plug for the hole they made for the 55 Grille and is much less attractive. The 55 Grille was used in thousands of the custom cars that were so popular back then, Nobody ever found a use for the 56 Grille so DeSoto styling took a hit in 56. The Merc has better styling than the DeSoto. I see a lot of old Mercs at car shows. DeSotos are seldom seen. That push button trans was a major failure. No Park and a weak parking brake that had to be used every time you parked. As an emergency brake it was useless. It was way too small to stop an overweight car. The Hemi engine was the only good thing it had going for it. A 56 Merc with a Hemi engine was something to be proud of.
Not a very fair comparison. In terms of size and price Mercury was closer to Dodge than DeSoto. The Ford company had nothing to compare to DeSoto until they came out with the Edsel in 1958.
chryselr again brags about having more power..yet i bet the extra horse power is eaten up by the bigger and heavier chrysler ,,chrysler wants to talk about safety?..what he didnt tell you is the merc has a park posistion on the column and in the tranny ,,and parking brake?..the merc is better cuzz you can lift one rear wheel off the ground and you still have another wheel holding you back..the DeSoto park brake will let the car move if one rear wheel is off the ground
True. Mopar's emergency brake mounted behind the tranny wasn't very effective. It only had one pair of brake shoes versus everyone else's two pairs (one per wheel). Chrysler didn't add a parking pawl to its Torqueflyte until 1962.
This isn’t an ad. This is a sales training slide show for Desoto dealers. The ping you here tells the presenter when to change the slide. All manufacturers had them to try and give their salesmen a leg up on the competition.
@@codyhilton1750 I honestly thought you were much younger. Most people even my age don’t remember these film strips and they were still in use in to the 80’s when I was in school. I know people younger than me would have no clue what these are.
En aquel tiempo las armadoras competían en la calidad duración y potencia de sus autos y camiones hoy en día son carros echos fragiles caros y muy malos pésimos sin calidad ni duración
