These figures and an enormous amount of other information is found in
"Encyclopedia of American Cars" by Richard M. Langworth. I have the 1984
issue - I assume later versions are extant.
For 1955, your source left out Packard, which had a total production of
16,833 (not counting the Clipper models, which were not in the same league
with the others cited.
For 1958, the totals were:
Cadillac: 140,777
Imperial: 16,133
Lincoln: 6,859
(Packard had no entry in the luxury class in 1958)
Total sales of US made cars in 1958 was very much lower than 1955 - without
spending hours adding figures, I can say from personal recollection, the
total was somewhere in the 5 1/2 to 6 million range. I bought a new car in
1958, and even I went to a non-us make! (I bought a Peugeot 403, an
excellent car for the times indeed.)
Dick Benjamin
----- Original Message -----
From: hugh hemphill <hugtrees@xxxxxxxx>
To: imperiallist <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 8:36 PM
Subject: IML: 55: Info Snippet
> 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.
> 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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