IML: Of 57s and such

["Hugh & Therese" <hugtrees@xxxxxxxx>]

As I have read it, the 57s were a victim of their unexpected popularity. 
The new designs were a delightful break with the cars of the early and mid 
50s, and they were a smash.  It's also an old saying in the car business 
that you should never buy a car in its first model year.  They have not yet 
worked out all the bugs.  Exner's cars, across the product range were a real 
breakthrough.  The pressure on him was so great that he had a heart attack. 
Because model changes are planned well in advance, I think someone else can 
take the credit for the 59, which does not, to my eye, have Exner's stamp on 
it.

When a car company has a hit on its hands and it has not planned for its 
runaway success, it has two options.  It can maintain the original 
production quota and let the demand build up or it can accelerate production 
and let quality suffer in order to cash in.  Chrysler Corp took the latter 
option.  They outsourced production in a very hurried fashion and skimped on 
quality workmanship in the body and paint shops.  Reports from the time 
suggest that cars were coming off the line and rusting as they waited to be 
shipped out to dealerships.

This led to the cars gaining a terrible reputation for unreliability and 
shoddy workmanship.  Consumer questionnaires revealed that many people, who 
had purchased their first ever Chrysler product in 1957, said it would also 
be their last.  Chrysler felt it had fixed the problems by 1958 but, by 
then, it was too late.  The marketing department went into high gear.  I 
doubt any year of Imperial has quite the number and variety of different 
adverts than 1958.

Pretty soon the advertising slogan became the rather defensive, "The most 
carefully built cars in America," or words to that effect.  Someone had to 
take the fall, of course, and that was Exner.  He lost his position as a 
vice president and was then replaced altogether.  His successor, also a 
disappointed man from Ford, was given his marching orders:  The cars were to 
look as different as possible from Exner's and also be a lot more 
conservative, since the nation's taste for yards of chrome and big fins had 
long since passed.

You have to look at these cars as products of their era.  There was major 
steel strike in 57/58 as well.  The past can rarely be undone.  The 57 
Imperials were a stunning breakthrough and command a higher value today over 
those that both preceded and followed them.  The 57 Chevrolet was considered 
a dog in its day, a hasty cut and paste job instead of the planned total 
replacement.  Its sales were dismal compared to 55 and 56.  Who's sorry now?

Hugh
58 Imperial 




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