The 1957 Imperials (and all Mopar car lines) were poorly engineered and
tooled. Basically a rush job to get them into production.
The people on the assembly line took in on the chin for the 1957 models, but
the problems existed for all plants, from Lynch Road to Newark to Los
Angeles to Windsor. Chrysler of Canada used different suppliers for many of
their parts, yet they had the same quality problems as the American plants.
Which can only lead to the design, engineering and tooling sections as the
source of the problems.
Others blame the huge demand for the poor quality - rushed production, etc.
But, in fact, 1957 production was slightly less than 1955. In the U.S.
Chrysler Corporation built 1,217, 363 while the 1957 total came to
1,213,101. Dodge, DeSoto and Imperial all increased production but
Chrysler and Plymouth dropped. And the Newark, DE plant came on line in May
1957, producing Plymouths. So Chrysler had slightly more plant capacity for
1957 than 1955.
And in Canada production plunged. For the 1955 model year Chrysler of
Canada produced 77,000 cars with production hitting a record 105,567 for
1956 (thanks to a three month strike at GM of Canada). 1957 production,
though, dropped to 78,208. But their cars were just as poorly built as the
ones in the U.S.
An aunt and uncle of mine owned a black 1957 Plymouth Plaza with the 251-cid
flathead six and a three-speed manual transmission. I can remember riding
in the back seat of that car barrelling down the gravel road to their farm,
dust swirling around the passenger compartment. And you should have seen it
when the windows were rolled down! There was a perpetual layer of dust over
everything in that car. Plus the front bumper, front valance panel and the
small penels between the bumper and front fenders constantly shook and
rattled. Surprisingly that front section never fell off in the five years
they owned the car, although you'd swear it would the next time the car
crossed the railway tracks.
The 1958 and 1959 models were better, but they still rusted out like the
1957 models. This again points to a design or engineeering problem, not a
lack of assembly quality. Many 1957 to 1959 models had cardboard fittings
in the trunk covering up the inner side of the rear fenders and wheelwells.
Often wondered if that was to make the trunk look better or cover up the
rust building up on the inner side of the body panels.
Bill
Vancouver, BC
----- Original Message -----
From: DONALDDICKINSOND@xxxxxx
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 7:34 AM
Subject: IML: Quality of the 1957 Imperial
During my college years at Florida (go Gators) we lived in Miami and my
father owned a light blue Imperial four door hardtop. My recollections of
this car are of a very poor quality product, some items from memory:
1) Door handle mechanism fell apart, we had to take the doors apart and
reassemble (I also remember we did some redesign as the pull handle
mechanism was poorly designed).
2) The seats were very thin, not much padding, and wore out prematurely.
3) The side windows were curved and never lined up properly front to back
(hand one on power window switch, hand two guiding the window).
4) The air conditioning condenser, I believe, was right in front of the
radiator and over heating was a regular occurrence in South Florida's 90
degree summers.
I also remember going back to the dealer, with my father for service and
seeing a very irate customer complaining about the poor quality of his
Imperial and him saying that he would never buy another one.
These memories have stuck with me over the years and I often wondered if the
1957 (and probably 58 & 59) quality was the downfall of Imperial as they
never again came close to the 1957 sales volume. I would be very interested
in other members comments on this. What has been the experience of current
owners of 1957 - 59 Imperials?
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