Source: www.countryclassiccars.com
When our family moved to northern NJ, Mom needed a car of her own for the first time in her life, as she had commuted to her previous NYC job via train (and subway). More to the point, she also needed driving lessons, as she had never held a driver’s license up to that time.
Though my father made a few valiant attempts to assist in that process, it was eventually agreed that to keep peace in the family, the best course of action would be to hand that assignment over to a professional. So it was that the Easy Method Driving School in Randolph, New Jersey was retained for that purpose. (A family-owned enterprise established in 1961, it remains in business today, operated by the founder’s two adult children.)
With behind-the-wheel training satisfactorily completed, and newly-issued driver’s license in hand, the next step was to search for an appropriate vehicle. Not too far from the driving school on Route 46, was Ray Tillotson’s Used Cars. I’m not sure how or why we were steered to that particular dealer, but it soon transpired that a lightly-used, second-hand 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air four-door sedan soon joined the ’58 Plymouth wagon in our Morris Plains driveway.
Not ours, but identical. Source: www.countryclassiccars.com
The Bel Air series was the most popular of Chevy’s three trim levels for the ’58 model year, accounting for just over 700,000 sales across all body styles (and just over half of Chevy’s 1.4 million-unit model year total). Not surprisingly, the four-door sedan was the best-selling Bel Air body style, with just over 250,000 sold.
A bit surprisingly, most of the previous ’57 Chevy-related CC posts have covered the base One-Fifty or mid-level Two-Ten trim levels. This 2016 post by Robert Kim does show a Bel Air four-door sedan, though somewhat the worse for wear…
Our new-to-us ’57 was a black four-door with a white top and two-tone interior, powered by Chevy’s 185-HP 283 V8 mated to GM’s ubiquitous two-speed Powerglide automatic. To my eyes, the Chevy’s instrument cluster design and aluminum-accented dash might have been (loosely) inspired by the Corvette…
Our car’s interior was in much better shape. Source: www.countryclassiccars.com
…but I think that was the only vaguely sporty aspect of the car (aside from its dual rocket-tube accents on the hood).
Space-age styling at its best! Source: www.countryclassiccars.com
I don’t recall any major mechanical issues with the car during the relatively short time it served as Mom’s short-distance commuter car. The Chevy remains rather anonymous in my memory some sixty years later. Maybe that’s because we visited a local new-car dealer not too long after that. Dad decided that we needed to trade in our ’58 Plymouth wagon and replace it with something a bit more economical. I’ll leave you guessing until next week’s COAL…
Further reading:
CC Outtake: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Sedan – Detroit Rhapsody In Rust, White & Blue.
” Though my father made a few valiant attempts to assist in that process, it was eventually agreed that to keep peace in the family, the best course of action would be to hand that assignment over to a professional… “
Smart. Very smart.
My first wife knew how to drive, but not a car with a manual transmission. I tried teaching the art of clutch and column shift with all sorts of ground school lessons, diagrams, and demos.
Failed miserably.
Second wife was a Manhattan non-driver with no license. Twice shy now, we hired a professional driving school. All went well. Mostly.
This ’57 Bel Aire was quite the dramatic beauty for a first car, especially in black and white. The big centered round speedo dashboard design used on the 1957s came back in 1959 and 1960 with a vengeance, with two more instrument pods, and a hint of a Corvette-like dual coves.
The late 1950s and early-mid 1960s were USA automotive design playground years.
These were good cars for new drivers. Good visibility, ease of entry, and enough power. My first collector car was a 57 210 sedan with the Blue Flame 6 and 3 on the tree 40 years ago. After a Harbor Blue paint job at the local votech, some serious mechanical sorting of the brakes, and a new interior (all done by me), it was a neat ride that taught me a great deal about old cars. Only issue was the shift linkage. On more that a few occasions the shift from first to second just wouldn’t happen forcing me to pull over in traffic, pop the hood, reach in and pull free the linkage. Multiple adjustments, new bushings, and lubrication were of no help.
Nice your Mom had the Powerglide!
EMDS was established in 1951 not 61.
This brings me back to the days when the 2-car family was not the norm. It seems like a foreign concept today that a “car for the wife” would start with a trip to a used-car dealer for something, um, cheap. But that seemed to be the norm then, with the Hubs driving off to work in the “good car” every day while the wife stayed home with a cheap, smaller “second car”. This scenario played out at house after house on my street into the mid 60’s.
It is funny that during the era of “peak color” your family ended up with two black/white cars. But it was a sharp-looking color combo on both of your rides.
” Hubs driving off to work in the “good car” every day while the wife stayed home with a cheap … ”
In Ireland (last I knew) that is still the case.
In my family (in my youth) it was the opposite. Mom’s car was the newest, fastest, most “brougham-tastic” (thank you CC’er Rudiger) of the fleet. DOC (my farther) had his hands full keeping Mom’s off-lease monsters running while he much preferred his old straight 8 Packard, which oddly did not seem to require much service (IIRC).
I kind of inherited this from him thanks to my ability to get low end company Taurus sedans while my wife got – you know – a Sable, an Eagle Vision TSi, and a V6 Passat GLX.
Upon reflection, it seems I may have gotten the better deal somewhere in this car soup.
Dad’s first car was a new ’56 Plymouth Plaza. My We became a 2 car family in 1966, before that we only had 1 car, but I think it was a drag for my Dad, he didn’t want to spend evenings and weekends shopping with my Mother (also he got busy and worked weekends often). They stayed at 2 cars probably till 2012 when my Dad got cancer and stopped driving, he’s gone now, my Mom assumed his old car till she stopped driving in 2021 (she’s still with us).
Dad had the “commuter” car while Mom had the main car, almost always a wagon (till 1984). Dad’s cars were imports until 1980, when he bought domestic and never owed an import again (kind of the opposite of many people, probably didn’t own an import until 1980 or after). We never really owned a luxury car per se but owned nicely equipped “full sized” regular models. Dad almost always bought new cars (except his ’59 Beetle) and didn’t keep them very long…5 years would be about his limit)..
My grandparents were different still. We never lived in the same town as they (closest was 4 hours away by car)…neither of my Grandmothers ever learned to drive, and even my Grandfathers didn’t own a car until less than a decade before I was born. Back then public transportation was a bit better, neither side of my family started out particularly wealthy (they kind of went from poor to comfortable as I grew up).
An identical B&W Bel AirV8/PG sedan almost was my first car. Just one problem: I was 15 and did not have a license. That wouldn’t have stopped me; what did was that the seller sold it to my boss at the little gas station I worked for instead.
It was 10 years old but in very nice condition and he drove it as his DD for a couple of years yet.
My guess is that the family kept the 58 Plymouth wagon for your mother as it was handy to have on occasion and fuel economy was not much of a consideration with her short commute, Since you father had purchased a Plymouth I would not be surprised if he wound up in a Valiant. Or, possibly a Falcon.
My second guess is that your mother discovered that driving is fun and developed some preferences as to what she would like to drive. If this is the case I sure hope she got something she liked.
My mom learned to drive a standard in the old country. Then as soon as she got here and an automatic arrived never drove a standard again that I remember. The longest tenure vehicles at my parents house both had NP435 4 speeds so not super friendly to shift.
Still not too uncommon here for the husband to have $100,000 Cummins truck and the wife to have something a lot more modest.
Though my father made a few valiant attempts to assist in that process, it was eventually agreed that to keep peace in the family, the best course of action would be to hand that assignment over to a professional.
Same happened to my mother. Born and raised in the Bronx she didn’t need a car. Married in 1953, me born 10 months later in December, she now needed a car being out on Long Island. I was not privy to the interaction when my father tried to teach my mother but she too ended up with a professional.
In the very early 1970’s I was asked to teach several of my buddies mothers how to drive, I did so, most took to it fairly quickly .
IIRC the ’57 Chevy sedans weren’t very popular when new, they’re super collectible now, I don’t personally like their fins .
-Nate
Haha. I used Easy Method for driver’s Ed in ’99-’00. Ron was my instructor.