This 1949 Dodge Wayfarer had me at first glance! It’s a great-looking car that’s in excellent condition. Many domestic models from the post-war years tried to shake off their pre-war designs but the new styles still ended up being frumpy and or bulbous. But not this Wayfarer IMHO. Barn finder T.J. found the listing for this drop-top so let’s take a closer look. It’s located in New Baltimore, Michigan and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of $9,000 with 4o bids tendered so far.
Dodge’s Wayfarer models were all two-door body styles in ’49, including a business coupe, a sedan, and this convertible, known specifically as the “Wayfarer Roadster”. Other models included the four-door sedan known as the “Meadowbrook” and then the higher-brow Coronet that was available in two and four-door sedans, a convertible, and a woodie station wagon. As for total production totals, Dodge put up an eighth-place finish in ’49 with 256K units. Number one Ford rocked it with 1.1M copies, a huge improvement over ’48 and probably thanks to their all-new design.
This Dodge is out of a car collection and was restored some time ago. The seller states, “The body is straight and body lines are good. It is a nice driver quality cruiser condition car with small blemishes noticeable up close as expected“. The seller mentions that the top suffered a small rip while in transit but it should be easily fixable. Also noted is the lack of snap-in side windows – I imagine they could be a challenge to find or reproduce. The only potential foible that I have noticed is the bottom of the driver’s side door, it appears to be a bit lumpy unless it’s just a lighting-related shadow.
The interior is neat and clean with a bench seat that looks like it could double for what is traditionally used in a taxicab – it’s in great condition though. A rubber mat adorns the floor and the dash contains easy-to-read, non-fogged gauges. As is often the case with cars of this era, the centerpiece of the dash is the heavily chromed radio/speaker grille.
Power is provided by a 103 HP, 230 CI inline, six-cylinder flathead engine that is attached to a three-speed manual transmission. The seller claims, “starts up nice and runs out good. The three-speed manual transmission shifts good through all gears. This is a nice driving car, it handles the road great and rides smooth“. The mileage recording is 57K miles but there is no claim made to authenticity. The seller adds that the engine compartment shows well but the image is too lacking in lighting and contrast to verify its appearance so I’ll have to take his word for it.
Neat car, yes, absolutely! I generally don’t get too excited about cars from this era but this one has caught my fancy. I think that it’s the coupe nature (no back seat) of the body style that I find intriguing. While it may be lacking in functionality, it definitely has things covered with its cool factor. The seller refers to this Roadster as being rare and with a production count of 5,420, it clearly wasn’t a big seller and is surely rare today. Based on its current bid, this one could end up being a reasonable buy methinks. I like it, how about you?
Smitten again, BF.
Nice find.
Bob
In the 1940’s Chrysler had the beautiful models especially the coupes and Woods.
I think it could be a very fun car to own and drive, and also not break the bank. I had a 51 Plymouth Wagon, that I drove for several years and the running gear was totally original. I would assume almost the same as this car. It was a great daily driver, it was not a road trip freeway car A car like this and a convertible would be a lot of fun just to drive.
I don’t think it looks that good with either the top up or down, but If I were single, I’d buy it and drive it home. What an adventure.
Lacking the removable side windows is a bummer. The later models (’50-’51?) had wind-up windows.
Have a pal who owned one for years. His had a slant six with automatic though and the venerable six had a cool Australian hemi head and manifolds. :-) Terry J
Know what the cool Australian hemi head said to the Manifolds?
“That dingo ate your baby”.
Looks like a typical midwest ‘collection/museum’ car. Had a few roll thru my shop in the last 30 years. I’m guessing the underside and the sides from rockers up hold some secrets not too well hidden. Probably not California kool?