When Virgil Exner and the Highland Park Studios had to finish off the 1950’s, the final Forward Look interpretations for the decade got a heavy dose of new make up. In one of the the most heavy-handed automotive “Max Factor” make-overs, which perpetual fraternal twins wore the revamp better?
1957 Chrysler
The second set of Forward Look cars came to the market more often than not with friendly faces despite their finny plumage out back. They proved to be the Fresh New Faces of ’57 compared to the curious contortions of contemporary Deaborn products and the general jowly nature of General Motors products. More closely related in the family were the faces of Chrysler and DeSoto.
1958 DeSoto
DeSoto, in particular moved away from the toothy “brace face” facade it wore through the early 50’s. In 1957 they emerged as twins again; fraternal twins obviously but twins that looked so similar at first glance they appeared nearly identical.
They applied make-up to set them more distinctively apart as they started to mature into their second season on sale. The smooth smirk of an elliptical on the Desoto grew a more pronounced sneer. The sly thinly waxed mustache smile of the 1957 Chrysler grew thicker handlebars, verging on comical proportions similar to those found in hip enclaves throughout the United States today. The discerning eye had to have some concerns about where all of this might go in the next year.
1959 DeSoto
It’s curious to think how far the 1959 Chrysler Corporation line-up got away from the lithe details of the 1957 cars. Underneath all of that heavy chrome and bulbous detail was the most refined version of what had been one of the greatest stories of dashed hopes in American automotive history. There is irony in the fury that the sight of the ’57 models set off at General Motors, whose cars traded their soggy suits for a cleaner and bolder look for the 1959 model year. The irony grows tragic considering the final versions of the second Forward Look would embrace a visage that was dowdy as the ’57 GM lineup was.
1959 Chrysler
The question becomes which twin wore the new face better? Surprisingly, for the Chrysler and DeSoto being completely badge engineered, 1959 has to be the year more than any other during the Post-War years that they differed the most in the face. In the attempt to seem far more substantial, with girth and visual weight trying to imply improved quality, who came up with the “better” face? I’ll keep my opinion to myself, and let you, my fellow curbsiders, decide who pulled off the make-over the best.
Many Forward Look fans like to pretend the whole time they looked as nice as they did in ’57 with cars like the red Desoto. I don’t understand how a company can go backwards so far in just two years. The front end of the ’59 Desoto is really unattractive. The long air opening in the bumper reminds me of a vacuum cleaner nozzle.
In those days of regular facelifts, Chrysler was under pressure to make the 1959 cars look visibly different from their predecessors. Supposedly many dealers felt that the lack of a major change in 1958 heavily contributed to the corporation’s severe drop in sales that year. At the same time, the 1957 effort had been very expensive, and the corporation was spending money to ready the all-new Valiant and new unit-body full-size cars for 1960.
This facelift is probably the result of a directive to “make it look different but don’t spend much money doing so.”
I much prefer the wrap-around effect of the grille on the Chrysler.
The 1959 Chrysler looks better than its DeSoto brethren, although the New Yorker, with its “wings” on each side of the bumper, looks better than the Chrysler pictured here.
Geeber, you and I just can’t agree on anything today! 🙂
Actually, my vote would be . . . (drum roll) . . .
Now I can agree with that choice! And the Dodge was probably the least attractive 1959 Mopar.
As I say (and JP is ready with the Tomatoes) that the ’59 Dodge was the most attractive face of them all. Then again I find Ernest Borgnine sexy, so there’s that….
The 59 Dodge looked angry and pissed off,not quite as angry and pissed off as a 59 Buick but pretty close
1959 Dodge. Like I said last year, “That face looks like a guy with big eyebrows smoking two cigars at once.”
I can never, ever think of the ’59s without seeing that dual-stogie doofus. Thanks again, Mike. 🙂
Probably ahead of the Chrysler for me too, and with a certain mid 1960s Rootes Hunber look to it as well
In this period (say ’55-60) it always seemed that Chryslers were styled first. Once that design was finalized, the other four marques got what was left over in the styling studio. Chrysler always seemed to be the best looking, and Dodge came out the worst.
I like the ’59 Plymouth (at least the front) the best…the rear not so much. The interior design itself seems to almost be to try to look like an airplane or maybe a spaceship…some of the wildest looking ones came out around this time. Guess looking “modern” was paramount. or they thought it would help sell cars….almost silly, why pretend to be piloting an airplane or spaceship when driving a car?….if boats had been popular at that time maybe we’d see a ship’s wheel or heaven forbid a rudder like control in the passenger compartment of some car.
The funny thing might be how quickly things seemed to change for Chrysler cars in the ’50’s…maybe the early 50’s where GM and Ford went all out in a sales binge shook things up quite a bit at Chrysler (where I think Plymouth first was eclipsed by Buick in ’53 by a small volume of cars). The early 50’s Chryslers were well made, and had great engineering, but they were very stogy for the longest time…till ’55 I think…My Grandfather had a ’51 Chrysler Windsor, and to me it typified the “Grandfather” car in terms of styling..very nice well made car, but for older people. I think also they were a bit slow getting the Automatic and V8 in the volume Plymouth line, which also probably hurt sales. This seemed to change dramatically in ’55 when V8 and Automatic combined with restyled cars started the trend that continues with the ’59’s…it is almost like GM woke up and said something like “we can’t be made second rate in terms of style” and proceeded to churn out back to back hits of the ’60’s….maybe all that was needed was the competition.
Unfortunately, Chrysler seemed to lose its quality reputation particularly starting with the ’57’s…almost like you can choose 2 of 3, power, style, or quality, but not get all 3 at same time (though I’ve heard the ’59’s were better in this respect than the ’57’s).
For me, the 1960 Chryslers were at the peak (if you like the finned cars)…when they went to unibody they seemed to restyle the whole line, and did some expensive stuff like 1 year only Imperial (know it was based on the ’57 but they changed it inside/out for that year) I was too young to remember that time, but I’m guessing there was an air of promise in the “space age” at that time that shows up in the styling of the cars. I remember some of that in 1980 when the GM X cars came out (maybe not in terms of styling so much, but the new “computer” decade)…well the X cars flopped, but it seems like the cars changed dramatically in size right around 1979-80 (probably started in ’76 with the Seville, maybe ’74 with the Granada and Mustang, but really seemed to affect all cars in early 80’s).
A clear vote for DeSoto here. The Chrysler is too heavy above the upper grille line and too delecate below. Also, the letters below the hood opening on the Chrysler make the leading edge of the hood seem like too high of a forehead on a guy. The DeSoto has a much more balanced look, though a heavier one than before.
Both cars had a problem in that they needed to move the headlights down and the grille up to present what by 1959 was becoming a modern face of a car.
This makes me notice how nobody every focuses on the front ends of these Forward Look cars, but always on the profile or the tail end. “Hey, my eyes are up here!”
I agree the DeSoto looks much better.
I agree also. Have thought that then as a kid and still do. There was something cool looking about the DeSoto
My feelings exactly. DeSotos were always the coolest.
Totally agree. Neither was an improvement over the original, but the DeSoto is better resolved. Interestingly, I read on a ForwardLookNet post that the DeSoto design team “won” the design for the shared ’57 body.
As for the rest of the ’59s, the Plymouth looks bug-eyed, the Dodge is over the top and kind of angry, but the worst offender was the Imperial. Big, toothy grill and they dropped the headlights but left the brows.
That ’59 Imperial is just sad. The ’57 was a pretty dramatic piece of work, if a bit baroque. But feeling the need to muck up its face just for a new model year is pathetic.
Wow. Until you pointed it out, I had never noticed the awkward headlights that had escaped their rightful placement on the 59 Imp. How have I never seen this? As i stated in an earlier comment, the front never seems to be the focal point with any 57-59 Mopar.
Yeah, that crossbar thing on the Imp looks like a plumbing fixture of some kind. I’ll hold out for a ’60.
DeSoto, before; Chrysler, after.
The red DeSoto looks very nice to me but I still preferred the look of my old ’58 Plymouth Plaza Base model Two Door .
A near miss to be used up in ” Christine ” .
-Nate
Personal favourite is the 1958 Desoto
I have a recent issue of Collectible Automobile and the forum Forwardlook.net who showed photos and drawings of others proposals for the 1959 DeSoto like stacked headlights. Just imagine if DeSoto had used stackhead headlights before Pontiac?
http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=34724&DisplayType=nested&setCookie=1
Looks good- that’s a great link!
I has me a 59 but with a happy visage, actually I have two this one and its full size carport mate.
Is that a “Dinky”. I remember the ‘jeweled headlights’ from my Dinky cars.
Back OT. The Chrysler is my pick.
Vanguards 1/43, kinda like the De soto
Lawrence, I will take that red 1958 DeSoto – to my eyes it just had a cleaner, less ornate look.
Now in that profile photo it looks like you are at the wheel of a Benz – I am thinking a W 108 or W109 – not there is a car!
W108. Story here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/auto-biography-where-did-he-go-to-stuttgart-for-the-4th-time/
Thanks Lawrence! We never saw the 4.5 here and the last 108/109 models were sold here in ’72. We had the 3.5 though and I understand it was as powerful as the smog-spec 4.5 in the states. I am a bit of a 108 fan – here is my 280 SE with its stablemate, a W111 3.5 coupe
And the ’57 with the long oval center section in the grille (that downward job in the ’58 was the only change) is even prettier. And you could still get models with single headlights.
Top half: jpc’s 59 plymouth. Bottom half: 57 Chrysler.
I love the idea of this post, we should do more like this. Thanks Laurence.
The ’59 Desoto design looks more integrated, the bumper/grille have the same doughy forms as the headlight brows. The Chrysler always impressed me as a “we-have-to-do-something-different-whether-its-good-or-not” plus it looks rather cheaply executed. They should have used the ’59 300E front on the complete line.
Slight lean to the ’59 Desoto. The ’58 is a little too placid, where the ’59 looks pissed off and ominous…that’s how I like my cars. The ’58 Chrysler looks ‘happy’…NOPE, not feeling that. The 59 looks just kind of generic. The ’59 Plymouth is probably the best all around design…from the front, anyway. The fins on those are a total eyesore.
For a ’50s Mopar, make mine a ’56 Imperial or 300. Fins are nigh nonexistent, front end is congruent and clean, the body lines overall are big and clean.
I have long thought the entire Forward Look cars of 1959 were terrible looking — a good lesson on how NOT to do a facelift. But in response to Perry’s question, I’d take the Chrysler over the DeSoto.
I like the ’57 Desoto as pictured with the quad headlamps, but in PA where I grew up, quads were not yet legal, and the old 7-inch dual headlamps took away a lot of the beauty of the ’57 Desoto and Chrysler front ends (and didn’t help the ’57 Mercury either).
The ’59s are the least attractive versions of the ’57-’59 Mopar products. I do find the DeSoto to be more interesting than the Chrysler. The ’57 and ’58 are much better looking in both lines.
My pick is Imperial, and then 300.
Plymouth is close, but the fender dip between the headlights just doesn’t quite work for me. How about the Plymouth grill/bumper with the Dodge eyebrows?
Desoto wins over the Chrysler Saratoga (the car shown above) but the New Yorker makes it a tie. Windsor and New Yorker have a bigger badge on the hood, and the New Yorker grill has much more prominent vertical bars. The Saratoga has always looked too cheap to me. There’s some Rambler in that face somewhere.
The `57 Chrysler kinda looks like a `58 “Packardbaker” from the front. Though none of these cars are really attractive, I`d give it to the DeSoto.
Ditto, the Chrysler looks a bit cheaper and very Packardbacker to me!
Well the Plymouth had by far the best-looking face from ’57-59; but of the ones pictured above the best is the ’58 De Soto, worst is the ’59 Chrysler. Oddly, I like the ’59 Chrysler in front 3/4 shots, but in absolute head-on like the photo, it looks plain, and very flat and one-dimensional.
Here’s MY vote:
The 1960 Desoto; the toothy grille and “smiling-V-but-I’m-a-bada$$” look of the bumper makes this car, IMO. Lines are perfectly-proportioned; fins are tasteful but not over the top. I will own one someday.