Re: IML: In defense of "customs"

["Bill Watson" <wwatson5@xxxxxxxxx>]

For an Imperial, the basic, no-option, Custom was a stripper model.  Yes,
you could load it up with all the options available on a LeBaron, but the
base Custom car, with no options, had less equipment than either a Crown or
a LeBaron.  On the other end of the spectrum, take the 1957 Plymouth Plaza.
It came with virually no exerior side trim, plain inside door panels, simple
cloth and vinyl seats, rubber floor mats and a gold-toned horn plate (no
horn ring).  But you could still get it with a V8, power seats, power
windows, radio, heater, white sidewall tires, and air conditioning - the
same equipment offerd on a LeBaron

As for optional equipment, or lack thereof, installed on 1957-59 Imperials
based on total model year production  :

No power seats :
1957 - 9.5%
1958 - 6.9%
1959 - 7.0%

No power windows :
1957 - 8.7%
1958 - 7.5%
1959 - 8.5%

No radio :
1957 - 4.1%
1958 - 3.3%
1959 - 2.9%

No heater :
1957 - 1.2%
1958 -  0.0% *
1959 - 0.5%
* This does not mean no Imperials were ordered without a heater, just that
the number of cars totalled less than  0.1% of production.

No white sidewall tires :
1957 - 8.7%
1958 - 3.2%
1959 - 2.9%

No tinted windshield :
1957 - 4.4%
1958 - 5.8%
1959 - 8.9%

No air conditioning :
1957 - 70.2%
1958 - 66.4%
1959 - 62.5%

By the way, 8.9% of all 1957 Imperials came with single headlamps and 4.3%
of 1959 Imperials had air suspension.

One cannot make any kind of guess as to what equipment was or was not
ordered on a car by what is seen forty years later.  Such observations are
warped by such factors of locale, for one.  After all, you are far more
likely to see Imperials ordered without the optional heater in Jacksonville,
Florida as opposed to Fargo, North Dakota.  And buyers in Winnipeg, Manitoba
were far less likely to purchase a 1957 Imperial with air conditioning than
someone living in Galveston, Texas.

Bill
Vancouver, BC



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hugh & Therese" <hugtrees@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Imperial Mailing List" <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 10:13 AM
Subject: IML: In defense of "customs"


> Kenyon wrote:
>
> Customs were stipper cars that had most extra-cost
> things deleted.  There are cars running around with
> manual windows and no AC and so forth, which generally
> are the base models.  Most dealers would not order
> something like this for stock on their lot, so those
> cars are the mark of someone that wanted the image but
> was VERY cost conscious - to the point of waiting for
> a car to be built to their specification to save money
> in many cases.
>
> With all due respect, I could not disagree more.
>
> My base model has everything a LeBaron has, including front and rear air.
> It is hardly a "stripper."  The idea of a stripper Imperial is oxymoronic.
> The company would have frowned at the concept of its ultimate "desire"
> vehicle being built in this way.  The original owner of my car hated
> leather, as well he might in Texas.  I heard this from his niece.  He had
> issues trying to get a Cadillac without leather plus the Mopar dealership
in
> the small town, Seguin, supplied him with other vehicles for his several
> businesses plus a truck to pull his Tennessee "Walking Horses."  To avoid
> leather, he purchased the base model.  Otherwise it is one of the most
> loaded 58s ever made.  Cost was not the issue at all.
>
> I have heard about manual windows but not during the 57 / 58 / 59 era.
I'd
> be very interested to know who might have one or have seen one.
>
> Hugh
>
>
>
>



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