The 57 DeSoto was a great looking car, especially where you could get quad headlights. Sadly they had lots of issues with the torsion bars breaking and rust issues in the first year. I'm going to bet the Buick owner would be much happier than the DeSoto owner when it came time to trade the '57 in for his next car.
yeah, a little rust on the bottom of the torsion bar would cause it to fail. They added a cover in 58 to protect them from water entering the torsion bar. The Desoto is the rarer beast but i think they about equally valued for a basic models. The adventurer is super rare though and really high priced.
Indeed, my mother had a '57 two door Fireflite. She traded it for an Olds in 1960, never purchased another Chrysler and in 1989 told me I would regret purchasing a LeBaron convertible.
cars were affordable... you could get one every 2 years... In today's money cars ran about 15-20k, of course they didnt have air bags and power everything.
@@autochronicles8667But they did not have those things because they were not available yet, like today's steel that is far stronger than in the 50s. However, those cars were the best that technology could produce back then just as cars are now, but today cars have become much more expensive. Today everything is more expensive compared to wages, for example theoretically in my country olive oil should be a staple but its price doubled in a year while salaries... not really 😢
Chrysler ditched their planned models for 1957 and instead rushed their 1960 models into production for the 1957 model year. That's why they look so modern.
lol wait are you being sarcastic? :) These Roy Ross guys too their job seriously and wouldnt fudge the numbers at least and the magazines backed up the results.
eh that's subjective... i think the 57 Mopars certainly had no rust protection... they tried to do an addon for the dealers... but the rockers were bare steel inside.... Chrysler would start dipping their car bodies in 1960
The late '50s Chrysler Corporation had the WORST build quality in American cars. They have creaks and rust when they left the factory. Chrysler/Fiat/ Stallentis, even to this day, have quality control issues! They DO HAVE great engines and drive trains.
@@TheOzthewiz the build quality was about on par... Chevy/Ford were not pefect at all... The 57 Mopar's were troublesome because of moving up the production and the rush to get more sold. They worked a lot of bugs out in 58-59.. they were often sold completely out of stock... making them as fast as they could in 57...
@@autochronicles8667 it always seemed a shame that Chrysler, until '57 possibly the best-built of the Big Three, rushed the '57s into production so quickly. Even if they'd waited 'til '58 to roll out the designs they debuted in '57, they would *still* have looked years ahead, and would've been built much better.
Despite DeSoto's claims of superiority, Buick outsold them. Driving tests for 1957 Buicks when new did register complaints about poor brakes. They went through them pretty fast.
Well sales numbers don't equate to quality. The 57 Desoto was updated with more modern equipment though and more powerful engine. GM was planning on selling the same tech for 58 but revamped quickly because of the 57 Mopars... Then again in 59... it scared GM and took marketshare.
The desoto had a much better transmission, better power steering, better brakes, and better handling. The Buick was probably smoother, but mushy suspension
Love the "Suddenly it's 1947" jab at that 3-piece rear window on the Buick. Looking at pictures online though, I'm noticing that some '57 Roadmasters have the 3-piece window, while some don't. Did they make the change to a 1-piece at some point in the middle of the '57 year on the C-body, I wonder?
Chrysler was pushing the big windows thing, i think the whole industry was about visibility.. Ford in 52 (Putting out video tonight was dissing Plymouth and their small windows).
Buick offered both versions on the 57 Roadmaster. The divided rear window was just trim strips overlaying the glass and the roof. Buick thought that this would differentiate the Roadmaster from the Super and Cadillacs but most people did not care for it and few were built that way. Dealers did not like them and thought that they made the expensive Roadmaster look like the cheaper Special. That is why both versions were offered after preproduction dealer preview. The Century was supposed to have those trunk to windshield chrome strips too, following the creases in the sheet metal. But since the dealers did not like the three piece rear window and the trim strips only emphasized it, they were never installed on regular production cars.
@@danielulz1640 Both the Roadmaster and Supers had one piece rear windows but early year models were available with the chrome strips. The Special and Century models both had actual three piece rear windows. It was one of the features that attracted me the most when I bought my '57 Special.
The rear windows of the 1957 Buicks and Oldsmobiles we're very much influenced by the Mercedes 300 gullwing which was first being seen in the US in the mid 1950s.
@@sketchydustin8372 They don't. I have a '57 Buick Special with the three piece rear windows and the visibilty is incredible, like driving in a bubble.
Mopars got a horrible rust reputation from the 57-59 cars... Chrysler would start full dipping their cars in 1960... but the rusting reputation still stick around today. The dealers were supposed to offer rust proofing as an upsell option but they half a$$ed the jobs and usually made the problem worse. They started offering it as a factory option pretty quick but the rubberized rust proofing also often captured moisture behind it... making it worse.
What a shame Chrysler stuffed up on quality in 1957...aside from the untried new suspensions breaking and terrible body corrosion they were the most attractive range of the Big Three. My favourite is the '55 and '56...but these '57 -'61 cars were actually really good once they developed them more.
suspension was actually very good. The torsion bars snapped from corrosion also. They were in such a rush to get the cars to the showroom they were going to "rely" on the dealer to sell rustproofing. GM/Ford had spies... and seen their designs. They didnt "peek" over a fence like they claim... they had spies :)
The MoPar cars were awesome, But I am a hard-core Buick guy. Buick for '57! BTW only ONE of these cars will still be not uncommon on the road in 1975! Can you guess? "... a lot of 1947 cars had THAT feature..." Yah those old, outdated 1947 cars had WHEELS too. Can you believe that EVEN today(2023) BUICK is STILL using...Wheels?!?!.
Production figures are cruel : for 1957 : DeSoto : 126,514, Buick : 405,086 and the ratio is gonna worsen the following years... And 5 years later, DeSoto was history... Sad, cruel but true... 7:04 Especially for a drum brakes equipped car that could stop from 60mph within about 100' at least 6 consecutive times !!!
Buick only survived through attrition and China market... And Desoto was a whole separate plant making the same similar vehicle.... Ford meanwhile foolishly thought the extra mid upper line was a mistake and spent insane amounts of money bringing Edsel online... only to fail due to the recession and awkward design... But the Buick was a cheaper car than the Desoto... Desoto was right up there nearly with Chrysler... Olds was probably more comparable to Desoto.
@@autochronicles8667 There was a lot of price range between a 1957 top of the line Buick Roadmaster, and the entry level Buick Special. Buick slotted between Oldsmobile and Cadillac.
Weird marketing spacing. Typically, DeSoto was competing with Oldsmobile while Chrysler was competing with Buick. While Imperial was competing with Cadillac.🤷♂️
Actually the 57 Buick still looks better than the DeSoto. The Fuselage on the DeSoto just swoops up to much in the rear and the car looks unbalanced visually and awkward.
That's a tough call... to pick one over the other? Buick always had some great attributes... the Desoto pulled off the dual headlights though. I got a 57 Buick film this weekend...
Buick has the looks hands down. 55 and 56 DeSotos were nice looking cars, but they fell off the wagon for a couple years thereafter. 1960 DeSotos were nice.
I'll look up the magazine tests... I think they all confirmed this... The Buicks were the fastest GM cars of the year and they only beat them by a little.
@@autochronicles8667 on another channel on CZcams there are episodes of Highway Patrol featuring Broderick Crawford and featuring a lot of cars from the 50s and early 60s. I remember seeing some DeSoto cars. If you get the chance look up “Highway Patrol “ on CZcams and enjoy seeing the old cars. 😁
I'm going to visit my local DeSoto dealer right away!
60 years too late.
Good luck with that.
Sorry, I just went. The '57s are all sold out! But wait 'till you see the '58s!!
The 57 DeSoto was a great looking car, especially where you could get quad headlights. Sadly they had lots of issues with the torsion bars breaking and rust issues in the first year. I'm going to bet the Buick owner would be much happier than the DeSoto owner when it came time to trade the '57 in for his next car.
yeah, a little rust on the bottom of the torsion bar would cause it to fail. They added a cover in 58 to protect them from water entering the torsion bar. The Desoto is the rarer beast but i think they about equally valued for a basic models. The adventurer is super rare though and really high priced.
Indeed, my mother had a '57 two door Fireflite. She traded it for an Olds in 1960, never purchased another Chrysler and in 1989 told me I would regret purchasing a LeBaron convertible.
The Buick was ugly in comparison, and less powerful.
In late 1960 when it was discontinued, DeSoto trades were probably 50% or so under other 57 makes.
I drove my late grandfather’s 57 DeSoto Fireflite when I was in high school in 1971. Good times 😊
Thanks for colorizing this.
Love the vintage advertising films, the way they show new cars now sure has changed. 👍🙂
Yeah i love the art also...
@@autochronicles8667 👍👍
The DeSoto for me, please. Hands down.
Looks wise Desoto was great for the 57, I think most FWL cars looks were refined in 58, but the 57 Desoto was the best year.
It would have been so fun car shopping back in these days.
cars were affordable... you could get one every 2 years... In today's money cars ran about 15-20k, of course they didnt have air bags and power everything.
@@autochronicles8667But they did not have those things because they were not available yet, like today's steel that is far stronger than in the 50s. However, those cars were the best that technology could produce back then just as cars are now, but today cars have become much more expensive. Today everything is more expensive compared to wages, for example theoretically in my country olive oil should be a staple but its price doubled in a year while salaries... not really 😢
The Buick looks five years older.
the single headlights...
Chrysler ditched their planned models for 1957 and instead rushed their 1960 models into production for the 1957 model year. That's why they look so modern.
Any link where I could see evidence of this? - genuinely interested @@kirbywaite1586
I love these unbiased comparison tests
lol wait are you being sarcastic? :) These Roy Ross guys too their job seriously and wouldnt fudge the numbers at least and the magazines backed up the results.
@@autochronicles8667 not at all. Those guys didn't show a preference and were interested only in the results. They did have a reputation to uphold
In 1957 I would have chosen the DeSoto, if I was old enough to drive. Over the years we learned the GM bodies were built better, though.
eh that's subjective... i think the 57 Mopars certainly had no rust protection... they tried to do an addon for the dealers... but the rockers were bare steel inside.... Chrysler would start dipping their car bodies in 1960
@@autochronicles8667 The rest of the story. Thanks for filling me in.
The late '50s Chrysler Corporation had the WORST build quality in American cars. They have creaks and rust when they left the factory. Chrysler/Fiat/ Stallentis, even to this day, have quality control issues! They DO HAVE great engines and drive trains.
@@TheOzthewiz the build quality was about on par... Chevy/Ford were not pefect at all... The 57 Mopar's were troublesome because of moving up the production and the rush to get more sold. They worked a lot of bugs out in 58-59.. they were often sold completely out of stock... making them as fast as they could in 57...
@@autochronicles8667 it always seemed a shame that Chrysler, until '57 possibly the best-built of the Big Three, rushed the '57s into production so quickly. Even if they'd waited 'til '58 to roll out the designs they debuted in '57, they would *still* have looked years ahead, and would've been built much better.
Despite DeSoto's claims of superiority, Buick outsold them. Driving tests for 1957 Buicks when new did register complaints about poor brakes. They went through them pretty fast.
Well sales numbers don't equate to quality. The 57 Desoto was updated with more modern equipment though and more powerful engine. GM was planning on selling the same tech for 58 but revamped quickly because of the 57 Mopars... Then again in 59... it scared GM and took marketshare.
The desoto had a much better transmission, better power steering, better brakes, and better handling. The Buick was probably smoother, but mushy suspension
Very cool stuff.... I wan't to see the GM version :)
The GM responses were kind of fluff...
Love the "Suddenly it's 1947" jab at that 3-piece rear window on the Buick. Looking at pictures online though, I'm noticing that some '57 Roadmasters have the 3-piece window, while some don't. Did they make the change to a 1-piece at some point in the middle of the '57 year on the C-body, I wonder?
Chrysler was pushing the big windows thing, i think the whole industry was about visibility.. Ford in 52 (Putting out video tonight was dissing Plymouth and their small windows).
Buick offered both versions on the 57 Roadmaster. The divided rear window was just trim strips overlaying the glass and the roof. Buick thought that this would differentiate the Roadmaster from the Super and Cadillacs but most people did not care for it and few were built that way. Dealers did not like them and thought that they made the expensive Roadmaster look like the cheaper Special. That is why both versions were offered after preproduction dealer preview. The Century was supposed to have those trunk to windshield chrome strips too, following the creases in the sheet metal. But since the dealers did not like the three piece rear window and the trim strips only emphasized it, they were never installed on regular production cars.
@@danielulz1640
Both the Roadmaster and Supers had one piece rear windows but early year models were available with the chrome strips. The Special and Century models both had actual three piece rear windows.
It was one of the features that attracted me the most when I bought my '57 Special.
Did the Buick use Low gear? Heavy duty shocks and springs were an option on the Buick. I saw a Buick Super besides the Century in this video
i think they typically just put them in them drive, didn't put the cars in low...
The Buick's Dynaflow only had one gear. It was designated as "M" on the selector meaning "mush".
THAT’S CAUSE DE SOTO’S GOT A HEMI !!
Look at that buick BOUNCE! :)
The rear windows of the 1957 Buicks and Oldsmobiles we're very much influenced by the Mercedes 300 gullwing which was first being seen in the US in the mid 1950s.
@@kirbywaite1586 yeah but they do block vision ...
ho the hell goes over raised railroad tracks at 30 MPH anyway?
@@sketchydustin8372 They don't. I have a '57 Buick Special with the three piece rear windows and the visibilty is incredible, like driving in a bubble.
Yep, the DeSoto was a good performer. But 10 years later what parts didn't fall off, rusted off.
Mopars got a horrible rust reputation from the 57-59 cars... Chrysler would start full dipping their cars in 1960... but the rusting reputation still stick around today. The dealers were supposed to offer rust proofing as an upsell option but they half a$$ed the jobs and usually made the problem worse. They started offering it as a factory option pretty quick but the rubberized rust proofing also often captured moisture behind it... making it worse.
I had a 57 DeSoto also had a 56 Buick the Buick would run off and leave the DeSoto Buick all the way !!!
The Buick looks hopelessly outdated by comparison here
Matter of taste. 56 DeSotos were a lot nicer looking than the 57, IMHO.
What a shame Chrysler stuffed up on quality in 1957...aside from the untried new suspensions breaking and terrible body corrosion they were the most attractive range of the Big Three. My favourite is the '55 and '56...but these '57 -'61 cars were actually really good once they developed them more.
suspension was actually very good. The torsion bars snapped from corrosion also. They were in such a rush to get the cars to the showroom they were going to "rely" on the dealer to sell rustproofing. GM/Ford had spies... and seen their designs. They didnt "peek" over a fence like they claim... they had spies :)
The Desoto started as a four door at the beginning and suddenly turned into a 2 door half way through the test. Did the back doors fall off?
The MoPar cars were awesome, But I am a hard-core Buick guy. Buick for '57! BTW only ONE of these cars will still be not uncommon on the road in 1975! Can you guess? "... a lot of 1947 cars had THAT feature..." Yah those old, outdated 1947 cars had WHEELS too. Can you believe that EVEN today(2023) BUICK is STILL using...Wheels?!?!.
Judging those two cars, I'd go out a buy a 1957 Mercury instead of either.
the turnpike cruiser??? that thing was pretty ugly :)
@@mikes2460 and nosedive
Make mine a '57 Studebaker "Golden Hawk". Very fast and beautiful car!
@@TheOzthewiz they are starting to show up... and get more expensive now...
I like Turnpike Cruisers!
You'll never get me to believe a Desoto is faster then a Buick.
multiple films showed it.... the desoto was fast, the GM transmission didnt do any Buick any favors.
Mills Do your research and you will find the Desoto faster ////////////////
Production figures are cruel : for 1957 : DeSoto : 126,514, Buick : 405,086 and the ratio is gonna worsen the following years... And 5 years later, DeSoto was history... Sad, cruel but true...
7:04 Especially for a drum brakes equipped car that could stop from 60mph within about 100' at least 6 consecutive times !!!
Buick only survived through attrition and China market... And Desoto was a whole separate plant making the same similar vehicle.... Ford meanwhile foolishly thought the extra mid upper line was a mistake and spent insane amounts of money bringing Edsel online... only to fail due to the recession and awkward design... But the Buick was a cheaper car than the Desoto... Desoto was right up there nearly with Chrysler... Olds was probably more comparable to Desoto.
But that number for Buick was nearly 50% off their record in 1955
@@autochronicles8667 There was a lot of price range between a 1957 top of the line Buick Roadmaster, and the entry level Buick Special. Buick slotted between Oldsmobile and Cadillac.
@@autochronicles8667Ford's Edsel "experiment" cost them $2.5B in today's money.
Weird marketing spacing. Typically, DeSoto was competing with Oldsmobile while Chrysler was competing with Buick. While Imperial was competing with Cadillac.🤷♂️
Actually the 57 Buick still looks better than the DeSoto. The Fuselage on the DeSoto just swoops up to much in the rear and the car looks unbalanced visually and awkward.
That's a tough call... to pick one over the other? Buick always had some great attributes... the Desoto pulled off the dual headlights though. I got a 57 Buick film this weekend...
Buick has the looks hands down. 55 and 56 DeSotos were nice looking cars, but they fell off the wagon for a couple years thereafter. 1960 DeSotos were nice.
Looks are subjective, and opinions vary.
The acceleration speeds were Rigged Those Buicks were FAST ..You can't convince me Desoto could out perform Buicks..
I'll look up the magazine tests... I think they all confirmed this... The Buicks were the fastest GM cars of the year and they only beat them by a little.
But Buick is still being made. DeSoto is not.
Desoto was like Olds/Pontiac... too many brands... not that it wasnt cool...
@@autochronicles8667 on another channel on CZcams there are episodes of Highway Patrol featuring Broderick Crawford and featuring a lot of cars from the 50s and early 60s. I remember seeing some DeSoto cars. If you get the chance look up “Highway Patrol “ on CZcams and enjoy seeing the old cars. 😁
Buick way outsold DeSoto in 1957.
in china..
I don't want either of them.
you want the Mercury? :)
Chevrolet?
But my cars fins are bigger than your cars fins!