Previewing tomorrow’s Vintage Snapshot gallery, I instantly noticed this car in the top photo because it did not look familiar, at all. I’m utterly stumped. As is Google Lens. Hopefully one of you will recognize it.
Here’s a few observations that might help:
Patrick Bell thought it was a foreign car. From its size it looks very much American. That’s in comparison to other cars there as well as that big gap between the two front seat passengers. A European coachbuilt coupe on an American chassis? FWIW, the chunky bumper looks rather American and not what one might expect to see on a French or Italian coachbuilt coupe. There’s only a single exhaust on the right side.
It is almost certainly a coupe with a flowing roof. And the greenhouse tapers in towards the rear. The rear “fenders” really bulge out from the body, but that was not uncommon in the late ’40s and early ’50s. The taillights are obviously generic and add to the challenge as well as the odds that it’s either a one-off or an extremely low volume thing.
I obsessed on what appeared to be three chrome letters on the trunk, but how many car companies were there with three letters? I decided that they likely are just ornamentation.
Good luck! Feel free to guess, but I do encourage you to confirm your guess with an image that supports it.
I best and only guess, is a Hudson. Really don’t know.
Easy, ’51 Dodge Wayfarer with modified taillights and missing the Dodge nameplate over the trunk handle.
Bingo! I knew I’d seen it before, but just couldn’t find my way back to that. Also, the view from the very rear distorts some of the proportions.
Good catch , Jeff. My second thought that I did not voice was a custom job as the tail lights had a Buick resemblance (as Sam Molloy noted below). The completed work seems to be high quality, at least from a distance. It would be interesting to see what they did with the front end.
I can see the likeness but just to name one difference, the rear window in the mystery car has three sections, similar to what would have a Mercury of the same vintage, I don’t think it’s one of those, though.
I’m going to go with a Dodge Wayfarer as well. Here’s a shot of a ’52. I used Google Lens to find it, I claim no knowledge of early ’50s cars.
Yes, that’s it. I tried Google Lens and it gave me no matches. Curious.
Yes. A Dodge with Buick taillights
I’m going out on a bit of a limb but I’m going to say 49-50 Ford with some custom work.
I can’t seem to upload a picture unfortunately.
I thought maybe a Rover
Thinking a “euro model” too.
3 chrome emblems above the rear license. Initials for a foreign make? I was going to guess a Rover as well. I seriously don’t think this is a Dodge Wayfarer like others guessed. The rear quarter windows almost touching the back glass have me thinking it’s not from here. It’s definitely got us ALL thinking, that’s for sure.
Happy New Years everyone!
You guys are sharp ! that was quick .
Seeing that poor old Wayfarer sitting in the weeds with the head gasket on the parcel shelf makes me sad .
-Nate
Picture appears to have been taken at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.
Jensen 541?
That was my first thought too, but the more I looked the more things didn’t add up.
That was my exact thought too, but then I looked and it obviously wasn’t.
When I saw this picture I knew it was a Dodge Wayfarer, mainly because I own several of them. The tail lights are changed though
Dodge Wayfarer for sure. I wonder if the taillights were a local way of creating a DeSoto. Many countries had their own PlySotos and DodSotos, some pretty obscure.
Glad others got it, but I can tell you that is in Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs.
Thanks Mike! Added to the 2026 USA/ Canada road trip.
Puzzle solved by now of course, but I’ll throw my .02 out there.
Looks British to me, very Jaguar like, or reminiscent. But as was also noted earlier, the bumper is all wrong, way to big for a British car, or anything from that side of the pond.
I agree with you. My first thought was a Jag. Camera angle in this picture does wonders as do the custom tail lights. The camera angle gives a Citroen look to the placement of the back tires. A great puzzler!
I was actually seeing Peugeot.
I can see why.
I’m not seeing divisions in the rear window. My best guess is one of the last “step-down” Hudsons, perhaps a ’53 or ’54 vintage. They had the bulbous fenders and a similar two-tone arrangement, as I recall. The shape of the trunk lid seems right, also.
52 Desoto
It’s an O D G.
The little bit of the car in front really makes the left edge mind-boggling.
Well done, those of you who obviously got it right with the Wayfarer.(You really had a head start, Duane!)
My search concentrated on Ghia variants. I don’t know if Chrysler Corp. had associations with them in those days but my efforts came to now’t every time especially with the rear-lights (obviously after-fit) which looked almost off-the-shelf British Lucas.
Please note the added reflectors between the taillight lenses to meet American regulations, so definitely European, perhaps English, say a member of the Rootes group?
Makes me wonder if they removed some letters on the trunk lid to spell D D E.