My friend's father was a Baptist minister and they lived across the street from us. He was very strict and they didn't have a tv or allow his children to go to the movies. Their entertainment was going to the library and listening to shows on the radio. Much to our surprise, his father bought a new 1957 Plymouth and a couple years later they got a tv! I don't know what changed, but all of sudden they were in the 20th century.
58' Plymouth Plaza was very popular for taxi drivers in Greece from late 50s till late 60s. In general American cars were very popular for Greek taxi drivers and Greek public services until 1965.
@@roblbrewer This is true, even from the 70s they had almost disapperead from the streets. In some Greek islands however, they survived till the early 1980s as taxis. I know for sure that in 1983 a 58' dodge was still on duty as taxi in the Island of Aegena
I love the old Chrysler products, the were light enough to handle all right versus everything else from the United States that was so much heavier. Chrysler products were actually advertised as sort of economical in the early fifties. I'd love to find an early hemi with a three speed manual and overdrive. Nice car.
Nice car, the cheapest model in the 1958 Plymouth line, many saw service as taxicabs. The flathead six engine was already obsolete by 1955, but Chrysler did not build a modern 6-cylinder engine until the celebrated Slant Six introduced in 1959 for the 1960 model year. This flathead six engine was designed and first built in 1938, so Chrysler got more than their money's worth by extending their use from 1939 models to 1959 models.
Thanks for the memories. My father bought a navy blue, manual shift '58 which he owned until a move in '62. Our car carried we five from Winnipeg to Grand Bend , Ontario and return during the family vacation. When we moved to Montreal in '62, this car was given to a family friend who used it until '71, again without serious problems. From watching my father driving in Duluth, I learned how to start on a steep hill without rolling back.
When I was a teenager I found a 57 Plaza sedan in the junkyard it actually was a pretty decent car minimal rust which for Indiana was a miracle. What impressed me that even though it was a flathead it had a two barrel carburetor! It was a four-door so of course I pooped it and boy do I wish I taken it home now.
71+ year old FUD here. Nice old car. Working man’s special. Interesting that in 1958 the fuel filler door was on the side and in your ‘63 Chryslers and later vehicles it was at the back behind the license plate. Happy motoring!😊
luv this car. Amazing to me that Mopar persisted with the flathead when GM and Ford long had ohv 6's...maybe they were gearing up for the best I6 ever to be released in a couple years. Sorry to see this one go
I LOVED THE MOPAR "FLATHEAD SIX"! I grew up with this GREAT MOTOR in a '50 DeSoto and '54 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe! I WISH MOPARS WERE BUILT LIKE THIS TODAY!
1958 was the last year for the Plaza. In 1959 the Savoy became the low trim level and the Fury nameplate took the high trim level with Sport Fury essentially taking the place of the specialty Fury model of 1956-1958.
Very much enjoyed your video. What a cool car! The Mopar flatheads are a very underrated engine. They are super reliable. My 51 Dodge has the 230 flathead; what a great mill. Thanks for sharing!
Your interest in old mopars is chsrming and I cannot resist. This is yet another fascinating car, with your competent and humble narration. Thank you for the unpretentious, straightforward sharing!
I’ve always had a soft spot for low-midline 50’s cars, especially Plymouths. The 57-58 Savoy is my #1 favourite car, I’m a big fan of the Flat Head six Cylinders of the 50’s, they sound like a low grumble. As though the car is grumpy that it has to go for a drive. And I’m very much in love with the trim line for the Savoy, better than the Fury in my opinion. Take care of that sweet Plaza, it looks really good. Cheers from Ontario
That's my favorite car I've always wanted!! My dad bought one in '64 and as a 9 year old I saw it as the coolest looking car ever made! Unfortunately it was a real headache for my parents. Always in the shop and when the front seat started going through the rusted floor, they got rid of it in '68. I was only 12 and too young to of gotten it,but 3 years later I got thier '59 Ambassador which I kept to this day.
@ObsoleteAutomotive and we were in nj. I knew a man who had a 58 Belvidere in the mid 70s. He thought his rear view mirror was loose as he kept having to adjust it. Turned out his floorboards were rusted allowing his seat to get lower. I later spotted his car in a nj junkyard as I was looking for parts for my Ambassador.
In Canada, the Plymouth Plaza was also called a Dodge Crusader, savoy was a also a Regent, and Belvedere/ Fury, was also called a Mayfair and in 1959 only Viscount, all rebadged Plymouths and not U.S Dodges.
I had a 61 Belvedere 4dr, 318 poly engine, for my 1st car. Tough as nails. Amazing how much trim even the low priced cars had. I currently have a 65 Rambler Classic 770 Convertible with factory ac. I'm just north of Charlotte. Maybe I'll see you at a cruise in.
a great and complete review.. !!! thank you, and something inusual to most of youtubers is to show value and prices compares across the time .. is a plus! greetings froms VENEZUELA , im just thinking acquiring one of those monsters..
Here's the low-down on the year 1958 that everybody wanted to forget. Have you ever wondered why the 1958 line-up of cars from Detroit are not that plentiful? The reason for what happened was the recession of 1958 is occasionally mentioned but frequently glossed over; it was short, but it was nasty, and had a particularly devastating effect on the auto industry. In truth, the recession of 1958 started in the fall of 1957 -- just as the new 1958 model cars were rolling into showrooms nationwide -- and only lasted through April. Still, its effects were strong: GDP fell 4.2 percent in the last quarter of 1957, then plummeted another 10.4 percent in the first quarter of 1958. In the spring of 1958, steel production was at 52.4 percent of capacity, versus 93.5 percent a year earlier; weekly steel production, at 1,415,000 tons in early 1958, was nearly a million tons a week less than 12 months prior. In previous recessions, prices for goods had gone down, but in 1958, for the first time, they went up. Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent year-to-year. Unemployment, always a slightly lagging indicator, reached a 7.1 percent peak in September 1958, although the rate in the Detroit area was something closer to 20 percent. The recession of 1958 hit fast and hard, and selling cars then was tough enough, even with established top-of-the-sales-charts marques. Witness Chevrolet, whose entirely new, bread-and-butter X-framed full-size line, which included the new top-of-the-line Impala, dipped a staggering 300,000 units. Speaking of Pontiac, Pontiac fell from 334,000 to 217,000 units sold, but still retained more than 5 percent of the market; Oldsmobile dropped from 384,000 to 296,000 in sales; and the new "Air Born" Buick was nearly grounded, sales dropped from 404,000 units in 1957 to a shocking 240,000 in 1958. Cadillac fared better than most in GM, down to 121,778 units in 1958 from 146,841 in its restyle year of 1957. Ford had a pair of unit-body models that debuted for 1958: the four-seat Ford Thunderbird, and the entire Lincoln line. Of these, the so-called Squarebird was an absolute bright spot for Ford sales; but in terms of sales and attention, it was the right move -- at nearly 38,000 sold, it topped the previous two-seater's sales numbers by a whopping 16,000 units. As such, it's one of the few cars that benefited in 1958. On the flip side were the Lincoln and Continental lines. Sharing a body for 1958, these were the largest unit-body cars ever built in series production, and the longest wheelbase regular-production cars since World War II. As such, the luxury offerings represented a massive technical achievement. Items like the canted-headlamp nose, the massive bumpers (even by 1958 standards) and the front wheel opening treatment, designed perhaps to invoke the pontoon-fendered elegance of the 1930s, have all been used as examples when someone points to this generation of Lincoln and accuses its style of being "excessive" and "overwrought." While Continentals (called Mk III in 1958) outsold the previous hand-built Mk II considerably, production of the Lincoln series (identical save for roof-line, and meant to compete against Oldsmobile) dropped precipitously. It was a moot point, though, since Continental Division was folded into Lincoln for 1958. Yet the Lincoln Division alone is said to have lost $60 million alone from 1958-'60. This, on top of the hemorrhaging Edsel division, made an already-bad economic situation worse. And all that drama was with the all-new cars. So how did the carryover models fare? Well, even worse. The Ford line, all-new in 1957 and face-lifted to give a passing resemblance to the fabulous new Thunderbird, dropped from 1.5 million cars and beating Chevy in the 1957 sales race to less than one million built a year later, and a quarter-million units down on its erstwhile competition across town. Mercury's numbers dropped precipitously, from 286,000 to 183,000. Chrysler divisions, which had succeeded so spectacularly on the backs of the 1957 Forward Look design that invigorated every model from the lowliest Plymouth to the richest Imperial, tanked even more spectacularly. Dodge more than halved its numbers, from 287,000 in 1957 to 137,000 in 1958. Imperial, similarly, took a dive, from 37,500 units to just 16,000 year-to-year. Plymouth dropped from 762,000 units to less than 444,000; whispers of quality-control issues in an effort to see three quarters of a million cars out the door at Highland Park in 1957 may have come back to bite the division in 1958. Just to underscore how tough a year 1958 was for the sales force, even with a 40-odd-percent drop in cars built, Plymouth still retained third place in sales. De Soto hadn't been healthy for years; dropping from 126,000 to less than 50,000 in a single year only underscored that the division was on the way out. While Chrysler Division's production was nearly halved, to just under 64,000 units. In a lot of ways, the failures of 1958 -- and there were many, both economic and corporate may have been significant for the soul searching it encouraged within Detroit; the steady onslaught of import cars (primarily Renault and Volkswagen, although a number of British marques offered a variety of more overtly sporting cars) combined with a 31 percent year-to-year drop in car sales, surely helped popularize the push for the compacts that were due in 1960. Something else that may have helped justify that decision: the success of the newly face-lifted Rambler, now with twin headlamps and baby fins. Leaping from 91,000 units in 1957 to 162,000 in 1958, the Kenosha company jumped from 12th in the sales charts clear up to seventh in this recession year; this momentum would later see them reach as high as third in the charts. The rest of the industry surely marveled at the notion of smaller cars, bereft of the latest gadgets and styling tricks, capturing the imagination of the American public. Rambler was the closest thing America had to a home-grown import car, in size and intent, and the combination of low price, overall economy and reliability was apparently irresistible during the recession of 1958. As a stopgap measure, some automakers briefly caught import fever; these captive imports were made by the international divisions of the divisions' corporate masters, and were surely meant to compete against Rambler as much as the imports. Buick dealers welcomed the German Opel into the fold while Pontiac briefly flirted with British import Vauxhall Victor. Ford offered its European Consul/Zodiac/Zephyr line in the States as well. Most of these were soon dropped after the American wave of compacts came in for 1960 and 1961.
Thanks for showing the survivor Plymouth sedan. Plymouth for many years had a fairly high percentage of sales in the base model so they were very frequently seen on the road.
Thanks for the memories. Dad had a new 58 Belvedere four door hardtop with about every option dreamed of, including the sport tone side spear. It was the first car I ever drove. Nice car and I think you did a great job presenting it.
@@danielulz1640 My recollections were incorrect, as I just found in one of my books. Ford had come up with intermittent wipers (not variable) and they were sued for stealing the patent from an individual. So Ford, Chrysler etc had to pay a royalty to use "intermittent" wipers after that time. Thanks for the response, but were the variable wipers really vacuum? Sure wish I had Dad's Belvedere today, at the time I thought it was the most beautiful car that anyone could ever make. :)
@@ObsoleteAutomotive I remember seeing it sometime back. Just didn't remember the particulars. Thanks. Did you check to see if the Plaza really had vacuum wipers?Always interested in those Plymouths.
Austin, I really like you, your car, and your passion for cars. Your video was entertaining. I appreciate how much research you did and presented so clearly. You're a wordsmith, good videographer and editor. I subscribed and will recommend my friends do so too. Blaine Halley old car guy in Santa Cruz, CA. 😎
@@blainehalley2201 Thanks for commenting and subscribing. I’m still trying to figure out the best ways to do these videos and it’s definitely still a learning process. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Unlike the '57s in '58 you could buy a lowly Savoy 2 door with the slick Sport Coupe roof - a perfect base to do a Fury clone. Pops bought a '57 wagon when we lived near Chicago as a boomer kid - and our neighbor across St bought a 2 tone Plaza that maroon/rust color on top with cream white lower spear on bottom and roof. His had a 6 and he hated it, ran like sh*t. As a punk I LOVED our wagon cream with lower custom lavender spear and roof. Our wagon with V8 kicked ass but about one year later the one Chicago winter already had rust bubbles appearing above the front headlights on top fender - woof !!! I still have b/w hi res photos of that Custom Suburban wagon to this day. Best looking cars on the block when all else looked like tubs, lol !!! 👀
So there ya go a modern charger starts out more than the loaded fury did in 58 even after adjustment for the dollar. Cars are ridiculously overpriced today.
As a youngster I owned several and drove many other cars and trucks without p/s. The worst were the ones that had unit failure,pump or vector that would leak faster than you could fill it ir just didn't work. Never really cared. Nowadays,I would not even try to drive without it. Too much arthritis.🤨
Thanks for another good video that's very interesting car and kind of wonder who optioned it that that way. A lot of people back then didn't want to be flashy but if you could spruce up your bottom of the barrel car and could afford it just a little of life's luxuries I guess.
@@wilco3588 It’s rare to find low trim levels with options. Usually the people buying the cheaper models were more thrifty, didn’t have the money to spend, or just didn’t want to be flashy. So it’s always interesting to come across one and wonder… why did they option it this way.
I think you should get one of those Rambler Americans that look like an upside down bathtub. They have many winsome qualities and sold well in the day!
13:00 The car has no lock knobs, but in the movie Christine, a lock knob is clearly shown shutting on its own to trap the girl inside the car. Looks like the movie makers took this liberty for clarity's sake.
@@Armc31416 The movie made up the locks I guess so the average viewer would know the doors locked as unless you owned one of these cars you wouldn’t know that pushing the door handle down is what locks it.
It's better to not turn the power steering wheel while the car is not moving. It's stressing the power steering pump to turn the wheels when it's just sitting
Thanks for the second video on your Plymouth. It is really a beauty; somebody in California kept after it. As a Chrysler lover what do you think about adding front seat belts in the case of a new owner wanting to take it out on the road say a 200 mile trip? A few years ago I saw a Hudson Jet with added seat belts. The owner had pulled them from a yard and installed them pretty easily.
I’ve installed lap belts in many of my cars over the years. New airplane style seatbelts can be purchased from several vendors. I have a video installing belts in my ‘62 Plymouth. th-cam.com/video/QZ46ooabGLA/w-d-xo.html
They did. There was an accessory group that included windshield washer, back up lights, etc. “Heavy duty packages” with stiffer springs, bigger brakes, bigger radiator, etc. There was also a “accessory package” which the dealer installed which was two outside mirrors, vanity mirror and license plate frame.
Notice no rear seat door arm rests, didn’t see any rear seat ash trays, don’t see back up lights even with an automatic transmission. Like the radio delete plate in the dash that matches the contour of the rest of the dash.
My first car was a 1958 Plymouth station wagon I was 15 years old and got money for my birthday, talked the man down to $78. 00 and my mother had to drive it home cause I didn’t have a drivers permit yet, a lot of learning about cars then and my dad got tired of seeing it in pieces and sold it to the junk man and gave me $40 bucks
Question: one of my memories from back then is that almost all of these seemed to seriously rust out over the headlights, like the eyebrows just dissolved. Why was that and what made the difference why some did and some (like this Plaza here) did not? Was there an issue with the fit or channels for drainage?
There is no inner wheel well so any water or dirt can get slung into the backside of the headlight area. This can allow for the backside to start rusting. Combine this with road salt in snow states and it was a recipe for a rusty mess. This car lived in California its whole life and wasn’t exposed to road salt or other conditions such as dirt roads/water that would start rust issues.
@@DoubleMrE Other companies kept using them on cars even longer. And for industrial applications the Flathead was built/used for many more years in use in airport tugs, generators, etc.
When I was a kid I heard my parents talking about buying a 4-door sedan and I thought they were saying "4 Dorsey-Dan". Our upstairs renters were named "Dorsey". I couldn't figure out who this guy was.
It's funny now ... but as tastes have changed, the Plaza, with its minimal trim, actually looks better than the chrome dipped Furys of the period (at least to me).
If you know how to drive correctly you don’t need power steering . I miss wing windows and cigarette lighters . I don’t miss fins , single chamber master brake cylinders or Joe McCarthy .
@@UraniumTheProtogen They don’t look the same? Each year is different and each model and body style differs. Sure the model year has the same main features because they are all essentially the same car underneath. Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler and Imperial were all part of Chrysler Corporation.
Great video. My Dad bought a new 58 Plymouth Plaza 4dr from Balthaser Mtrs in Hamburg PA. Light green, no options, except strangely, a 318 Poly with Powerflite. I can see the gold V in the grill. I later "inherited" the car. Lots of rust and body filler, but mechanically, a pretty sound piece. Never knew about the Silver Special model. What could possibly have been deleted to further reduce the price?
@ The Silver Specials actually gained some things! Whitewall tires, full wheel covers and the special trim and silver painted roof. The options on the Silver Specials is odd. I’ve seen them with all sorts of different options. Almost like they just chose random cars on the assembly line and made them into Silver Specials.
My friend's father was a Baptist minister and they lived across the street from us. He was very strict and they didn't have a tv or allow his children to go to the movies. Their entertainment was going to the library and listening to shows on the radio. Much to our surprise, his father bought a new 1957 Plymouth and a couple years later they got a tv! I don't know what changed, but all of sudden they were in the 20th century.
Times is a changin!! Ha
The dad finally started loosening up!
I had a very early production '57 Plaza 2 door sedan with the 6cyl/ automatic, and factory power steering and brakes. It was very unique.
Great video. Power steering was a huge revelation back then, now it's standard equipment. It made a huge difference in driving ease.
My dads '54 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe had the "flathead", Powerflite, and power steering! A GREAT CAR!
Blue Bonnet blue- nice name and pretty colour. Nice straight, honest car from another time. I wonder what stories it could tell.
58' Plymouth Plaza was very popular for taxi drivers in Greece from late 50s till late 60s. In general American cars were very popular for Greek taxi drivers and Greek public services until 1965.
Interesting! I didn’t know that.
When I was there in the 80's they had been replaced by cheap Mercedes European versions.
@@roblbrewer This is true, even from the 70s they had almost disapperead from the streets. In some Greek islands however, they survived till the early 1980s as taxis. I know for sure that in 1983 a 58' dodge was still on duty as taxi in the Island of Aegena
@@cortinakias You can see some of them in Greek movies made before and during the so-called 'Junta'.
This was the era of GREAT CHRYSLER CARS!
Love the colour scheme and the extra options on this model. Wish this was sitting in my garage I'd be a very happy guy.
I would ADORE this GREAT CAR!
My absolute favourite car.
The 57-58 Plymouth is such a good looking car, base spec plaza to top spec Belvedere/fury.
Never knew the "baseline" or backstory of the "Silver Special" cars till today
Fun Plymouth to see and rare in 2024
I love the old Chrysler products, the were light enough to handle all right versus everything else from the United States that was so much heavier. Chrysler products were actually advertised as sort of economical in the early fifties. I'd love to find an early hemi with a three speed manual and overdrive. Nice car.
Incredible !!!! My parents owned a 1959 Plymouth Savoy !!!!
Too find one of these on the road is a miracle!!!!😊
Usually they were rusted into the ground by the winter of 1963
Nice car, the cheapest model in the 1958 Plymouth line, many saw service as taxicabs.
The flathead six engine was already obsolete by 1955, but Chrysler did not build a modern 6-cylinder engine until the celebrated Slant Six introduced in 1959 for the 1960 model year. This flathead six engine was designed and first built in 1938, so Chrysler got more than their money's worth by extending their use from 1939 models to 1959 models.
the falthead six have been used up to early seventies in industrial and heavy vehicules as trucks and agricultural / municipal utilities.
Having experienced both, I MUCH PREFER THE FLATHEAD!
My Grandmother's car!!
Her car was a 6 with 3 speed. Very smooth and quite. Her previous car was a 2' door 55 plaza.
Thanks for the memories. My father bought a navy blue, manual shift '58 which he owned until a move in '62. Our car carried we five from Winnipeg to Grand Bend , Ontario and return during the family vacation. When we moved to Montreal in '62, this car was given to a family friend who used it until '71, again without serious problems. From watching my father driving in Duluth, I learned how to start on a steep hill without rolling back.
When I was a teenager I found a 57 Plaza sedan in the junkyard it actually was a pretty decent car minimal rust which for Indiana was a miracle. What impressed me that even though it was a flathead it had a two barrel carburetor! It was a four-door so of course I pooped it and boy do I wish I taken it home now.
@@wilco3588 The Dodge cars with Flathead engines were equipped with 2bbl cars. Someone may have swapped it on the Plymouth for that extra 1HP!
71+ year old FUD here. Nice old car. Working man’s special. Interesting that in 1958 the fuel filler door was on the side and in your ‘63 Chryslers and later vehicles it was at the back behind the license plate. Happy motoring!😊
luv this car. Amazing to me that Mopar persisted with the flathead when GM and Ford long had ohv 6's...maybe they were gearing up for the best I6 ever to be released in a couple years. Sorry to see this one go
The best looking cars is definitely the Forward look cars… thanks for the video 👍
I LOVED THE MOPAR "FLATHEAD SIX"! I grew up with this GREAT MOTOR in a '50 DeSoto and '54 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe! I WISH MOPARS WERE BUILT LIKE THIS TODAY!
Thanks for uploading. I'd heard about the Savoy, Belvedere & Fury but I'd never heard of the Plaza until now!
1958 was the last year for the Plaza. In 1959 the Savoy became the low trim level and the Fury nameplate took the high trim level with Sport Fury essentially taking the place of the specialty Fury model of 1956-1958.
My dad's buddy had a '57 Plaza (VERY PLAIN) new; bought in November '56 for $1370! It was a GREAT OLD CAR!
Neat car! One way to tell that it's a base model is the lack of rear door armrests.
What a sweet ride!
Very much enjoyed your video. What a cool car! The Mopar flatheads are a very underrated engine. They are super reliable. My 51 Dodge has the 230 flathead; what a great mill. Thanks for sharing!
They are also very easy to work on! Ha
Had one in my 55 Belvedere. Not only delivered 26mpg since it had a 3-speed with overdrive, but was very quiet and ran cool.
Your interest in old mopars is chsrming and I cannot resist. This is yet another fascinating car, with your competent and humble narration. Thank you for the unpretentious, straightforward sharing!
Thanks for watching and commenting! Glad you enjoyed it.
It's nice to see a "non-Christine" '58 Plymouth once in a while. Especially in such good original condition. Good luck with her.
Love it , you get to play with some great mopars and enjoy them !
I’ve always had a soft spot for low-midline 50’s cars, especially Plymouths. The 57-58 Savoy is my #1 favourite car, I’m a big fan of the Flat Head six Cylinders of the 50’s, they sound like a low grumble. As though the car is grumpy that it has to go for a drive. And I’m very much in love with the trim line for the Savoy, better than the Fury in my opinion. Take care of that sweet Plaza, it looks really good.
Cheers from Ontario
Those were also used as taxi cabs
If you watch an old movie
It's a mad mad world there's a bunch of them especially toward the end of the movie
Popular UK conversion was to fit a Perkins 4/99 diesel
I fondly remember the Plazss and the Savoys.
The top of the line was
the Fury.....with the gold grille and appointmenys
White tops were common then, when A/C was rare, to be cooler in the heat. Two tones would become passé in a few years.
The flathead six in Canada, was a little bigger than the one in the U.S.
That's my favorite car I've always wanted!! My dad bought one in '64 and as a 9 year old I saw it as the coolest looking car ever made! Unfortunately it was a real headache for my parents. Always in the shop and when the front seat started going through the rusted floor, they got rid of it in '68. I was only 12 and too young to of gotten it,but 3 years later I got thier '59 Ambassador which I kept to this day.
@@geralderdek282 Rust was a common issue with cars of this era. Especially up north.
@ObsoleteAutomotive and we were in nj. I knew a man who had a 58 Belvidere in the mid 70s. He thought his rear view mirror was loose as he kept having to adjust it. Turned out his floorboards were rusted allowing his seat to get lower. I later spotted his car in a nj junkyard as I was looking for parts for my Ambassador.
In Canada, the Plymouth Plaza was also called a Dodge Crusader, savoy was a also a Regent, and Belvedere/ Fury, was also called a Mayfair and in 1959 only Viscount, all rebadged Plymouths and not U.S Dodges.
Didn't they call them "Plodges"?
@@dr.maturin4648 I think so, just like Canadian Pontiacs were "Ponchos"
Cool car, and cool that it will be in the movies 👍
Very nice original car.
I had a 61 Belvedere 4dr, 318 poly engine, for my 1st car. Tough as nails. Amazing how much trim even the low priced cars had. I currently have a 65 Rambler Classic 770 Convertible with factory ac. I'm just north of Charlotte. Maybe I'll see you at a cruise in.
I have an older video on a 61 Belvedere that I owned. Poly 318/Auto.
th-cam.com/video/9wUr6feBNhQ/w-d-xo.html
I like the mirror on the windshield.
Great report! Thank you!
a great and complete review.. !!! thank you, and something inusual to most of youtubers is to show value and prices compares across the time .. is a plus! greetings froms VENEZUELA , im just thinking acquiring one of those monsters..
@@PatriciaDiPucciSaldivia Thanks for watching! You should get you one!
Here's the low-down on the year 1958 that everybody wanted to forget. Have you ever wondered why the 1958 line-up of cars from Detroit are not that plentiful? The reason for what happened was the recession of 1958 is occasionally mentioned but frequently glossed over; it was short, but it was nasty, and had a particularly devastating effect on the auto industry. In truth, the recession of 1958 started in the fall of 1957 -- just as the new 1958 model cars were rolling into showrooms nationwide -- and only lasted through April. Still, its effects were strong: GDP fell 4.2 percent in the last quarter of 1957, then plummeted another 10.4 percent in the first quarter of 1958. In the spring of 1958, steel production was at 52.4 percent of capacity, versus 93.5 percent a year earlier; weekly steel production, at 1,415,000 tons in early 1958, was nearly a million tons a week less than 12 months prior. In previous recessions, prices for goods had gone down, but in 1958, for the first time, they went up. Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent year-to-year. Unemployment, always a slightly lagging indicator, reached a 7.1 percent peak in September 1958, although the rate in the Detroit area was something closer to 20 percent. The recession of 1958 hit fast and hard, and selling cars then was tough enough, even with established top-of-the-sales-charts marques. Witness Chevrolet, whose entirely new, bread-and-butter X-framed full-size line, which included the new top-of-the-line Impala, dipped a staggering 300,000 units. Speaking of Pontiac, Pontiac fell from 334,000 to 217,000 units sold, but still retained more than 5 percent of the market; Oldsmobile dropped from 384,000 to 296,000 in sales; and the new "Air Born" Buick was nearly grounded, sales dropped from 404,000 units in 1957 to a shocking 240,000 in 1958. Cadillac fared better than most in GM, down to 121,778 units in 1958 from 146,841 in its restyle year of 1957. Ford had a pair of unit-body models that debuted for 1958: the four-seat Ford Thunderbird, and the entire Lincoln line. Of these, the so-called Squarebird was an absolute bright spot for Ford sales; but in terms of sales and attention, it was the right move -- at nearly 38,000 sold, it topped the previous two-seater's sales numbers by a whopping 16,000 units. As such, it's one of the few cars that benefited in 1958. On the flip side were the Lincoln and Continental lines. Sharing a body for 1958, these were the largest unit-body cars ever built in series production, and the longest wheelbase regular-production cars since World War II. As such, the luxury offerings represented a massive technical achievement. Items like the canted-headlamp nose, the massive bumpers (even by 1958 standards) and the front wheel opening treatment, designed perhaps to invoke the pontoon-fendered elegance of the 1930s, have all been used as examples when someone points to this generation of Lincoln and accuses its style of being "excessive" and "overwrought." While Continentals (called Mk III in 1958) outsold the previous hand-built Mk II considerably, production of the Lincoln series (identical save for roof-line, and meant to compete against Oldsmobile) dropped precipitously. It was a moot point, though, since Continental Division was folded into Lincoln for 1958. Yet the Lincoln Division alone is said to have lost $60 million alone from 1958-'60. This, on top of the hemorrhaging Edsel division, made an already-bad economic situation worse. And all that drama was with the all-new cars. So how did the carryover models fare? Well, even worse. The Ford line, all-new in 1957 and face-lifted to give a passing resemblance to the fabulous new Thunderbird, dropped from 1.5 million cars and beating Chevy in the 1957 sales race to less than one million built a year later, and a quarter-million units down on its erstwhile competition across town. Mercury's numbers dropped precipitously, from 286,000 to 183,000. Chrysler divisions, which had succeeded so spectacularly on the backs of the 1957 Forward Look design that invigorated every model from the lowliest Plymouth to the richest Imperial, tanked even more spectacularly. Dodge more than halved its numbers, from 287,000 in 1957 to 137,000 in 1958. Imperial, similarly, took a dive, from 37,500 units to just 16,000 year-to-year. Plymouth dropped from 762,000 units to less than 444,000; whispers of quality-control issues in an effort to see three quarters of a million cars out the door at Highland Park in 1957 may have come back to bite the division in 1958. Just to underscore how tough a year 1958 was for the sales force, even with a 40-odd-percent drop in cars built, Plymouth still retained third place in sales. De Soto hadn't been healthy for years; dropping from 126,000 to less than 50,000 in a single year only underscored that the division was on the way out. While Chrysler Division's production was nearly halved, to just under 64,000 units. In a lot of ways, the failures of 1958 -- and there were many, both economic and corporate may have been significant for the soul searching it encouraged within Detroit; the steady onslaught of import cars (primarily Renault and Volkswagen, although a number of British marques offered a variety of more overtly sporting cars) combined with a 31 percent year-to-year drop in car sales, surely helped popularize the push for the compacts that were due in 1960.
Something else that may have helped justify that decision: the success of the newly face-lifted Rambler, now with twin headlamps and baby fins. Leaping from 91,000 units in 1957 to 162,000 in 1958, the Kenosha company jumped from 12th in the sales charts clear up to seventh in this recession year; this momentum would later see them reach as high as third in the charts. The rest of the industry surely marveled at the notion of smaller cars, bereft of the latest gadgets and styling tricks, capturing the imagination of the American public. Rambler was the closest thing America had to a home-grown import car, in size and intent, and the combination of low price, overall economy and reliability was apparently irresistible during the recession of 1958. As a stopgap measure, some automakers briefly caught import fever; these captive imports were made by the international divisions of the divisions' corporate masters, and were surely meant to compete against Rambler as much as the imports. Buick dealers welcomed the German Opel into the fold while Pontiac briefly flirted with British import Vauxhall Victor. Ford offered its European Consul/Zodiac/Zephyr line in the States as well. Most of these were soon dropped after the American wave of compacts came in for 1960 and 1961.
Thanks for showing the survivor Plymouth sedan. Plymouth for many years had a fairly high percentage of sales in the base model so they were very frequently seen on the road.
Basically the same as we had in 🇦🇺we had the 6 plus the poly V8 great cars.
Excellent content, subscribed.
Thanks for subscribing and commenting!
Good basic transportation back in the day !
That's a cool old rig, Austin. Hope you made a nice profit on her.
Looks like the same 6 cylinder engine in my 51 Plymouth. Great video. 5:42 5:44
It’s pretty much the same engine. Just 230 cubic inches vs 218 cubic inches in yours.
So cool. Sits. Very. Nice thanks
Thanks for the memories. Dad had a new 58 Belvedere four door hardtop with about every option dreamed of, including the sport tone side spear. It was the first car I ever drove. Nice car and I think you did a great job presenting it.
Variable speed vacuum powered wipers.
@@danielulz1640 My recollections were incorrect, as I just found in one of my books. Ford had come up with intermittent wipers (not variable) and they were sued for stealing the patent from an individual. So Ford, Chrysler etc had to pay a royalty to use "intermittent" wipers after that time. Thanks for the response, but were the variable wipers really vacuum? Sure wish I had Dad's Belvedere today, at the time I thought it was the most beautiful car that anyone could ever make. :)
Yes vacuum, many cars still used them in the 50's. @@eugenepiurkowski5439
@@eugenepiurkowski5439 There is a movie about the intermittent wiper idea being stolen by Ford called “Flash of Genius”
@@ObsoleteAutomotive I remember seeing it sometime back. Just didn't remember the particulars. Thanks. Did you check to see if the Plaza really had vacuum wipers?Always interested in those Plymouths.
Brilliant video. Incredible knowledge. Truly enjoyed,
Austin, I really like you, your car, and your passion for cars. Your video was entertaining. I appreciate how much research you did and presented so clearly. You're a wordsmith, good videographer and editor. I subscribed and will recommend my friends do so too. Blaine Halley old car guy in Santa Cruz, CA. 😎
@@blainehalley2201 Thanks for commenting and subscribing. I’m still trying to figure out the best ways to do these videos and it’s definitely still a learning process. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I have a 58 Plymouth two-door hardtop it was factory red with a white top belvedere
I just bought a model of that same car on Amazon! "Christine" didn't have a white top!
I've always liked orphaned, unloved cars. I had a '58 Edsel Ranger! I like your channel and just subscribed.
@@dr.maturin4648 Thanks for subscribing. I love the low trim level everyday cars myself. So rare to even see them these days!
Very nice car!
It's a nice looking car
Unlike the '57s in '58 you could buy a lowly Savoy 2 door with the slick Sport Coupe roof - a perfect base to do a Fury clone. Pops bought a '57 wagon when we lived near Chicago as a boomer kid - and our neighbor across St bought a 2 tone Plaza that maroon/rust color on top with cream white lower spear on bottom and roof. His had a 6 and he hated it, ran like sh*t. As a punk I LOVED our wagon cream with lower custom lavender spear and roof. Our wagon with V8 kicked ass but about one year later the one Chicago winter already had rust bubbles appearing above the front headlights on top fender - woof !!! I still have b/w hi res photos of that Custom Suburban wagon to this day. Best looking cars on the block when all else looked like tubs, lol !!! 👀
So there ya go a modern charger starts out more than the loaded fury did in 58 even after adjustment for the dollar. Cars are ridiculously overpriced today.
A stunning example of the forward look. In its most understated simplicity. Hang onto this one bubba...engine sound to die for, sweet and smooth.
I am surprised that that car runs with that electric fuel pump so close to the motor. Those usually run best closer to the tank
As a youngster I owned several and drove many other cars and trucks without p/s. The worst were the ones that had unit failure,pump or vector that would leak faster than you could fill it ir just didn't work. Never really cared. Nowadays,I would not even try to drive without it. Too much arthritis.🤨
Thanks for another good video that's very interesting car and kind of wonder who optioned it that that way. A lot of people back then didn't want to be flashy but if you could spruce up your bottom of the barrel car and could afford it just a little of life's luxuries I guess.
@@wilco3588 It’s rare to find low trim levels with options. Usually the people buying the cheaper models were more thrifty, didn’t have the money to spend, or just didn’t want to be flashy. So it’s always interesting to come across one and wonder… why did they option it this way.
I think you should get one of those Rambler Americans that look like an upside down bathtub. They have many winsome qualities and sold well in the day!
If I came across a bargain I might!
13:00 The car has no lock knobs, but in the movie Christine, a lock knob is clearly shown shutting on its own to trap the girl inside the car. Looks like the movie makers took this liberty for clarity's sake.
@@Armc31416 The movie made up the locks I guess so the average viewer would know the doors locked as unless you owned one of these cars you wouldn’t know that pushing the door handle down is what locks it.
It's better to not turn the power steering wheel while the car is not moving. It's stressing the power steering pump to turn the wheels when it's just sitting
Thanks for the second video on your Plymouth. It is really a beauty; somebody in California kept after it. As a Chrysler lover what do you think about adding front seat belts in the case of a new owner wanting to take it out on the road say a 200 mile trip? A few years ago I saw a Hudson Jet with added seat belts. The owner had pulled them from a yard and installed them pretty easily.
I’ve installed lap belts in many of my cars over the years. New airplane style seatbelts can be purchased from several vendors. I have a video installing belts in my ‘62 Plymouth.
th-cam.com/video/QZ46ooabGLA/w-d-xo.html
I had a 56 Desoto and later a 58 Fury in 65
very nice car !!!!!!! 1 st flathead i ever see with P.S> great driver !
great video ,thanks
@@catherinemunroe3960 Thank you!
I believe that duel sun visors , duel arm rests and backup lights may have been part of an option package ???
Could have been.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive many folks back in the day could only afford entry level models ! Absolutely !!!
I don't think they had option "packages" in the 50's. Am I wrong?
They did.
There was an accessory group that included windshield washer, back up lights, etc.
“Heavy duty packages” with stiffer springs, bigger brakes, bigger radiator, etc.
There was also a “accessory package” which the dealer installed which was two outside mirrors, vanity mirror and license plate frame.
Notice no rear seat door arm rests, didn’t see any rear seat ash trays, don’t see back up lights even with an automatic transmission. Like the radio delete plate in the dash that matches the contour of the rest of the dash.
My dad had the radio and heater delete car
My first car was a 1958 Plymouth station wagon I was 15 years old and got money for my birthday, talked the man down to $78. 00 and my mother had to drive it home cause I didn’t have a drivers permit yet, a lot of learning about cars then and my dad got tired of seeing it in pieces and sold it to the junk man and gave me $40 bucks
Unfortunate end
Yes it was
I am interested on a bearboned '57 Plaza 4 door sedan. Black would be brilliant. If you got the opportunity, please let me know. 😘
Nice car 🚗 👌 👍 👏
In Canada, the Plymouth Plaza, was also called a Dodge Crusader, and wasn't a U.S Dodge.
Question: one of my memories from back then is that almost all of these seemed to seriously rust out over the headlights, like the eyebrows just dissolved. Why was that and what made the difference why some did and some (like this Plaza here) did not? Was there an issue with the fit or channels for drainage?
There is no inner wheel well so any water or dirt can get slung into the backside of the headlight area. This can allow for the backside to start rusting. Combine this with road salt in snow states and it was a recipe for a rusty mess. This car lived in California its whole life and wasn’t exposed to road salt or other conditions such as dirt roads/water that would start rust issues.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive I see, thanks!
I sure didn’t think anyone was still making flatheads in 1958. 😮
@@DoubleMrE Other companies kept using them on cars even longer. And for industrial applications the Flathead was built/used for many more years in use in airport tugs, generators, etc.
Pre slant 6 days with the virtually indestructible old flat head 6.
Kind of pricey back in the day if you were bringing home something like $ 40.00 a week.
When I was a kid I heard my parents talking about buying a 4-door sedan and I thought they were saying "4 Dorsey-Dan". Our upstairs renters were named "Dorsey". I couldn't figure out who this guy was.
@@roblbrewer Ha that’s funny!
Never heard of the Plymouth plaza
6 volt electrical system? Or converted to 12?
They had 12 volts in 57
@@chrisjeffries2322 didn't answer the question dude
The car is 12 volts. Plymouth cars were 12 volt systems starting in 1956.
Cars from 1955 and below were generally 6 volt but im open to corrections
Chrysler Corp. went to 12 volts on all their car lines in 1955.
Canadian Dodge's were all Plymouth with Plymouth tailights.
It's funny now ... but as tastes have changed, the Plaza, with its minimal trim, actually looks better than the chrome dipped Furys of the period (at least to me).
@@toddbonin6926 I prefer cheapo models in most cases. Sometimes less is more.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive agreed
Optional passenger sun visor?? 😂
Ol mopar sure wanted you to be sorry for trying to save 3 bucks . Good god
Inflation calculators are a little skewed.
Looks like a car someone would have ordered for their elderly folks. Or, she's Christine's plainer sister.
Oh, dear, the movies will probably crash it, set in on fire, drive it off a cliff. What a shame.
Seems that I should have kept the car rather than sell it…
How many cars do you own?
@@thebestisyettocome4114 over 20.
Especially in traffic driving a flathead 6 no power steering 3 speed can be rather tiresome.
@@wilco3588 Getting stuck in a traffic jam with a manual transmission with a mechanical clutch can get a bit tiring for the left leg!
If you know how to drive correctly you don’t need power steering . I miss wing windows and cigarette lighters . I don’t miss fins , single chamber master brake cylinders or Joe McCarthy .
North Carolina. Doesn't (does not) and don't (do not).
Heater was an option??? LOL.
@@johnskogman5623 Everything was an option back then!
V8's you could get a three speed auto.
bruh why do all the plymouths look exactly the same. was plymouth just a single car own by chrysler?
@@UraniumTheProtogen They don’t look the same? Each year is different and each model and body style differs. Sure the model year has the same main features because they are all essentially the same car underneath.
Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler and Imperial were all part of Chrysler Corporation.
In ascending order, Chrysler Corp. had 5 car lines in 1958 Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, and Imperial.
Great video. My Dad bought a new 58 Plymouth Plaza 4dr from Balthaser Mtrs in Hamburg PA. Light green, no options, except strangely, a 318 Poly with Powerflite. I can see the gold V in the grill. I later "inherited" the car. Lots of rust and body filler, but mechanically, a pretty sound piece. Never knew about the Silver Special model. What could possibly have been deleted to further reduce the price?
@ The Silver Specials actually gained some things! Whitewall tires, full wheel covers and the special trim and silver painted roof. The options on the Silver Specials is odd. I’ve seen them with all sorts of different options. Almost like they just chose random cars on the assembly line and made them into Silver Specials.
Power sterin...lol
Christine.
Me
You are turk?