Ask the Car People.SM


The Best Cars From The '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s

118 messages,  Last post on Oct 02, 2011 at 9:47 PM

You are in the Classic Cars Forum.

What is this discussion about? Classic Cars

Messages Page 13 of 13

#117 of 118 Re: If Only, If Only... [hpmctorque] by andre1969

Oct 02, 2011 (8:39 am)

Replying to: hpmctorque (Oct 01, 2011 2:01 pm)
I always wondered what would have happened if Mopar had held off until 1958 to redesign, rather than rushing those 1957's out. I have a feeling that warmed over '56 models would have still sold pretty well, with the exception of Plymouth. Without an all-new model, they would have given a lot of sales to the all-new Ford most likely, who would have then overtaken Chevy by an even wider margin.
 
But, further up the ranks, the '57 Pontiac wasn't such a hot seller, and a facelifted '56 Dodge would have probably stacked up well against it. The '57 Olds, Buick, and Cadillac, while all-new, didn't look that radically different from the '56 models. The '57 Mercury, while all-new, didn't go over all that great with the public, either.
 
This would have meant that those new Forward look cars would have debuted in a recession year, but one reason Chrysler's sales in '58 were so bad was a backlash against the '57's, for quality control issues, so they might have done okay.
 
Plus, one reason the Fords and GM cars got so garish was in an attempt to out-do what Chrysler was doing, so if Chrysler pushed back their '57's a year, maybe GM wouldn't have gone so over-the-top with their '58 cars, and the '58 style might have lasted through '59, and perhaps been more tasteful.
 
Then again, maybe not. For 1959, GM was originally planning to update the '58 Chevy with a "central theme", inspired by the Edsel's grille, Tucker's third headlight, etc.

#118 of 118 Re: If Only, If Only... [andre1969] by hpmctorque

Oct 02, 2011 (9:47 pm)

Replying to: andre1969 (Oct 02, 2011 8:39 am)
"I always wondered what would have happened if Mopar had held off until 1958 to redesign, rather than rushing those 1957's out."
 
It's a question that's been asked, but to which we'll never know the answer. I think that Chrysler Corp. made a strategic decision to get a jump on the competition, rather than to give its rivals more time to learn its plans and react to them. It seems to me that Chrysler made a decision to assign a lower priority to quality with its '55 cars, and the company continued to execute on that plan with the '57s. Maybe if the '55s and '56s, which were well received, had been even bigger hits, the company could have afforded to keep those platforms in production for another year. However, the competition for styling innovation was fierce in those years. The marketplace rewarded dramatic changes, and Chrysler did its best to satisfy this desire.

Messages Page 13 of 13

To POST a message, please Sign In.

Advertisement

Browse by Category

Browse by Vehicle
   View All Vehicles

Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
View All Topics

Edmunds Community

Advertisement