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Elite Veteran
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Location: Canada | Got this the other day in a file that came with my car. The car has W.R. Shadoff (Pomona, Calfifornia) plate holders on it Trying to shed some light on Roger Fitz Inc? Also the Cust Condition Heater, and Radio-Music Master. I assumed these cars came with a heater and Radio standard. (The hand writing is from the dealer in Saskatoon, Sask. Canada when my friend bought it from Atomic Motors in 1983.
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
 
Location: bishop, ca | I like that "California Special" term; $5,182.00, is over $50k, nowadays; I wonder how long the original owner kept
it; most cars were traded in within 5-7 years (or, even, on an annual basis), back then.
Not much return on your depreciating-asset investment! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 990
| I'd say most cars were traded in 2-3 years.
A '55 Dodge lost 40% of it's value in one year. It takes a an Accord or Camry five years to lose 40% of it's value.
Cars then were poor quality and expensive. Cars today are high quality and cheap.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 471
Location: MN | Radios & heaters were not std eqiup, Music Master was always Mopar's description of the "cheap" radio. Note the big 9:00 tires & big wide white walls, 2 tone was always big back in the day.
Expidite prob meant sold car HURRY |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7410
Location: northern germany | Rob - 2008-08-21 9:52 PM
I'd say most cars were traded in 2-3 years.
A '55 Dodge lost 40% of it's value in one year. It takes a an Accord or Camry five years to lose 40% of it's value.
Cars then were poor quality and expensive. Cars today are high quality and cheap.
can you say ignorant? the fifties were the days of "planed obsolescence". that was the main reason for depreciation. the styling, unlike today, was changed every year.
when i bought my 60 fury over 20 years ago, my folks/buddys told me not to buy such an old car cause it means nothing but trouble. well, my family had to buy 5 brand new cars (opel, rover and honda which started to run like crap after only 2 years and leaked hydraulic oil on the brake/clutch pedal) during the time i owned my fury. it has over 300K miles on the odometer now, engine never rebuild, still runs like new, just like my girlfriends 61 desoto. i only had trouble once, with the transmission, not bad for 20 years almost daily driving an old cheap car, it still goes 140+mph and smokes new cars that were WAY more expensive. my dads opel astra he bought new just gave up, well maintained, after only 120k miles (engine problems, too expensive to fix) he bought a new skoda (VW),the worst car i've ever driven (after the honda with the crap "V tech" engine) which already starts making trouble...
i realy abused/raced my fury when i was a teenager and bought it from a person who treated it bad and never changed the oil. no new car would have survived that, no new car will last almost 50 years or 30 years. my brother spend more money to fix his 100+K $$$$ 93 mercedes 300 convertible than i paid for my fury. nothing but trouble. last time some little black box broke and left him stranded in the middle of nowhere. he had it replaced with a USED one he got real cheap for only $1500!
new cars are build to give 6-10 years trouble free service, after that the trouble starts. new cars suck.
Edited by 1960fury 2008-08-25 5:25 PM
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Posts: 13054
Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island | Amen to that Sid! |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7410
Location: northern germany | and we should never forget that "our" beloved forwardlook cars survived the 60s and 70s (how could anything, especially a finned car, from the fifties survive the 60s and 70s???) when these cars were dirt cheap and were treated accordingly. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Hi, Gerry!
In 57 "Music Master" (IIRC--too lazy to go confirm this) was the name for the push-button radio. The entry-level, manual
adjustment rig was called the "Velvetone" model, and the big dog was the "Signal Seeking" radio--not called a "Town and
Country", or anything very fancy.
The Velvetone had to be ordered/specified individually (as did the Sig-Seeker), because (only-) the Music Master was offered as
part of the "Radio Group of Options."
BTW, my car (barely) survived Indiana, thanks to about 20 years of dead storage.
OK: I just checked, on a Broadcast Sheet, & they called the sig-seeker model :" Search Tune"....
and, all three radio models were (obviously) individually available, if a particular car might not
happen to be built with all of the options that were automatically included with the "Radio Group" (which
included the "Music Master" push button radio model).
Edited by d500neil 2008-08-25 7:09 PM
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Elite Veteran
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Location: bradenton florida | a friend of mine had to replace his air filter in his mercedes and it cost him $150. |
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Location: Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island, Canada | Sid, I 've got to put a plug in for my 60 Saratoga. We just bought it in June, and with just over 100,000 miles on the original drive train, I was a little nervous about taking this car on a 10 day trip, out of Canada and through 2 states as I hadn't owned it long enough to really get to know it. However, we put on 1400 miles in 10 days, went to a fantastic WPC Regional Meet and the car didn't let us down. The A/C even blew cold in over 100 Degree heat in Oregon. The car did NOT overheat in those conditions. Now for next year to the WPC National in Sacramento, California.
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Member
Posts: 13
| According to my 1959 Auto Bluebook price guide the upgraded '59 Chrysler signal-seeking radio was called the "Electro Touch Tuner" and cost $124.10. The heater upgrade was the gas "Instant-Heat Heater" for $136.60 (probably not needed in California). Two other interesting New Yorker tire upgrades were the 9.00x14 Captive Air Nylon WSW tires for $94.20 or the 10.40x14 Rayon WSW tires at $122.20. Those would have been a serious set of tires!
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 471
Location: MN | Hi D500 Neil
I got up off my keister to look in my 58 Ross Roy Data book, it just shows the Music Master. I remember the signal seeking radio. My friend had one in his 57 C/R convert. But i think I recall the Velvotone manuals, as well. I wasn't aware of the power aerial avail in 58. I'll have to look up my 57 owners maual.
Gerry (HORACE) |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 471
Location: MN | Just located my 57 Dodge owners manual Electro Touch, Music Master, &your right Neil, Velvetone & off couse the Hi-Fidelity rear compartment speaker.
You've all prob seen me write this before but I was blessed riding to school in a new Dodge Royal D-500 listening to Johnny Horton songs being played
on a HighWay Hi-Fi record player back in the day. Talk about 21st century audio selections |
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Expert
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Location: DFW, TX | 1960fury - 2008-08-25 3:50 PM
can you say ignorant?
Geez. This is how we deal with each other around here? No wonder some people are put off about posting.
My '99 Ranger has never been in the shop, wears its original shiny paint, has had one pair of front brake pads and two sets of shocks replaced, and I put a new pair of headlights in it last year because the old ones were yellowed after nine years and 193,000 miles. Otherwise I have done oil and air filter changes and I lowered it last year with these wheels... just to do it. Not bad for a truck that cost $10.5k brand new. (only new car I've ever owned)
Sounds like your family has had lousy trouble with lousy cars. Because most new cars are indeed, cheap and reliable.
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Rhino Records, IIRC, are re-popping the 16 2/3 rpm records.
Real trivia here: but, there were TWO versions of the model 918 signal-seeking radios.
Regular model 918 (like i SCORED, on the evil-pay, a few years ago) has no built-in connection, to plug into/operate the
HiWay HiFi record player.
The 918HR model has a plug in connection, on its right side, to operate the HiWay HiFi guy.
It's certainly possible to have an auto electrician retrofit a 918 unit, to have an outlet for the 'Fi' conection, but, otherwize, the
918 merely seeks out stations (and, due to its having a powerful amplifier section---which in the Dodges, is a SEPARATE piece,
which is wire-connected to the radio) produces a higher quality sound than the regular radio does.
I made a cassette recording comparison of my reconditioned 850(?) radio, and the newly-replaced signal seeker, on a local
station, and the sound level and quality is much improved with the 918, as would be expected.
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Well, Rob has a point: corrected for inflation, 50's cars WERE expensive; $3K, then, is like $30K+, now, and I'm
not going to argue that the build quality of our cars was very good.
In relation to the cost of maintenance/durability/upkeep, cars today ARE inexpensive; $30k amortised over 15 years is $2k/
year, or $167.00/month.
As I've written elsewhere, around here, recently, the reason that Jon Q. Publik could afford a FWDLK'er every few years, was due
to the simple fact that he had, really, very little ELSE to waste (excuse me: SPEND ) his money on, like cable/satellite TV, multiple
cell phones, multiple cars and insurance of ALL kinds, big expensive houses, credit card debt, "designer" Every-thing, and oh yeah, computer-
related crap....the list is endless of what non-essential things we regard as essential, today, that simply didn't exist in the 50s/60s
and, the real-world take-home pay was VERY similar between today, and "back-then".
Jon Q. could support a family, with the wife staying at home, AND, he was able to save money. Most new cars were paid for with
CASH, or, very little financing; "debt" was a bad-word, back then.
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Location: .Norfolk..Mafia.. ,England UK | d500neil - 2008-08-25 10:56 PM
Hi, Gerry!
In 57 "Music Master" (IIRC--too lazy to go confirm this) was the name for the push-button radio. The entry-level, manual
adjustment rig was called the "Velvetone" model, and the big dog was the "Signal Seeking" radio--not called a "Town and
Country", or anything very fancy.
The Velvetone had to be ordered/specified individually (as did the Sig-Seeker), because (only-) the Music Master was offered as
part of the "Radio Group of Options."
BTW, my car (barely) survived Indiana, thanks to about 20 years of dead storage.
OK: I just checked, on a Broadcast Sheet, & they called the sig-seeker model :" Search Tune"....
and, all three radio models were (obviously) individually available, if a particular car might not
happen to be built with all of the options that were automatically included with the "Radio Group" (which
included the "Music Master" push button radio model).
According to my Chrysler Book..
1955.................
Standard Tune Radio & Antenna $110
Touch Tune Radio & Antenna $128
1956.............
Electro Touch-tune Radio & Antenna $ no price
Music Master Radio with Rear Seat Speaker $ no price
1957...........
Music Master Radio & Antenna $ no price
Electro Touch-tune Radio & Antenna $ no price
1958.........
Electro Touch-tune Radio & Antenna $124.10
Music Master Radio & Antenna $99.80
1959...........
Music Master Radio $99.80
Electro Touch-tune Radio & Antenna $124.10
1960..........
Golden Touch-tune Radio $124.10
Golden Tune Radio $99.80,
Golden Tune Radio with Rear Speaker $117.10 ( HT Only )
Golden Touch-tune Radio with Rear Speaker $141.40 ( HT Only )
1961.............
Golden Tone Radio $99.80
Golden Tone Radio with Rear Speaker $117.10
Golden Touch-tune Radio $124.10
Golden Touch-tune Radio with Rear Speaker $141.40 |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | That's interesting, about the 57 Electro-touch radio, from your records, Clive.
The front fender power antenna was not part of any 'package', with that radio, if only because the dual rear antennae
was a hot-ticket option item , in the late 50's. A lot (relatively speaking) of the cars that got the sig-seeker
probably also had the optional dual antennae, too.
The Dodge sig-seeker (and the HiWay HiFi) was only available as a factory option, in 1957----pain in the ass, for warranty repairs.
Edited by d500neil 2008-08-29 3:47 PM
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Expert 5K+
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Location: northern germany | 57burb - 2008-08-29 2:47 PM
Sounds like your family has had lousy trouble with lousy cars. Because most new cars are indeed, cheap and reliable.
yes lousy NEW cars. although actually people say german and jap cars are good. and its not just my family (my girlfriend has its 3rd engine in her 94 ford!) not to mention the troubles we had with new cars before we had to sell em real cheap, too much to list. all our cars were brand new cars, always regular dealer serviced and never raced/abused.
you said new cars are cheap and reliable, well if you're lucky and get a good one you might be able to drive it, more or less, trouble free for 10-15 years. but in case something breaks... its getting REAL expensive. for instance my dads 2000 model opel PS system quit working at 90K (almost causing an accident) we found out it is not possible to have it fixed since it required the removal of the engine...$$$!!! fortunatly my furys ps system works just like the day it left the factory after almost 49 years of daily driving but i could replace it in a couple of minutes. i've heard it needs a mechanic and several hundred $ labor to replace a light bulb in some new cars. oh yeah, did i mention that our 2008 modell, 4 month old VW skoda already starts making trouble?!
and btw i'm car mechanic and worked in a (VW) garage for years. let me repeat, new cars are NOT build to last 30 or 40 years. i'm pretty sure my old fury outlives everything new thats on the road now.
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Expert
Posts: 3967
Location: DFW, TX | Fair enough.
I'm not surprised to hear about the issues with the GM cars though.  |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7410
Location: northern germany | 57burb - 2008-08-29 2:47 PM
Geez. This is how we deal with each other around here? No wonder some people are put off about posting.
yes, if its a jap car lover bashing old american cars on the forwardlook website. and it wasn't his first time he was insulting forwardlookers, praising jap cars.
what are his intentions? if people leave its because of the troublemakers.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: northern germany | imopar380 - 2008-08-25 11:05 PM
Sid, I 've got to put a plug in for my 60 Saratoga. We just bought it in June, and with just over 100,000 miles on the original drive train, I was a little nervous about taking this car on a 10 day trip, out of Canada and through 2 states as I hadn't owned it long enough to really get to know it. However, we put on 1400 miles in 10 days, went to a fantastic WPC Regional Meet and the car didn't let us down. The A/C even blew cold in over 100 Degree heat in Oregon. The car did NOT overheat in those conditions. Now for next year to the WPC National in Sacramento, California.
yes they didn't lie in the 1960 chrysler ads. "the car of your live for the time of your live" if you stop them from rusting these cars are build for the eternity. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Well, I bought my 2004 PT Turbo cruiser, new in '04, with ZERO-money down, and ZERO interest, financing 100% of the purchase price over 4 years ($500/month).
It's got 90K miles on it, now, and it has cost me the price of a serpentine timing belt (which is supposed to be replaced at 60K mileage) and gas and oil (which I change, myself).
With my business mileage charges, it has earned me a substantial net profit on its investment.
Not bad, for a depreciating asset.
Edited by d500neil 2008-08-29 5:24 PM
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Location: .Norfolk..Mafia.. ,England UK | d500neil - 2008-08-29 8:45 PM
That's interesting, about the 57 Electro-touch radio, from your records, Clive.
The front fender power antenna was not part of any 'package', with that radio, if only because the dual rear antennae
was a hot-ticket option item , in the late 50's. A lot (relatively speaking) of the cars that got the sig-seeker
probably also had the optional dual antennae, too.
The Dodge sig-seeker (and the HiWay HiFi) was only available as a factory option, in 1957----pain in the ass, for warranty repairs.
Probably..
According to the Book,, Option 351 was Power Radio Antenna, ( no "S" on the End OR the word Dual ) But it does Not list for which Radio.. Nor does it mention a Cost.. BUT it does say 1957 Option Prices are Unavailable but are the same or Similar to those of 1958, And in 1958 Power Antennna Option cost $25.80, Also ALL the PIC,s show a Single Antenna fitted to the Front Fender.. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | The only power(ed) antenna was the front fender guy.
The rear antennae had cute (not-so-) little loop end 'grenade-pins' , inside the trunks, which, when pulled, allowed the rear antennae
to be fully retracted, so they wouldn't be easily vandalized, or get broken when going thru a car wash.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: northern germany | d500neil - 2008-08-29 5:20 PM
Well, I bought my 2004 PT Turbo cruiser, new in '04, with ZERO-money down, and ZERO interest, financing 100% of the purchase price over 4 years ($500/month).
It's got 90K miles on it, now, and it has cost me the price of a serpentine timing belt (which is supposed to be replaced at 60K mileage) and gas and oil (which I change, myself).
With my business mileage charges, it has earned me a substantial net profit on its investment.
Not bad, for a depreciating asset.
now, don't tell me YOU drive a PT cruiser  .... anyways, its just 4 years old.... i wonder how much was it to have that belt replaced?
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | .Ah hem: turbow......the timing belt replacement is pretty much an industry-standard deal; there was nothing wrong with
it when it was replaced.
In the NAV, we called that kind of work : "PMS"; no not THAT kind of "PMS"; Preventative Maintenance Subsystems work. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7410
Location: northern germany | d500neil - 2008-08-29 7:04 PM
there was nothing wrong with
it when it was replaced.
maybe. you can be sure there is a reason for the recommended 60k change. how much was it to have it replaced?  |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7410
Location: northern germany | no need to answer found the answer here:
http://www.ptcruiserlinks.com/forum/tech-performance-forum/5823-tim...
read the first message and you know changing the timing belt on your 4 year old car was a good decision (did i ever mention new cars suck?)
belt 81.45 + 255.90 labor thats $337.50 to be honest not as much as i thought. it would cost at least twice as much over here. still sucks to drive a new car that needs engine work at just 60k. and i apologize for posting a link to a pt cruiser forum here in theforwardlook forum |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I can check; maybe I'll do that; I'm pretty certain that the L & M for that job was not close to $337.50.
I just left a message with the shop that did that work..... |
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Window Sticker Off my 59 New Yorker
