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Jan 24, 2020 · Aaron Robinson. 24 January 2020. The story goes that back in 1953, one of Chrysler’s newest hires, designer Virgil Exner, said, “Let’s try giving the quarter panel this treatment.”. And he waved his hand through the air in an up-swinging arc. With that, Chrysler’s so-called Forward Look was born.
- Plymouth Falls Farther Behind Chevy and Ford
- Chrysler Loses Altitude in The Premium-Priced Field
- Most of Chrysler’s Brands Did Worse in 1955-56
- Low-Priced Field Puts The Squeeze on Premium Cars
- Chrysler Looked More Like An Independent
- Chrysler Management Made Some Key Mistakes
- Notes
- Re:Sources
- Advertisements & Brochures
Chrysler’s improved sales from the recession year of 1954 masked two bigger problems: Even with Exner’s so-called “Forward Look” styling, the automaker was still falling behind in both the low- and premium-priced fields. Let’s talk about Plymouth first. All of the low-priced brands saw their production decline as the post-war seller’s market faded ...
For all of Plymouth’s woes, it did a lot better than its premium-priced siblings in 1955-56. That was a big problem because Chrysler had historically been strongest in this field. As with Plymouth, you wouldn’t see much wrong if you only compared 1955 output with the previous year. All of the automaker’s brands were way up: Dodge (79 percent), DeSo...
The most significant news of the mid-50s was that Plymouth held up better than Chrysler’s other three established brands. One indicator: Whereas Plymouth’s output was up in 1955 by 8.5 percent from 1953, all other brands saw declines: Dodge (13.5 percent), DeSoto (12 percent) and Chrysler (10.1 percent). Indeed, Plymouth was the only Chrysler brand...
One reason why Chrysler’s premium-priced brands lost altitude in the mid-50s was because the market was shifting toward lower-priced cars. As a case in point, between 1952 and 1955 output of premium-priced cars went up roughly 75 percent. That sounds impressive until you consider that the low-priced market grew by 94 percent during the same time pe...
All of this suggests that Chrysler’s situation looked more like that of the independent automakers than GM and Ford. All of the independents saw their sales and market share in 1955 fall sharply from the early-50s. Chrysler’s decline was mild in comparison, but it was still a far cry from the Big Two’s major expansion in the first half of the 1950s...
Chrysler compounded the disadvantages of its smaller size by vainly trying to copy the Big Two. One of the automaker’s biggest mistakes during the mid-50s was to launch a luxury-car brand. Imperial sales were so consistently low that I wonder whether the brand generated a net profit over its lifetime. Another mistake management made was to maintain...
Production and market share figures were calculated with data drawn from the following sources: Auto editors of Consumer Guide(1993), Gunnell (2002) and Wikipedia (2020). All figures should be for model-year production, so will be different than the numbers presented in histories using calendar-year data (e.g., Langworth, 1993). I have also mixed a...
Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 1993. Encyclopedia of American Cars.Publications International, Lincolnwood, Ill.Gunnell, John; 2002.Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975.Revised Fourth Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.Hyde, Charles K.; 2003. Riding The Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation.Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI.Kenton, Will; 2018. “Oligopoly.” Investopedia.Updated February 9.Exner is widely known for the "Forward Look" he created for the 1955–1963 Chrysler products and his fondness of tailfins on cars for both aesthetics and aerodynamics. Prior to the 1955 model year, Chrysler products were considered solid and well-engineered, but with dull styling.
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Sep 23, 2018 · And so we arrive at the 1957 Chrysler 300C--the first comprehensive restyle of the young standard-bearer coupe's career, and one of Virgil Exner's legendary "Forward-Look" '57 Mopars. Once the division shook off the Imperial nose that acted as a cost-cutting measure the first two seasons of the 300's life, the high-end sports machine received ...
- Jeff Koch
Jan 29, 2013 · Information on the 300, 300B, and the 1955 Forward Look (including the earlier Chrysler styling efforts of Virgil Exner, Sr.) came from: Robert Ackerson, Chrysler 300 ‘America’s Most Powerful Car’ (Godmanstone, England: Veloce Publishing Plc., 1996); Dennis Adler, “1953 Chrysler Ghia Special: An American/Italian Hybrid,” Car Collector ...
Feb 14, 2013 · Virgil Exner pushed hard for Chrysler to produce the Falcon, which would have been a worthy rival to the Corvette or the new Ford Thunderbird. Sadly, the company was not enthusiastic about investing in low-volume specialty cars for the enthusiast market; Chrysler did not have the deep pockets of GM or even Ford.
Sep 25, 2018 · September 25, 2018 01:00 AM. Virgil Exner, the designer behind the clean "Forward Look" styling of Chrysler's 1955 models and the spectacular fins of the 1957 that caught General Motors...
