Great looking car someone could enjoy without breaking the bank.

One of the 40's Chrysler products I always thought was cool was a 42 Desoto. Quite rare.

The paint does look very good. Wife and I bought one like that when I was stationed at the Brooklyn Army Base in Brooklyn, NY. I think we bought it in April of 54 for $500.00 plus $55.00 for a 4 wheel brake job! As I recall, it had about 50,000 miles on it and was in beautiful condition with a very dark Green interior and exterior. It was a good running, easy to get along with big car and we probably put another 50,000 miles on it. Brakes were not a strong point, no power assist yet, but very smooth hydraulics. Straight eight engine of about 300 cu in and probably 130 hp. The transmission was Chrysler's idea of an early automatic. GM was selling quite a few hydramatics and Chrysler needed an automatic. This was was called the "Tip Toe Matic" aka the "SelectoeMatic" on DeSoto and Dodge. I think the Plymouth "HyDrive" used in 53 and 54 year models was the same transmission It was the standard Chrysler fluid drive which had been around since 1939, which did allow for shiftless driving, but it was painfully slow to start those big old heavy cars in high gear with the "Fluid Drive Clutch". I think Chrysler first came out with the Tip Toe Matic in 1946. It was a standard simple 2 speed gear box with an internal automatic overdrive built in. Standard driving would be to start out in "High Gear", but the transmission would be in direct drive under 15 mph. So it was kind of like starting out in second gear, then at anyspeed over 15mph, you let off the accelerator, give it a second and it would shift into overdrive, and then you were in high gear. Probably had a 0/60 time of about 22 to 24 seconds. You could of course start out in low gear, (second gear position on the column shift) and then shift into OD at about 10mph. But that was not a good shift, and manually shifting from low gear to high gear was not smooth and easy. It was clunky/funky. No Synchronization. But so long as you were satisfied with rather slow acceleration in that high range, it was smooth, satisfactory, slow. Ride was great, car was quiet and it had a lots of room. Mileage was not great, but we could buy fuel from the army for $0.11 per gallon and on the road, fuel was still probably less then $0.20. On the new New York Thruway I remember paying as high as 25 cents a gallon and the car at the other side of the pump was a brand new red T Bird. Wow!, how time does fly.

__________________
Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!