The New Yorker is often known as Chryslers flagship model, being plush and high end. If you could afford one of these in 1956, you knew you had “arrived” at the upper middle class level of life that so many fight to even reach today. This specific New Yorker has been piecemeal restored, but still looks like a very nice car. All you need is $21,500 to take it home. Find it here on craigslist out of Gaithersburg, Maryland.
The 392 V8 is present and it looks mostly original under the hood. The engines operation is listed as being good and smooth. The 392 is backed by a 3 speed automatic transmission, that isn’t reported to have any issues. The bay looks original with a tiny bit of over spray, but not bad. The exterior of the car looks very nice, especially with the “Tritone” paint scheme. The paint is noted as being older with some chips. The seller also used the dread “B” word (Bondo) so that isn’t quite what we were hoping to hear when looking at this rare example of a New Yorker. Aside from the possible Bondo concerns, the body looks straight and doesn’t appear wavy, or lumpy. The seller also mentions minor surface rust on the underside of as well.
The interior is mostly original with mention of some reupholstering having been done. The Steering wheel has a crack and is slightly discolored, but this could be easily remedied. The dash and the rest of the interior looks wonderful and has a lovely mix of grey and white. This New Yorker is big, and would easily haul around your family with no issue.
Would you bring home this mammoth of a Chrysler? It is certainly sharp, and definitely draws your attention. This St. Regis model of the New Yorker is one you don’t see all that often, if at all. When was the last time you saw a New Yorker on the road? As mentioned earlier, this car would easily haul your family and then some. Would you buy this New Yorker? What would you do with this big Chrysler?
I would install a Vintage AC system, hidden stereo and tour the country. So nice to see these unique American cars still here and willing.
Having owned a ’57 Desoto convertible as my first car, I now wish I had bought this Chrysler New Yorker hard top instead, and kept it for the duration. It screams 1950s Chrysler flair and makes you ask whatever happened to those great 2-tone paint jobs set off by plenty of chrome, especially that line of little chrome accents on the fins.
I don’t know that I would want to pay the asking for it because it would depend on how much bondo is under that paint, but the seller is right, the underside does look very good. Not sure what the seller means by “Mileage:{ERR-null passed}”—-Past 99,999? Busted ODO? Car is too old for the state to care?
As I remember the first year for the 392 was 1957. This should be a 354.
Correcting Engine
Its a 354 Hemi lurking under the hood))
Wonderful cars, truly a couple of cuts above the common Ford or Chevrolet of there time. 57 was a better year in many ways, torsion bar suspension was a huge improvement in ride and handeling. The 354 was a good engine but the 392 was a monster. Lots of these cars 57 through 58 sitting around without engines. They were very popular with drag racers and hotrod guys. My grandfather had a 55 Dodge with a 354 installed he loved to street race……100 MPH on the back roads of Idaho. When I was collecting imperials, none of my 57 or 58’s had engines. I found one for my 57 convertible but it was tough. One of my faveroite cars was my 1955 Desoto Indy pace car convertible….and my 1959 Desoto sportsman. The Polly heads in 59 actually were more powerful than the hemis.
Curious ? Polyhead engine more powerful then the hemi? Which hemi ? Kenneth
The 392 was the most powerful early Hemi, the replacement engine for it was the 413. It had it by 25 HP as I remember in stock form. Off course, the hemis made great hotrod engines and had a lot of potential but so did the 413-440 big block.
The add says minimal bondo and I’m willing to bet there is some bondo in almost every restored car out there. When you weld in rust patches or panels how do think they’re smoothed over. Not to many people using lead these days. Even new cars may have small amounts of bondo concealing joints. Bondo done correctly is of no concern to me and is over stated on this site.
I agree. I think ALL new cars have ” bondo ” It is used to blend panels. The bad name bondo has gotten is from backyard rubes that attempt to cover rust, without the proper prep. If there is a solid platform to apply bondo, it’s as stable as the metal surrounding it.
Back in ’82, I had a brand new Celica GTS. My wife put a small dent in the front right fender. Being brand new, I insisted on a complete new fender. The body man I dealt with steered me away from that. He noted breaking the factory seals would be a bad idea, and explained to me, that as long as the metal was solid behind the damage, it would be as new. He also pointed out, there is a ton of bondo in a newly manufactured car, and pointed out the points it was applied. I owned the car for 5 years and never saw any sign of failure. Looked perfect when I sold it.
I love 50s finmobiles. This a very nice example and I’d love to own it.
The ’57s were much different cars, but did not have the style of the ’55-’56 Chryslers. Restrained elegance! Certainly, performance was “restrained” by the 2-speed PowerFlite automatic It wasn’t specifically the torsion bar suspension which made Chryslers great handling vehicles, it was the suspension GEOMETRY, combined with firmer shock absorbers (BOTH of which were on Chrysler vehicles prior to 1957!) that gave them the “road car” heritage. But then, times were “more relaxed” and that 354 Hemi and the 2-speed automatic were equal to what other brands offered back then. It was about “passing gear power” rather than drag strip-type performance.
Considering the issue with the 1957 bodies (many of which can be fixed if you know how to do it), I just like the style of the Forward Look Chryslers. When I was in kindergarten, my parents bought a new ’56 Plymouth 4-dr sedan. An uncle bought a ’55 Belvedere V-8.
And, of course, Cary Grant looked great driving a ’56 Chrysler in some of the movies back then!
There is a website devoted to the early Hemi V-8s. The less-expensive “poly” heads were better than any normal cylinder head of other makes back then. An adapted “Hemi heritage” of sorts, but taking less money to produce. For normal driving, the Poly was fine.
ONE thing about it, be GLAD the spark plugs go in from the top side!
The post war Chryslers were all good cars, and I have owned many but to get a comparison between the torsion bar and non torsion bar cars you need to read the article in Popular Mechanics by Tom McCahill written in 1957. There was a huge improvement in both ride and handling. The test pad drive was much better, less occultation than with coil springs…….off course, you can compare the ride of a Cadillac to a large Chrysler to see that.
Great, Great, car, bondo or not… And I agree with DirtyHarry, NOS AC!!! However, I do wonder about one thing. If a car is painted two different colors it is called two tone, but, when a third is applied it is referred to as a tri color… Why not three tone? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
You can make a Hemi from a poly, the blocks are the same. In 58 when Chrysler Corp. started building the 350-440 big blocks, they were wedge head engines not poly head.
wrong on the trans. it’s a 2 speed.look at the push buttons. 4 of them. top one is neutral,left one is rev, right one is drive,and bottom is low.it had a mechanical hand brake. I’m 72 ,and learned to drive in a 56 DeSoto,and a 52 DeSoto,w/ fluid drive trans. I didn’t see a 3 speed until 1957.My uncle had a 57 DeSoto Firedome.It had a 3 speed.It had a different button arrangement.
And there is no “Park” in the transmission. My parents had a 1956 Dodge with the push button transmission. Every once in a while the parking brake would fail, leaving the car in some interesting places.
Something’s wrong with this one.. It was auctioned at a car show in Frederick, MD a year or two ago.. Not sure if it sold, but it’s been on Craigslist ever since.