Need something to pull your horse trailer? Your 24′ Airstream? This is(n’t) it! This is a 1948 Crosley Pickup and it’s on eBay in Paradise Valley, Arizona, where I should be right now. There is less than a day left to get your plane ticket and plan your route home, on two-lane roads, of course. The current bid price is just shy of $5,000 and there is no reserve.
This one has an odd mix of photos, so please bear with me. But, what is shown in the mish-mash of images sure looks good to me. I’m guessing that there is some bodywork under that shiny, new paint, but I’m not positive. Maybe if it’s an original Arizona pickup it could have been rust-free and it’s just new paint. The CC Crosley (that wasn’t me stuttering), made for the 1947 and 1948 model years, but they started making them in late-1946 so those get lumped in, too. The body styles included the regular sedan, the station wagon, convertible, panel delivery, and the pickup as seen here. Earlier pickups may be a bit more desirable, the roundside trucks with basically a backwards-mounted front fender on the rear for sort of step-side look. I like them both.
The seller says that this pickup is “original and complete”, and I’d agree with the complete part of that sentence. But, when something has been painted and reupholstered it’s not original anymore. People, work with me! They must mean restored to an original look or something like that or has all of the original bits and pieces, even though some (most?) of them have been restored. The bodywork looks almost perfect to me but I can see a few wrinkles and waves in there, but I see the same thing every time I look in the mirror. There is no mention of rust, bodywork, or body filler, but they do say that it has “very good metal.” Isn’t Alice Cooper from Arizona? That’s a different kind of metal, I guess.
I’m bummed to not see a Crosley radio in the dash, but the rest of the space looks about as nice as it could ever be; maybe nicer than it would have been from the factory. This is a heck of a price if the bodywork checks out. Oh yeah, and there are no engine photos, so you’ll want to check that out, too. This is what the “Mighty Tin“, 44 cubic inch, 26-hp, inline four “CoBra” (Copper Braised) engine would look like under the tiny hood, but hopefully it’s in nicer condition. The seller mentions that they have several videos and you can write or text for those to see for yourself. A Crosley is a top-ten vehicle for me, why I don’t have one yet is absolutely beyond me. Does anyone else like these micro-pickups from Crosley? You’re not going to haul a 4×8 sheet of plywood in the bed but it sure would be fun to run errands with this pickup.
These are fun vehicles, more of a novelty than practical drivers though – you would have trouble keeping up with traffic on anything outside of your neighborhood streets. Even if the CoBra engine isn’t already porked, the buyer of this would probably want to swap it out for a later cast iron block.
I’m going to be that guy, It doesn’t do a thing for me. That nuclear war head missile cap on the front of the oversized front clip with the white side panels and tailgate just makes this thing look like some kid put it together in his parents basement out of left over model parts. Sorry but just my opinion take it or leave it.
Hi JW, HA! I saw that too (the warhead cap) and chuckled. Apparently, not all Crosley’s had that, so special order? You know, it’s hard to draw a fair conclusion about this car ( truck), as to us now, it’s horribly inadequate for today’s roads, but believe it or not, Crosley had some very important 1st’s in the industry. 1st ( mass produced) SOHC engine, 1st with disc brakes, all steel construction wagons, 1st American sports car (Hotshot) and the 1st UTV, the Farm-O-Road. I always felt, the timing was a bit off for Crosley. Introduced 25 years later could have made all the difference. Very cool find.
Yea Howard I may have been a little hard on this poor thing, it’s just somewhat peculiar to me as I’ve never seen one in person or have known anyone who had one. Keep the pedal down, life’s too short to be in the slow lane.
“I like a big nose and I cannot lie. You other brothers may deny, but when a chick walks in with a skinny little chin…”.
I believe this is a ’51 or ’52 and not a ’48’. The ’48 had a different grill.
Honest to God, those things look like somebody inflated a kids pedal car and stuck a motor up front.
The ’48s were the last of the rounded front end cars. The “square body” came in ’49 with the cast iron block. My first car was a ’49 station wagon bought for $39 that had been used for a chicken coop. Couldn’t get the smell out so found a ’48 sedan body to put on the ’49 frame. First drive after two years of building the car revealed that you do not go around corners fast in a car that narrow… fast being relative in a Crosley.
Alice Cooper? Detroit’s million dollar baby!!!
Interesting rig, sold for 5K, 4bids.