Today, many non-car people have never heard of DeSoto. That’s a shame, as the marque, which existed from 1929 to 1961, had some memorable cars–even if most of them were Chryslers under the skin. Naturally, some of the flashiest of them were built during the Jet Age, with plenty of fins, bright colors, and chrome. This 1960 Adventurer two-door hardtop looks very stylish, but at the time they were introduced in the fall of 1959, poor DeSoto had less than two years to live.
As recently as 1957, DeSoto had a great year, with over 117K produced. But things came to a sudden stop in 1958. Thanks to the ’58 recession, all car sales took a hit, but DeSoto still fared worse than most, with sales dipping down to under 50K. Not good!
Of course, some of it was due to the fact that the “Suddenly it’s 1960” Mopars were beautiful pieces of junk, but Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler fared much better despite facing the same gun-shy customers.
The 1959 DeSoto is my favorite DeSoto, with much better-looking side trim than the oddly dipped trim on corporate sibling Chryslers (Windsors, anyway), and of course those great “tri-tower” taillights.
The brawny Adventurer returned as well, looking sharper than ever. But it was all for naught–sales slid again, this time to 45,724. Rarest ’59? The Adventurer convertible, which saw only 97 copies. Even the pricier ’59 Chryslers did much better, with 63,186 built for the model year.
Despite having an attractive look, a full model lineup, and Chrysler engineering (or was that a minus by this time?), the 1959 DeSoto failed to launch. So for 1960, a seriously pruned model lineup greeted the shrinking number of DeSoto buyers. Not to mention the fact that they looked even more like a Chrysler than before.
Wagons were gone. Convertibles were gone. And the special high-performance Adventurer was gone as well. An Adventurer did return, but it more or less took the place of the ’59 Fireflite, as the top-trim model–much like Chevrolet did with the Impala in 1959.
The Firesweep and Firedome were also toast, though the 1960 Fireflite was in the ’59 Firedome’s spot in the lineup, more or less. The $3014 Fireflite four-door sedan was the price leader. When you consider the $3194 price tag for a ’60 Windsor–and the added prestige of the Chrysler nameplate (yes, owning a Chrysler still meant something back then; K-cars and PT Cruisers were far off in the future) you can perhaps see why DeSoto was crashing and burning.
As you can see in this comparison shot, the only things that really set the DeSoto Fireflite and Adventurer apart from the Chrysler Windsor and Saratoga were a full-width grille, a full-length, vertically-scored side trim molding, little chrome windsplits on the taillights, and different wheel covers. Oh, and on average, DeSotos were about a hundred bucks less.
That, of course, doesn’t mean the DeSoto was a bad car. Chrysler had gotten most of the ’57 Forward Look troubles fixed by MY 1960. And all 1960 Chrysler products had the unusual-for-the-time unit body construction (well, except for Rambler), torsion bar suspension, and good handling. These were good road cars in their day.
As was the case with the Fireflite, the upper-level Adventurer was offered in three body styles: four-door sedan, four-door hardtop and the sporty two-door hardtop. Adventurers added a padded IP, variable-speed wipers, a deluxe steering wheel, bumper guards, full wheel covers and Torqueflite automatic as standard equipment. These same items were nonetheless available on Fireflites–at extra cost, of course.
Despite the pruned model lineup, DeSotos still looked every bit the solid mid-priced car it always had been. The Adventurer interiors were particularly attractive. And you know how much I love green, so today’s featured car especially impressed me!
Look at all that glass area! Chrysler really knew how to do the light, airy roofline during these years. It makes the chunky, clumsy rooflines of today look like something a third-grader would come up with. You see, back then, people liked to see out of their cars, and were not fooled into thinking their car was a bank vault for the mere fact that they couldn’t see out of the thing!
And seriously, how can you not love the instrument panel of this thing. Two-tone steering wheel, triple-level gauge cluster, and the ever-present Torqueflite buttons off to the left. And it’s green! Remember green interiors? And red interiors? And blue interiors? What the hell is wrong with having COLORS inside new cars?! Okay, okay, calm down Tom…
The seats on this Adventurer were green and white vinyl, with fabric inserts. A cool detail is that the lighter colors in the fabric are reflective. I have no idea how hard-wearing this material is (or how hard it may be to source today), but it sure looked good!
You may remember this DeSoto from my Curbside Cruising post late last year. I have been sitting on these photos for months now–a shame, because it is such a beautiful car.
Recently, I spotted it again at the River Valley Classics cruise night, and with Mopar week green-lighted by our Executive Editor, I knew the time had come to share this Adventurer with you adoring Mopar fanatics!
The Adventurer hardtop coupe retailed for $3663–that is, if you didn’t add the fake spare tires, wire wheels, or other extras this one sports. The 3945-lb. coupe saw production of 3,092, making it the second rarest ’60 Adventurer. First and third place belonged to the four-door hardtop (2,759) and four door sedan (5,746).
Power came from a 2 BBL 383 CID V8, good for 305 horsepower at 4600 rpm.
All DeSotos shared the 122-inch wheelbase and 217-inch overall length. As you may have guessed, this was shared with the Windsor, though Saratogas and New Yorkers got a 126-inch stretch and 219.6-inch length (the Saratoga was 0.2 inches shorter overall than the NY–219.4–for some reason).
Folks who own classic cars can be some of the nicest people. As may be apparent in some of the shots, the DeSoto was a bit boxed in at the back of the Dahl lot, but the owner was nice enough to pose the car for better pictures, just before he and his wife left the show.
I will say it again: Isn’t this car beautiful. If you did not know one thing about the DeSoto marque and saw this car at a show, it would be hard to believe there was less than a year before the nameplate would be in the wind. The car market can certainly be fickle, can’t it?
Here we can see the front bumper guards, which account for the Adventurer’s 217″ length. Fireflites, which did not come with the guards (they were extra), was a bit shorter overall, at 215.4 inches. Any DeSoto was a cool ride, though that probably wasn’t the case by 1963 or so, when the marque was gone. I imagine many 1959-61 DeSoto owners took a sharp hit on depreciation when production ended for good on November 30, 1960.
Yes, there was a 1961 DeSoto, but the front end was so bizarre (like a ’60 Lincoln with an A/C register above the grille!) I believe the stylists were phoning it in–they probably knew the end was near. Still, they were the last of the line. There weren’t even any model names this year, just a “DeSoto,” in two-door hardtop and four-door hardtop flavors. Only 3,034 were made, and unfilled DeSoto orders received Windsors after production halted.
Everybody doesn’t need to have a pro-street Camaro or “mod-rodded” Mustang to enjoy old car ownership. In fact, having said Camaro, Mustang or Corvette is a good way to get ignored at shows. A mint-green over white 1960 DeSoto with giant fins, however, is pretty hard to ignore in any environment. I salute this beautiful DeSoto, and their DeLovely owners!
Now, sing along! “It’s DeLovely, it’s Dynamic, it’s DeSoto!”
Count me as another lover of green cars. This delicate light green with white top combo, really sets off the car’s styling. DeSotos were upscale from the Plymouth and Dodge lines and usually had more powerful engines and fancier detailing. I think of them as Chrysler’s answer to Oldsmobile and later Pontiac. Like GM cars, they shared platforms with their cheaper siblings, but GM seemed to better differentiate the different model lines with more distinctive body styling. It didn’t help when senior lines like Buick, or in this case Chrysler, introduced lower priced models like the Special or Windsor (later Newport) that preyed upon their mid priced model lines. Plymouth was cheaper and far enough down the food chain that it wasn’t affected as badly. GM had enough market share to get away with that, but Chrysler sacrificed the mid line cars for the cheaper versions of their top line cars.
I suppose that DeSotos were like Oldsmobiles and Buicks, in that they were for people who wanted to take a step up, but not a presumptuous step up to a Chrysler. As a recent convert to a vintage Mopar, I find the DeSoto to be a very interesting make, as it had a lot of little “touches” that set it apart from it’s corporate siblings.
Well, the essay is terrific. Much appreciated. The jingle from 1957as presented is abbreviated and the voice of the announcer is Clifton Fadiman. “The time has come. It’s very clear. The car you wanted is really here. It’s delightful, it’s delovely, it’s De Soto-o-o-o. You’ll understand that once you try you know you’ll want to buy It’s delightful, It’s delovely, It’s De Soto.” (Now here is where my memory fades) “You can tell at a glance that this big car is really all new. You can hear that big engine murmuring low, so let it go! (some more verbiage and then) “It’s delightful, it’s delovely, it’s De Soto-o-o-o!”
If you’ll excuse me, I’m in the back seat with Groucho driving VWOOOOOM!
Thanks for perhaps the best trip down memory lane for me! I learned to drive on a black 55 Firedome that began my love affair with DeSoto. For me, the final (3200) were the epitome of OTT style, along with 61 Imperial the grand finale for Exners fabulous finned fantasies for Chrysler. My parents passed on a 59 ADVENTURER and the last 61 DeSoto in our community. I’ve long had close to an obsession with those. I have four 1-18 scale Diecast 61 DeSotos in various colors. As a teenager, I wrote my opinions to DeSoto Division and received a letter and 61 DeSoto advertising brochure from Division Mgr Charles Craig. I still have both. I created a collage from another sales brochure now framed and hanging on my wall. Obviously, I’ll never drive another DeSoto, but can’t help dreaming. So yes,
it’s Delightful! 
It’s Delovely! 
It’s 
DESOTO! 
and be sure to tell them Groucho sent you! 
. ROCK HUDSON did a TV ad for 57 DeSoto. DeSoto was created by Walter P. Chrysler when the DODGE brothers resisted his offer to buy DODGE. Then they sold. I believe DODGE and DeSoto alternated sales slots with DeSoto ending above Dodge. OBSESSION? You bet! Walter must be spinning in his grave seeing what is left of his Empire! And PLEASE don’t say Stelantis! 
Thomas! Better watch out! George Fennemen may get jealous, say the secret word
and send the bird without the $50.
I’m not sure if it still exists, but back in the early 60s there was a National DeSoto Club (I was member #548). Somehow I lost contact. It may still be going. The annual Convention was a weekend event in different cities. I attended one. A truly Delightful DeSoto ADVENTURE!
I remember when C&D did a respective on the 1960 DeSoto Adventurer decades ago, they called it the “GrinMobile” because it made them happy when they saw it.
My paternal grandmother had a 1959 four door DeSoto with the same colors as the featured car here. I don’t remember much about it because I was so young at the time but I always thought it was so classy looking. She bought it new in the spring of 1959. She previously had a red and black 1955 DeSoto but wanted a new car for the great road trip planned for that summer. She, her husband, and another couple drove it from Ohio to Alaska and back through the Pacific northwest and Canadian Rockies. Trip took 7 weeks and 12,000 miles. When she got back she had to have the lower part of the body repainted because the unpaved Alaska Highway had “sandblasted” the paint off of both sides. She took another extended trip in the DeSoto in 1961 through upstate New York, New England, Maine, the Atlantic provinces, and back via Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. She traded it on a new Chrysler Newport in 1964, so disappointed that DeSoto had been discontinued.
@Davis…. for years in the early 50s, DeSotos grille featured large chrome *teeth *. Which were frequently installed in customized cars, especially Mercury. When the 56 DeSoto appeared with a flat grille, a columnist declared *For the first time in years, DeSoto appears in public without it’s front teeth * unfortunately 6I CANCELATION left us without a smile.
What a lovely colour scheme; the delicate pastel green, white roof, and the variety of greens and white in the interior.
I’ve got a spare DeSoto kit that’s been waiting for inspiration: this is it!
I remember seeing occasional DeSotos as a kid; they were another one of those big expensive American cars that few folk could afford to buy or feed. I didn’t see them as distinct from Dodge or Plymouth, as the ones we got here were Canadian Plysotos. They were sold up till about the ’54, which continued until the Chrysler Royal took over. There may have been the odd low-volume import of later models, I don’t know. Nowadays I wonder that enough of them were sold here for the brand to have any distinct identity.
My dad had a 1960 Chrysler Windsor in baby blue with the 383 and TorqueFlite. It was 300 horsepower dad said. Mom proved it because I was always catching her going 85 and sometimes 90 mph. I thought the desoto was fancier. Too expensive to find and own one now.
Chrysler always had an interesting history from 1955-1965 to me, first putting cars on a diet before Ford and GM. By ’59, suddenly it was 1960 – for GM. By 1960, Chrysler was still making ’57-58-dimensioned cars.
I’ve always loved 60’s cars with dual headlights (parallel ones), but I also love tailfins, so I’ve recently really been drawn to mid-57 to ’59 cars, so this thing falls right into that category, especially that color.
Housebound during a snow storm, I was flipping through the channels on my Roku TV and started watching an old black and white game show – the grand prize was a bright red 1959 DeSoto fire dome – it was stunningly beautiful even on the grainy black and white film. The guy that won it looked like Buddy Holly with a crew cut and was totally stoked with his win!
Thank you for this wonderful article. I am a long time owner of a 1950 DeSoto Custom. Not the power, chrome covered, finned car that evolved during the mid 50s, but a wonderful car nonetheless.
The National DeSoto Club is still active. Check out their website and the 39th Convention and show is in June this year in Akron, OH.
Our one well-off widow lady Gretchen drove an all-white 1960 DeSoto two-door hardtop in which she also sported around a couple older blue-haired widows who my mother referred to all as “Gretchen and the girls with the grandma faces”.
Later Gretchen traded the ’60 DeSoto for a very pretty light turquoise ’64 Dodge Polara four-door hardtop which turn out to be a low-production model. What was surprising was Gretchen didn’t buy a Custom 880 as she liked big cars. The ’64 Dodge Polara was traded in 1968 for a Chrysler Newport two-door hardtop in that miserable avocado green metallic with a painted white top.
This photo reminds me of Gretchen, she even dresses in this fashion
The 1960 Desoto might have sold better…if it weren’t for the 1960 Chryslers, especially the less chrome-laden Saratoga (but with the nicer New Yorker grille). To me, that was the best of the Forward Look era.
Chrysler made some interesting moves by cancelling Desoto and adding the low-end Chrysler Newport for 1961, which also cut into Dodge’s market. Of course, the new Dodge Dart had moved into Plymouth territory the previous year, too.
Had a 59 conv in 66. Was a great car. Gm was trying to put Chrysler out of business in the mid fifties. And no their quality engineering was not a negative. You knew when you bought a Chrysler you could drive it for at least a couple hundred thousand, everything else needed overhauled 80 to 120k. You wouldn’t believe the number of Cadillacs I’ve had to overhauk at around 80k. Because Gm credit was so easy to get they put out of business Nash, Hudson Studebaker, Willy’s and eventually killed AMC.
60 – 61 DeSotos had a slightly facelifted Dodge instrument panel. Anyone who saw a Chrysler Astradome fired up might have gone for one of those instead.
Someone more clever than I needs to look into this: “Did the Edsel kill DeSoto?”
I probably would’ve been a DeSoto man back then. The ’60 Chryslers and DeSotos were nice looking. Really could have gone for a ’58 (no Hemi, but man, that Jeanne Crain, mmm), but, look, their sales vanished that year!
Hmm (the mind wobbles…)…