Put a vintage pedal car on my list of things I’d love to have as garage art someday. The only trouble is, they command a fair amount of money once they hit the open market spotlight, like on eBay where this miniature Chrysler pedal car is already getting bids over $600. The power of the pedal car is not a new phenomenon, as they’ve been popping up as garage sale scores and hoarder hauls on shows like American Pickers for years. Check out this Chrysler Airflow tin machine here on eBay with two days left in the auction.
Given the current wave of plastic-bodied, Made-in-China children’s toys sold at big box retailers (and often worthless after a year of hard use), these steel-bodied pedal cars represent a much better value if you insist on giving your child such a play thing. Sure, the wounds will be deeper if they fall off or roll over, but the toy itself will remain unscathed – try that with a Power Wheels. Of course, as a new parent, I understand the safety of a child is paramount, but once they have their sense of balance, I would much prefer providing them with early exposure to sound investments rather than paying a ridiculous amount of money for what will be garage sale fodder in two years’ time.
The best part about a pedal car such as this model Chrysler is that they’ll learn about vintage automobiles in the process, along with the positive reinforcement that not everything in their lives will come with a battery and power pedal. Heck, you might even build some calf muscles in the process, which will certainly make the transition to using a bicycle even easier. I wouldn’t necessarily spring for this one myself – I need to find a metal-bodied BMW CS coupe or an 80s Porsche 911 like the one I had as a kid (and still do, actually) – but you can’t deny that this example has survived incredibly well.
The details are fantastic, from the glass headlights to the flared arches and hubcaps painted a separate color – this was not a cheap toy to make. Of course, therein lies the dilemma, as no manufacturer wants to build something of quality when they can make just as much money (if not more) building yet another knock-off Jeep made out of old soda bottles. If you can’t find one of these, do what my brother did and buy your kid a used-up go-cart at a local auction that needs some minor modifications to ensure the kiddos are sufficiently safe and that the machine will run reliably; they’ll learn a thing or two in the process and have a toy that will outlast whatever the neighbors bought at Wal-Mart.
Find me one just like it for the other foot and I might be interested.
This is a Baby Boomer happy memory. My Grandma bought me a blue metal 1957 Chevy and a John Deere tractor also of metal for my birthday and Christmas early in the 1960s. Every kid I know had something like them and once we hit 9 or 10, they were so forgotten. My, by the Summer of Love (1967 for you young ones) I had forgotten what today would have been quite valuable, oh well. Don’t ask me about the baseball card collection my Mother tossed when I was away at college, it is just too painful.
Oh hell Billy….. ..I had a fire engine! around ummmm ’58.
My mother tossed my 4 ft high comic book collection everything from Superman to Green Lantern with stops at Darefevil, the Avengers etc..not one of them cost more than .10 , when I was in high school!
I’m sure the Devil has his hands full!
That is so cool, Jeff. I should tell my neighbour across the road about the pedal car (viewed via Barn Finds, of course), as he owns an Airflow…
Cool
Of note, in the 80s and 90s, we just didn’t loose American manufacturing over seas, we lost American quality and craftsmanship This toy is a perfect example, many decades old, and still fully functional. Stuff from the third world might be cheap (well, it used to be cheap) but it just doesn’t last like the stuff we used to buy that was made here by our friends and neighbors Nothing is made to be repaired anymore, only to replace. I have a bike made in Mass. that I bought in the early 1970s, still have it. Solid as a rock. I also about that time bought another cheaper model made in Japan to ride to school. (Japanese stuff in those days was like Chinese stuff today, cheap) Had it less then a year and I snapped the pedal rest right off it, not sure what kind of metal it was made from, but it couldn’t even be welded back together. When is the last time you saw a commercial with the “lonely” Maytag repairman? Thats right, Maytags are junk, I know, our first set lasted through three kids and over two decades. Our second lasted less then two years. We have a 30 year old American made freezer that is going strong, and another we bought made elsewhere, died in less then 10. Americans need to remember that you get what you pay for, quality is the only way to go in the long run… I would like to buy something new like this for our grandkids someday, will I be able to?
To answer your last question: Sadly, only if you buy one like the posting above, Billy.
I think of how many of my generation roamed their backyards and neighbourhoods in Murray pedal cars and rode any number of American-made bicycles that lasted years – often as hand-me-downs – in spite of constant abuse. Remember, product liability laws in the 1950s were nothing compared to today’s legislation.
There are people who will pay extra for quality, but they’re now in the minority. With two generations or more of folk in Western societies who have bought into the ‘cheap and disposable’ paradigm, it would take a major change in attitudes for people to choose goods that are built to last.
Tell it like it is Brother Billy.Testify…………..
Now here’s a Mopar worth restoring!………LOL!
Remember when your buddies would push you fast and those pedals get a spinnin’, and you’d get you feet caught and skid the back wheels? You’d never get a toy like this passed by safety advocates today. We were a lot tougher then.
I’m guessing at final sale price of close to $2K plus the $125 shipping, and hope it doesn’t get damaged in shipping
Glass headlights??? How did that generation even survive to make mine? LOL
Today you would have to have seat belts, an air bag, and wear a helmet to drive this! Brings back fond memories, though I don’t go back quite that far.
I had a police car, in which my father in 1963, wrote to the NYPD, for the same paint color which was dark green and white at the time. The NYPD mailed the paint to my father, and he painted my police car the color of NYPD car’s. After all I was a kid from the Bronx. Car 54 Where are you !!!
I have inherited the one just like this that my Dad acquired in the early 1960’s. Don’t know where he got it, or how much he paid for it, probably not much, as we were po’folk. I want to restore it, but will need some parts that are missing. It looks almost exactly like this one, except it had a windshield and hood ornament, both of which are broken off. Any idea where I can find parts?