Hello all,
I came across this little snippet of Imperial information at a book store
today.
A design book with no particular interest in cars gave the top twenty
selling cars in the USA in 1955. Number one was Chevrolet, number two was
Ford, and the premium brands fared as follows.
Make - Rank - Total - Percentage
Cadillac - 10 - 141,038 - 1.9%
Lincoln - 16 - 35,017 - 0.5%
Imperial - 17 - 11,840 - 0.2%
Total sales for the year were 7,169,908.
A plethora of thoughts occurred to me on my way home.
One, as an Imperialists, a somewhat obsessed Imperialist, am I looking
through the telescope the wrong way? So much discussion over such a
minority interest car.
Two, these really were each companies "halo" cars. I wonder if they really
made any money on them or if they just existed as the apex of each
manufacturers model spectrum, something to which so many might aspire but
that so few would actually own. I can just hear the salesmen. This De Soto
has many of the features of the Imperial and at only a fraction of the cost.
Three, that so much energy and effort seemed to be poured into such a
marginal sector of the business. Only 2.6% of sales, and yet these cars
were the best looking of their day, and always had the latest features.
And, last but not least, where can I find these figures for 1958. And so
the obsessive trail starts afresh.
Hugh
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