1957 Chrysler Imperial vs Cadillac Dealer Promo Film Mopar is a registered trademark of Chrysler Group LLC. Master Tech series training materials are the property of Chrysler Group LLC and are used with permission. MyMopar.com
@@MarinCipollina Cadillac shared its roof lines only with senior Buicks. While the Pontiac Bonneville and Chevrolet Impala had similar style roof lines, they were not the same nor interchangeable.
Ages ago I appreciated the handling and power of my white 1958 Imperial convertible with the 392 ci Hemi and Torque-Flyte. That noted, today I cannot say enough as to the comfort and styling of our white 1954 Cadillac convertible with turquoise Haartz canvas convertible top, wonderbar radio, and all of the power options --a first class ride ! It draws almost as much attention as our yellow 1941 Caddy Convertible Coupe Both are great examples, and I'd like to have the white Imperial back alongside our Cadillacs, Packard, and brass-era Hudson !
After watching this promo film I'm selling my electric car and heading for the nearest Chrysler dealer. The Imperial is graceful, spacious and probably more economical than any Tesla.
Too bad we don't see many Imperials on the auction block. Probably because nobody says it rides like a Imperial. Really nice cars when working correctly.
That guy got his cape stuck under the brake pedal and caused a crash. His cousin what's the Diff and his brother big Diff will mourn his passing. He still owed money on his puffy directors pants taxes too.
Reminds me of the filmstrips we watched in grade school, with the "ding" on the record telling the teacher to advance to the next frame. The presentation is a bit campy by 2017 standards, but we shouldn't apply 21st century worldviews and culture to the 50s. After all, this was high-tech in 1958! 😉
These slide shows for salesmen.........Oh boy, a bowl of corn pone 🤡.........Don't miss the video of Jay Leno's 1958 Imperial Convertible. He wisely put disc brakes on it and uses radial tires. Too bad Imperial in 1958 did not have those features, then they might have had more luck getting GM folks to switch. Starting in 1955 it was just "Imperial", no longer called Chrysler Imperial. 🙂 Thanks for uploading these slide shows.
My Chevy pickup has torsion bars on the front end. Chrysler sued them for it and as time goes by I'm starting to realize how unique it is. Thanks Mopar.
Yeah... 60-0 in 100 feet with heat-faded 4-wheel drum brakes on a 5000lb car with crappy small-treadwidth 50s bias-ply tires. Meanwhile 2022 high-end sports cars weighing ~3000-3500lbs with multiple-piston huge-diameter cross-drilled/slotted + vented 4-wheel discs, with ABS/EBD/Brake Assist and incredibly sticky, wide, track-ready, extreme-performance radial tires can barely do 60-0 under 100ft. Makes total sense.
60-0 in 100 feet with heat-faded 4-wheel drum brakes on a 5000lb car with crappy small-treadwidth 50s bias-ply tires. Meanwhile 2022 high-end sports cars weighing ~3000-3500lbs with multiple-piston huge-diameter cross-drilled/slotted + vented 4-wheel discs, with ABS/EBD/Brake Assist and incredibly sticky, wide, track-ready, extreme-performance radial tires can barely do 60-0 under 100ft. Makes total sense.
58 Imperial looks were very minimally changed from quad headlight 57 models. The rear is exactly the same. The 58 Caddy's rear fins slanted backward, where the 57's slanted forward.
The GM coil spring suspension was exquisitely smooth. You rode over bumps and potholes...the driver never felt them. Chrysler chose torsion bars with leaf springs in rear. Okay, but was a firmer ride. It had to be. The torsion bars were on the front drive Olds Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado. Coils in rear. Crowded up front was why torsion bars were used.
@ 13:44 you can see the spokes on the add-wheel from the Imperial but not at the Caddy also the blur-effects of the grass/background (much more @ the Caddy). so i guess the Imperial was driven much slower over the hump than the Caddy. the PR-departement of Chrysler just knew why they show single pic's instead of a film ;) . however: in my opinion the cars back then looks much better, unique and weren't rolling computers.
How advertising has changed, last thing you do these days is bash the competition, actually praise it so that you can earn trust. How gullible people must have been those days. Good old days my arse!
5:06 "BUT THAT SPARE TIRE TAKES UP A LOT OF SPACE HERE." WTH????? HOW DOES CHANGING THE SPARE TIRE POSITION FROM VERTICAL TO HORIZONTAL MAKE 'MORE' SPACE? THESE GUYS BACK THEN WERE GRASPING AT EVERY SINGLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHRYSLER VS. CADILLAC AND TURNING ALL DIFFERENCES INTO SOMETHING INFERIOR BY CADILLAC'S. CRAZY!!
MadMax069 And the very thing that sets one apart will the next year be meaningless because it will no longer be exclusive or it will be deleted all together. Then other distinctives will have to be seized upon to achieve some tiny advantage against the competitor.
Sure that’s true if you needed to fill the trunk with liquids, that can fill every nook an cranny. But in USEABLE space the Imperials tire, laid flat over in one corner, leaves more usable space. There was no comparison between these two, except in price! Both were very expensive.
They said nothing about resale value of either vehicle. Considering that the Imperial is SO MUCH BETTER in EVERY category, you would expect the Imperial to hold it's value better. But, everyone knows that Chrysler products (except Jeep) resale value drops like a rock.
There’s no amount of Chrysler dealer promo film that will convince me to choose a 1958-60 Imperial over a 58-60 Cadillac. However, i do prefer the 65-66 Imperials over the 65-66 Cadillacs. Can’t go wrong with Imperials, Cadillacs and Lincolns back then.
Now here we are 63 years later, with Imperial having been out of the market for decades! With Chrysler in lean tough times, building great Pickups and decent high power performance cars, along with decent family vehicles. But sadly no Imperial.
If push button shifting and torsion bar suspension was so great why isn’t it still available on Imperial? Wait a second, come to think of it why isn’t Imperial still available?
jim dandy Chrysler engineers determined that it did there “to the rescue.” Maybe not every single Imperial but close to it. Imperial probably had bigger and more advanced brakes.
The Imperial has a better automatic transmission because it has a torque converter and this transmission is more performance oriented. I like too that the transmission has a kickdown band that's adjustable to insure positive full throttle downshifts!
Say what you want, for some reason always Cadillac sales have been much higher than Chrysler. Do you think that people who buy luxury American cars are unintelligent or snobbish?
Ha ha, I test drove both these cars in 58 and NO ONE liked the friggin dash mounted turn signal lever. Why it took Chrysler 6 years to admit it was a dumb ass idea is anyones guess. For ride I like the Imperial, for looks and interior comforts it was the Caddy all the way. Of course I bought a Chevy, they were both way to expensive for me.
Poor MOPAR still didn't get it, it seems. Cadillac owners wanted constancy in their cars' appearance and not to look obsolete after a year or two. They even highlighted the great value that a used Cadillac could be for a new owner. This '58 was a great car apart from indifferent assembly. The worst part on these was the turn signal lever and it amazes me that it took so many years (and perhaps Elwood Engel) to finally correct that poor design. The amazing part to me is that MOPAR used the same basic underpinnings from 1957 through 1966 and it was still a great car to the end!
giant limousines when lard was considered a mark of status and luxury. while Cadillac still exists 60 years later, every guy knows that Imperial was the most indestructible choice for demolition derbies
None Chrysler, Dodge or Plymouth car run in the principal Nascar races of 1957 and 1958 (Orange Speedway 500, Daytona Beach and other). There run and won Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet and Ford cars. If Chrysler cars were so powerful, so excelent suspension, so good brakes as this biassed video intend to demonstrate, the situation in that famous races had been totally different.
In styling the imperial seems to belong in another , newer generation. The 1959-60 and 1961-1964 era seem to be more comparable to the 1957 Imperial. The 1961 New Style JFK Lincoln was as large a leap over the opposition as what the 1957 Imperial was to its opposition. Whilst a large emphasis is made of the Cadillac not having as much advance over its opposition than the imperial however I'm of the opinion that the changes were much more required in the imperial rather than the Cadillac. The 1954 imperial was a dated look even when it was new in my opinion.
That Imperial is a fine automobile but, it is not even close to the 1957 and 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Broughams. They cost over 13k in 1957 that would be about 112k today, I am sorry, but this Cadillac will always be the top dog.
The Eldorado was a special small elite issue those years. It was not the general Cadillac product. The Cad has the edge on solid heavy duty structure. But for knock out super styling which defined the '57-58 era, the Imperial is an American super icon..... Uh, BTW, if you ever get an imperial, convert to the biggest modern disc brakes as a first priority. The stock bellows brakes is a real strongly questionable system.....
Cindy S the Cadddy shared a Buik and Oldsmobile body. The Imperial is from a new body line including all different axles, brakes and with the Torsion bar front end there is much less under steer compared to the Caddy. Tests were done on both 1958 models to compare handling, braking, performance, you name it. The Imperial stops way quicker handles better and smoother with specially made tires just for the imperial. During the later years these cars were getting used in globe Darby's. The Imperial was banned because it was so strong in structure they couldn't demolish it ! But I do agree Jay Leno just bought a 58 Imperial and has installed all new discs. A 2nd owner car which was driven around with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin!
What some people don't understand or see with there own eyes is Cadillac was nothing more then a glorified Buick. If you 1958 Buick Roadmaster against a 1958 Cadillac they are nearly identical. Only difference is the front face grill and taillights. Buick and Cadillac for years shared the same body style. With exception to Eldorado Cadillac was a glorified Buick. Imperial up to 1968 was Imperial only. Imperial didn't or never shared any body designs with Chrysler Dodge or Plymouth. Imperial was it's own unique car and style
There's a big difference between a Buick and a Cadillac,interiors are totally different,the wheelbase was totally different,it had features that the Buick never had,bigger engine,heavier transmission longer interior,thicker heavier frame. The Buick never have a V-8 until 1955, they always ran straight-8's, Cadillac had V-8's,V-12's,V-16's, dating all the way back as far back as 1910.
Nope, the 429 didn't come out until 1964. The biggest Caddy had before that was a 390. If you want to nitpick, Cadillac was also using a Oldsmobile tranny while Buick had it's own.
The Cadillac looks a lot better in most places. Except for the door handles. And how can they argue about trunk? The Cadillac clearly has a twice as big trunk. I would value that space way more than that allegedly better look.
+WAQWBrentwood Yeah, but Imperial had something Cadillac didn't: "Ex" Exner. The Forward Look was carefully developed for '57, and the '59 GM models were the result of a desperate catch-up program trying to copy rather than innovate. I think Chrysler Corporation's problems by '58 to '60 were more a response to the poor build quality of the '57 models than to the styling.
+5610winston Another problem was Chrysler corps historic muddled marketing. Imperial was a separate marque from 1955-1975, Yet this 1958 filmstrip (made in '57) was presented by the Chrysler Division (as distinct from Chrysler Corporation). That would be like GM producing a film extolling Cadillac, presented by the Buick Division.
+WAQWBrentwood Great point. If Imperial is a separate division why isn't the Imperial division and not the Chrysler division putting this on. As for sales, conflating Imperial with Chrysler unnecessarily called up in peoples' minds the poor build quality of all the rushed '57 Chrysler products EXCEPT the Imperial which had a separate plant and extra quality control in those days.
Lincoln must have been absolutely embarassed sharing the road with these 2 abominations back in 1958 Can you imagine the classy square elegance of a 1957 Continental MK II or a 1958 Lincoln Premiere riding alongside these gaudy monstrosities?
Disgraceful advertising. Clutching at straws if you ask me. The differences are insignificant in all aspects. Power of suggestion syndrome. i.e. believe what they say because they told you so. So it must be true.
