Re: IML: Were most Imperials bespoke?

[randalpark@xxxxxxx]

I grew up in Southern California. My dad took me to look at Imperials 
and Lincolns regularly. The dealers we visited in the San Fernando 
Valley usually had 8 to 10 Imperials available at a time. LeBarons and 
Crown Convertibles were always special ordered. The others were just 
there. This would have been between 1962 and 1966. The new cars on the 
lot were nearly always white or beige, with equal numbers of two and 
four door hardtops in both Customs and Crowns.The turn over seemed to 
be around one to three a week for each dealer. If I recall, we checked 
Valley Chrysler-Plymouth, Maschak Motors, and Burbank 
Chrysler-Plymouth.

I can remember specifically in the fall of 1964 visiting either Burbank 
or Maschak and seeing a row of four or five just delivered '65 Crowns 
in the back of the lot. They were not yet ready for sale, with 
cellophane covering the seat upholstery and the wheel covers still 
wrapped in plastic in the trunk. The thing that struck me was that I 
was very anxious to see the new "tempered glass headlight covers" that 
had been written about in the car preview articles of the time. Of 
course, all of these cars had them, and they all had condensation 
behind the glass.

The reason we were there was that my father had been offered a very 
good trade in on our white '60 for one of those cars, and he decided to 
take a closer look. A man at the dealership had a buyer for the '60. 
Dad liked the white one with the blue interior the best, and tried to 
talk my mother into considering it. Needles to say she said no, and 
thankfully I still have the '60, although at the time I was hoping she 
would say yes. If she had, I would be loving and cherishing that '65 
just as much as I do the '60.

Interesting memories, that really is part of the fun.

Paul W.


-----Original Message-----
From: Hugh, 58 Imperial <imperial58@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 9:18 am
Subject: IML: Were most Imperials bespoke?


I wonder if most Imperials were not bespoke, at least outside the major 
cities. While on any dealer's lot you might find whole rows of 
Plymouths, Dodges, De Sotos and even Chryslers, I cannot recall seeing, 
outside of factory pictures, a whole row of more or less identical 
Imperials available for sale. When one was looking for a prestige 
automobile in the 1958 in the USA, there was a choice of Cadillac, 
Lincoln and Imperial. (Foreign makes might be available but their 
numbers were incredibly small.) Cadillac was the most obvious choice. 
Lincoln was at its lowest ebb. No one has anything good to say about 
them. The Imperial was, unfortunately, coming off of its highest point. 
The entire range of Chrysler Corporation vehicles had swept the boards 
in 1957 with their stunning good looks, but the company was caught flat 
footed by the sudden high demand and sacrificed build quality in an 
effort to cash in. The astonishing variety of adverts for the 1958 
spoke to this crisis. It was all too much, too late. The damage had 
been done. Surveys performed at the time indicated that many first time 
Chrysler product buyers would not ever choose to buy one again. 
 
It was a buyer's market. But how did people buy their new Imperials? 
Smaller dealerships would not have one on the lot to even test drive. 
All they might have was a plastic model and some admittedly gorgeous 
brochures that gave prospective buyer some idea of the cars overall 
look and the range of options available. I surmise that it was on this 
basis alone the cars were acquired. Following this logic, a good review 
from Tom McCahill in "Mechanix Illustrated" or other popular magazines 
such as "Science and Mechanics" must have been worth its weight in 
gold. We like to think, as modern Imperial aficionados, that "common" 
wealthy people bought a Cadillac but the more discriminating individual 
would want to stand out from them in the church or golf course parking 
lot with something demonstrably better and more refined, something that 
was less, shall we say, vulgar. Showing off wealth more discreetly by 
demonstrating taste and discernment is a very effective form of 
snobbery in its own right. A more cultured outlook denotes superiority 
over parvenus and their penchant for trashy and ostentatious 
demonstrations of their obviously newly acquired spending power. 
 
Of course a great many were indeed bought on the strength of the 
vehicles impressive good looks, basically sound engineering, advanced 
technological innovations, such as cruise control, introduced as an 
option in 1958, and a certain amount of faith that what you would get 
would look as good as the model you held in your hand and all the 
glossy Saturday Evening Post adverts. Another attractive element would 
the almost forced obligation to tailor your purchase from the lengthy 
list of trim options available. On the one hand there were three basic 
levels of trim. In 1958 the so called base model did not even have a 
name. The mid-range, always the most popular, was called Crown, and the 
highest tier was the Le Baron. But, even so, you could still get just 
about all the good stuff on the base model. My car lacks a second name, 
so its "just" Imperial, but it has such fancy stuff as front and rear 
air conditioning and most other goodies, too, but not the "Auto-Pilot" 
or the limited slip differential. On the other hand I have seen a 
picture of one so "stripped" that it even lacked electric windows. 
 
I was told by the original owner's niece that the original owner of my 
car could not stand leather seats and the only way to avoid them on an 
Imperial was to get the base model. However he then selected most other 
options from the catalog. Being able to option your car to your own 
taste also gives you bragging rights enjoy being one up over your 
fellow horse breeders. The first owner of my car owned and showed 
Tennessee Walking horses, a breed known for its smooth gait, gentle 
temperament and stamina. They were bred to carry owners of southern 
plantations around their lands in comfort. Such animals are shown for 
their distinctive walking style but they are never raced or used in any 
other sports except trail riding, for which they are ideally suited. 
One might even say the Imperial is to automobiles what the Tennessee 
Walking Horse is to other equines. 
 
I wonder if tailoring the Imperial was always the most frequent method 
when buying them new. I also wonder how long this lasted. Without a 
doubt ordering a car to your own taste is a lovely thing. I have only 
had the pleasure of doing it once, for, of all things, a humble Ford 
Escort. Despite there being dozens on the lot, my wife, who is petite 
and liked the car for a number of good reasons, wanted certain colors 
and features and that could not be found without it being special 
ordered. I don't think I've ever seen a dealership less happy. (The 
discounts they offered us to take something off the lot that was close 
to what she wanted were very tempting to me, but which married man out 
there thinks I even had a choice in the matter.) In the muscle car 
world, altering the car is almost the whole point of the exercise. 
People tweak stuff, add more power, change out the interiors and 
repaint the cars to create their own custom dream car. We Imperialists 
do not favor this approach anywhere near as much. Maybe its because our 
cars were pretty much one offs to begin with. 
 
Hugh Hemphill 
58 Imperial 
San Antonio, Texas.  
 
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