At least one of those brazen brainfarts lives (or lived) in this not-ready-for-the-road rental Sport

There are times when cars beg to be Curbside Classics. And this afternoon we have a serendipitous 55-year flashback, to a time when Chevrolet was the favored car for Hertz advertising. If Chevrolet wasn t going to be the #1 car people bought in 1957, they were happy to be the #1 car they borrowed that year.
But for a few new features, underneath our desired rental was the same  Motoramic  Chevrolet nascar tickets introduced in the fall of 1954. It was far from the staid, sedate bargain cruiser into which Chevrolet had morphed during the depression years. In actuality, it became the essential template for the preferred combination of size and power in the postwar era.
A major trend that Chevrolet could not afford to ignore was the emergence of B-body four-door hardtop sedans from Buick and Oldsmobile. In view of a combined nascar tickets production total of nearly a quarter-million four-door coupes nascar tickets in 1955, Chevrolet (and every other manufacturer save Studebaker-Packard) cobbled together rakish and stylish new sedans that increased the bewildering number of combinations available to buyers.
But automotive planned obsolescence nascar tickets fifty years ago is like that of smartphone technology today. For the third year of its life cycle, the Motoramic Chevrolet had two all-new direct rivals: From Highland Park , the time- traveling  Suddenly It s 1960!  Plymouth nascar tickets line.
And from Dearborn, the newest Fords the public could get their hands on since 1949. Both the Ford and the Plymouth presaged a segment-busting emphasis on Big Car girth and characteristics as they morphed into the size territory of recent Buicks and Oldsmobiles. And while Mopar went the tauter, torsion-bar route, Ford floated forward on Boulevard Ride softness ironically offering Ford buyers a Buick on a Budget experience.
All of which rendered our darling of the fleet out-of-date, in just twenty-four short months. What had been pert and perky two years earlier was now something decidedly boxy with a few baroque touches. The box sprouted nascar tickets fins and a heavy bumper-grille, but was still tall, narrow and upright relative to the many new and low-slung 57 offerings.
But in their rush to offer something all-new-all-over-again, Highland Park and Dearborn suffered dearly nascar tickets in the quality department with every finned beauty launched from their factories. nascar tickets What s more, that new sleek styling  meant paying a penalty nascar tickets in interior room, a sore point most clearly driven home by the hardtops, which were traditionally more cramped than their pillared-sedan brethren.
The 1957 Chevy s more-upright stance made fewer compromises to style. Its perpetually refined mechanicals nascar tickets offered buyers something familiar, nascar tickets along with driving dynamics somewhere between those of the Plymouth and the Ford. If the Plymouth was too high strung and the Ford too marshmallowy, nascar tickets the Chevrolet struck a just right Goldilocks balance that made it a perfect car for drivers away from home.
Think about it: What better car could Hertz choose to stock in bulk than the Camry of its time? Its tough and trouble-free Powerglide  transmission was by now the most familiar no-shift option. The Turbo-Fire V8 gave renters enough zest to flog their poor borrowed barge within an inch of its life. And as a subtle reskin of a three-year-old design, it was a proven and pretty durable package.
Of course, when you finally got to the Hertz counter, chances are you d get a less glamorous four-door sedan and not a flashier, pillarless Bel-Air. Nevertheless, those who enjoyed their experience with their rental Chevrolet could go to the local Chevy dealer and customize a car every which way from sedate economy queen to roller derby vixen just by checking the appropriate boxes on a form.
First up was the fantastic Fuel Injection option. As fitted to the upsized 283 V8 with the highest compression ratio possible and Duntov s famous lumpy cam, it put one horsepower per cubic inch in the driver s possession. The tantalizingly lightweight bodies of the Chevrolets made the performance possibilities tempting yet troublesome. The same could be said for the underdeveloped Turboglide automatic transmission.
At least one of those brazen brainfarts lives (or lived) in this not-ready-for-the-road rental nascar tickets Sports Sedan. If you look hard, the front fender of this Bel-Air in the air sports a Fuel Injection badge. This combination of a four-door  sedan and that high winding power plant must be pretty rare. Hopefully, this one will return to Earth soon.
Bested by Ford and hampered by a resurgent Plymouth, Chevrolet did not come out on top in total sales for the 1957 selling season, despite higher fleet sales. But even long after being replaced with the baroque full-sized nascar tickets baby Cadillacs of 1958, the 57 Chevy enjoys a strong following as the best cheap used car in plentiful nascar tickets supply.
In fact, the whole Tri-Five cult emerged from the that s a great used car appeal of the 1957 models. Long after the Belvederes had snapped nascar tickets torsion bars, or the Fairlane 500s had rusted away, the humble, upright original Easy A soldiered on, from one broke buyer to the next, with minimal attention to the Small Blocks, Blue Flames and Powerglides.
By clinging to the past in the present, the 1957 Chevrolet secured its future. And 55 years later, one of its family members reminded me that if I got the chance to borrow one, I might want to bring one home permanently.
About 20 years ago, I recall one of the major rental nascar tickets agencies I ve forgotten which offered a small selection of classics at certain locations (for some reason I m thinking LAX and Vegas). Didn t last very long, and I m sure it had something to do with low demand (these rides were pricey) and I m sure the maintenance of older vehicles was a challenge.
BuzzDog, I remember similar. In fact, I remember seeing a lot of 55 and 56 Ford s and Chevrolet s for rent in Branson, Missouri, nascar tickets about this time in 1992. I don t know if it was a local or chain rental, however.
The 4 door hardtop nascar tickets is a really under-appreciated body style. For about 15-20 years, they were nearly nascar tickets universal, then they disappeared completely. I have only owned one, a 77 New Yorker I believe that the 78 NY may have been the last one made by anyone. Oops, forgot the 63 Cad Fleetwood.
They seem to survive in much lower numbers than sedans, in models where both were offered. I suppose because dowdy old Uncle Fred who took care of his stuff bought sedans, while the more stylish hardtops routinely flushed through the regular used car cycle until finally hitting nascar tickets the scrapyard.
I also love the rental angle. Old Hertz ads seemed to feature a lot of Fords through 1956, but then seemed to go exclusively Chevy for quite a few years afterwards. Ford then got into the Avis ads, and Mopar seemed mostly out of rental nascar tickets fleets of the late 50s-early 60s.
A four-door hardtop is as close to a convertible I feel the need to get. If the scenery is at all worth looking at, there s no better way to enjoy it this side of a Budd Vista-Dome streamliner. Also no risk of sunburning my bald spot.
And an extremely nascar tickets competent car, that. I d buy one any day over an equivalent Camry/Camcord and proceed to drive it for a very long time. Not for nothing are they the Toyota Chairman s favourite amongst his company s offerings. Too bad we can t get em. I m talking about older Crowns and new Crown Comforts. Newer Crowns are what are sold as Lexus elsewhere.
I had an opportunity to buy one of these a 1957 Sports Sedan, all original, running, light blue and white, very little visible rust, all intact trim, chrome in good shape, great interior, garage-kept around 25 years ago in our neighborhood in Florissant, MO.
It sure was tempting wifey and I both checked it out, but while family finances would permit the purchase price around $2,200 according to my best memory, costs of restoring it, family and other responsibilities prevented me from bringing it home.
This just occurred to me my grandfather Albert nascar tickets , whom I ve written about here, purchased a new 57 four door hardtop in pink and white. He loved it until my mom drove it into a ditch in 64; he then traded for a new Bel-Air. The new owner of the 57 later told my grandfather some kids stole it one night and wrapped it around a tree.
Great article, Laurence. At the big Hershey Antique Automobile Club of America nascar tickets (AACA) meet this past weekend, there was a restored, red and white, 1957 Bel Air four-door hardtop on the showfield. My friend nascar tickets commented that it was nice to see something besides the usual hardtop coupes and convertibles that are at every show.
The 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 was more of a response to the Buick Special than to the Chevrolet. Ford was genuinely concerned when Buick knocked Plymouth out of third place for 1954, and stayed there through 1956. The Fairlane 500 was designed to prevent defections to Buick. nascar tickets Unfortunately, the Fairlane, along with the Plymouth, sparked the growth of the old Low-Price Three, which continued with the 1958 Impala and the 1959 Chevrolet.
Meanwhile, the standard nascar tickets Rambler, nascar tickets which was close to the size and layout of the 1955-57 Chevrolets, enjoyed a sales boom as disgruntled buyers who didn t like the size spurt of the low-price cars sought alternatives. The Rambler s success led to the introduction of intermediates by the Big Three, which were initially the size of this Chevrolet.
The GM and Ford intermediates nascar tickets may have had a similar wheelbase as the tri-five Chevy, but they weren t as roomy due to their lower-to-the ground design. The 57 Chevy was the last of the Big Three to have both the tall, upright seating of classic American cars prior to 57. It really wasn t until the 77 B-Bodies that a roughly similar package was reprised, although still not as tall.
The 1954-55 Buick was a huge sales success, and it convinced both Ford and Chrysler nascar tickets that bigger was definitely better. Of course, customers bought those Buicks as fast as Buick could build them, so perhaps they share some of the blame. Sales of the more practical, smaller Chrysler products, particularl