The 57 DeSoto was a great looking car, especially where you could get quad headlights. Sadly they had lots of issues with the torsion bars breaking and rust issues in the first year. I'm going to bet the Buick owner would be much happier than the DeSoto owner when it came time to trade the '57 in for his next car.
yeah, a little rust on the bottom of the torsion bar would cause it to fail. They added a cover in 58 to protect them from water entering the torsion bar. The Desoto is the rarer beast but i think they about equally valued for a basic models. The adventurer is super rare though and really high priced.
Indeed, my mother had a '57 two door Fireflite. She traded it for an Olds in 1960, never purchased another Chrysler and in 1989 told me I would regret purchasing a LeBaron convertible.
cars were affordable... you could get one every 2 years... In today's money cars ran about 15-20k, of course they didnt have air bags and power everything.
@@autochronicles8667But they did not have those things because they were not available yet, like today's steel that is far stronger than in the 50s. However, those cars were the best that technology could produce back then just as cars are now, but today cars have become much more expensive. Today everything is more expensive compared to wages, for example theoretically in my country olive oil should be a staple but its price doubled in a year while salaries... not really 😢
lol wait are you being sarcastic? :) These Roy Ross guys too their job seriously and wouldnt fudge the numbers at least and the magazines backed up the results.
Chrysler ditched their planned models for 1957 and instead rushed their 1960 models into production for the 1957 model year. That's why they look so modern.
eh that's subjective... i think the 57 Mopars certainly had no rust protection... they tried to do an addon for the dealers... but the rockers were bare steel inside.... Chrysler would start dipping their car bodies in 1960
The late '50s Chrysler Corporation had the WORST build quality in American cars. They have creaks and rust when they left the factory. Chrysler/Fiat/ Stallentis, even to this day, have quality control issues! They DO HAVE great engines and drive trains.
@@TheOzthewiz the build quality was about on par... Chevy/Ford were not pefect at all... The 57 Mopar's were troublesome because of moving up the production and the rush to get more sold. They worked a lot of bugs out in 58-59.. they were often sold completely out of stock... making them as fast as they could in 57...
@@autochronicles8667 it always seemed a shame that Chrysler, until '57 possibly the best-built of the Big Three, rushed the '57s into production so quickly. Even if they'd waited 'til '58 to roll out the designs they debuted in '57, they would *still* have looked years ahead, and would've been built much better.
Love the "Suddenly it's 1947" jab at that 3-piece rear window on the Buick. Looking at pictures online though, I'm noticing that some '57 Roadmasters have the 3-piece window, while some don't. Did they make the change to a 1-piece at some point in the middle of the '57 year on the C-body, I wonder?
Chrysler was pushing the big windows thing, i think the whole industry was about visibility.. Ford in 52 (Putting out video tonight was dissing Plymouth and their small windows).
Buick offered both versions on the 57 Roadmaster. The divided rear window was just trim strips overlaying the glass and the roof. Buick thought that this would differentiate the Roadmaster from the Super and Cadillacs but most people did not care for it and few were built that way. Dealers did not like them and thought that they made the expensive Roadmaster look like the cheaper Special. That is why both versions were offered after preproduction dealer preview. The Century was supposed to have those trunk to windshield chrome strips too, following the creases in the sheet metal. But since the dealers did not like the three piece rear window and the trim strips only emphasized it, they were never installed on regular production cars.
@@danielulz1640 Both the Roadmaster and Supers had one piece rear windows but early year models were available with the chrome strips. The Special and Century models both had actual three piece rear windows. It was one of the features that attracted me the most when I bought my '57 Special.
The desoto had a much better transmission, better power steering, better brakes, and better handling. The Buick was probably smoother, but mushy suspension
Despite DeSoto's claims of superiority, Buick outsold them. Driving tests for 1957 Buicks when new did register complaints about poor brakes. They went through them pretty fast.
Well sales numbers don't equate to quality. The 57 Desoto was updated with more modern equipment though and more powerful engine. GM was planning on selling the same tech for 58 but revamped quickly because of the 57 Mopars... Then again in 59... it scared GM and took marketshare.
The rear windows of the 1957 Buicks and Oldsmobiles we're very much influenced by the Mercedes 300 gullwing which was first being seen in the US in the mid 1950s.
@@sketchydustin8372 They don't. I have a '57 Buick Special with the three piece rear windows and the visibilty is incredible, like driving in a bubble.
Mopars got a horrible rust reputation from the 57-59 cars... Chrysler would start full dipping their cars in 1960... but the rusting reputation still stick around today. The dealers were supposed to offer rust proofing as an upsell option but they half a$$ed the jobs and usually made the problem worse. They started offering it as a factory option pretty quick but the rubberized rust proofing also often captured moisture behind it... making it worse.
What a shame Chrysler stuffed up on quality in 1957...aside from the untried new suspensions breaking and terrible body corrosion they were the most attractive range of the Big Three. My favourite is the '55 and '56...but these '57 -'61 cars were actually really good once they developed them more.
suspension was actually very good. The torsion bars snapped from corrosion also. They were in such a rush to get the cars to the showroom they were going to "rely" on the dealer to sell rustproofing. GM/Ford had spies... and seen their designs. They didnt "peek" over a fence like they claim... they had spies :)
The MoPar cars were awesome, But I am a hard-core Buick guy. Buick for '57! BTW only ONE of these cars will still be not uncommon on the road in 1975! Can you guess? "... a lot of 1947 cars had THAT feature..." Yah those old, outdated 1947 cars had WHEELS too. Can you believe that EVEN today(2023) BUICK is STILL using...Wheels?!?!.
Production figures are cruel : for 1957 : DeSoto : 126,514, Buick : 405,086 and the ratio is gonna worsen the following years... And 5 years later, DeSoto was history... Sad, cruel but true... 7:04 Especially for a drum brakes equipped car that could stop from 60mph within about 100' at least 6 consecutive times !!!
Buick only survived through attrition and China market... And Desoto was a whole separate plant making the same similar vehicle.... Ford meanwhile foolishly thought the extra mid upper line was a mistake and spent insane amounts of money bringing Edsel online... only to fail due to the recession and awkward design... But the Buick was a cheaper car than the Desoto... Desoto was right up there nearly with Chrysler... Olds was probably more comparable to Desoto.
@@autochronicles8667 There was a lot of price range between a 1957 top of the line Buick Roadmaster, and the entry level Buick Special. Buick slotted between Oldsmobile and Cadillac.
Actually the 57 Buick still looks better than the DeSoto. The Fuselage on the DeSoto just swoops up to much in the rear and the car looks unbalanced visually and awkward.
That's a tough call... to pick one over the other? Buick always had some great attributes... the Desoto pulled off the dual headlights though. I got a 57 Buick film this weekend...
Buick has the looks hands down. 55 and 56 DeSotos were nice looking cars, but they fell off the wagon for a couple years thereafter. 1960 DeSotos were nice.
Weird marketing spacing. Typically, DeSoto was competing with Oldsmobile while Chrysler was competing with Buick. While Imperial was competing with Cadillac.🤷♂️
I'll look up the magazine tests... I think they all confirmed this... The Buicks were the fastest GM cars of the year and they only beat them by a little.
@@autochronicles8667 on another channel on RU-vid there are episodes of Highway Patrol featuring Broderick Crawford and featuring a lot of cars from the 50s and early 60s. I remember seeing some DeSoto cars. If you get the chance look up “Highway Patrol “ on RU-vid and enjoy seeing the old cars. 😁
