Huge Price Drop: 1957 Imperial Crown Southampton
UPDATE: No, this is not deja vu. I usually avoid featuring a classic car when an owner lists it for the third time, but I am willing to make an exception with this 1957 Imperial Crown. There is no change to its condition or circumstances, but the seller has slashed its price substantially. Its last advertisement specified a figure of $49,000, but the seller has dropped it to $39,000. That’s a significant saving and might be the tipping point for readers who were previously interested but couldn’t justify the cost. If you fit into that category, the Imperial is listed here on Craigslist. I must thank Barn Finder MattR for spotting the latest listing and Pat L for the original lead.
08/05/2022: With Ford and General Motors achieving considerable success with their Lincoln and Cadillac brands, Chrysler saw the benefit of establishing its own prestige marque to compete head-to-head to capture a share of the luxury car market. The Imperial had been the flagship of the Chrysler model range, but the company spun it off as a stand-alone brand in 1955. Our feature car is an Imperial Crown Southampton that rolled off the line in 1957. It presents beautifully, with the seller claiming it is an original survivor that has accumulated a mere 30,000 miles during the past sixty-five years. It is located in Ontario, California, and is listed for sale here on eBay.
There’s little doubt that Chrysler established itself as the king of fins during the 1950s, although Cadillac gave the company a run for its money with its 1959 models. However, Chrysler managed to stay one step ahead during that period with cars that maintained a distinctive company appearance. Our feature car is a three-owner classic that has led a sheltered existence. It presents superbly in Emerald Green, with no flaws or defects worth noting. The owner doesn’t mention any prior restoration or repainting, but its fresh appearance suggests it’s possible. The panels are exceptionally straight for an unrestored vehicle of this vintage, but the best news appears to be its apparent lack of rust problems. No issues are visible in the supplied photos, and the seller indicates it is rust-free. If it has spent its life in its current location, that claim is easy to believe. The chrome and bright trim pieces could be considered relatively restrained compared to many models from the late-1950s, although features like the taillight surrounds look classy and futuristic. The trim is in excellent condition, with no visible damage or corrosion. The glass is flawless, and the whitewall tires are the perfect finishing touch for a car of this caliber.
While the world of aviation focused on the space race during the 1950s, American manufacturers turned their attention to the horsepower race. This Imperial is no exception, with its engine bay housing a 392ci Hemi V8 producing an impressive 325hp. Further reinforcing its luxury leanings, shifting duties fall to a three-speed TorqueFlite transmission, with power steering and power brakes removing the physical effort from the driving experience. Since the company focused more on comfort than outright performance, it is no surprise that this Crown tips the scales at a hefty 4,920lbs. However, its ability to cover the ¼ mile in 17.1 seconds would have caused its original owner no shame. The seller states that the car has a genuine 30,000 miles on the clock. They don’t mention supporting evidence, but the vehicle’s known ownership history suggests they may hold appropriate documentation. The buyer won’t need to spend a dime beyond the purchase price because this classic runs and drives perfectly.
If time is going to catch up with a vehicle of this type and age, it is usually visible when you examine its interior trim and upholstery. Wear, physical damage, and stains are common. However, that isn’t the case with this Imperial. The seats wear Green leather and cloth, and apart from some minor and acceptable stretching on the driver’s side, it looks immaculate. The carpet has no issues, while the two-tone wheel has avoided the cracking that generally plagues cars from this era. Chrysler always seemed to strive to make its interiors stunning, allowing occupants to feel like every trip was a special occasion. This Crown is no exception, with the dash wearing lashings of bright trim and a futuristic appearance. By today’s standards, luxury appointments may seem relatively restrained. However, power windows, a six-way power front seat, and a pushbutton AM radio with a power antenna rated highly in 1957.
The space race and rapid developments in the world of aviation captured the public’s imagination during the 1950s, and these factors may partly explain the vehicle styling of the era. When you examine the appearance of this 1957 Imperial Crown Southampton, it is virtually impossible not to draw comparisons between those fields of endeavor and some of the design features like the enormous fins and taillights. Chrysler’s “forward look” design philosophy gave the world cars that were longer and lower than anything previously seen. This car is a stunning survivor, and while the seller’s price sits at the top end of the market, it is not unprecedented. I don’t think they will have potential buyers beating down their door with a fistful of cash, but I won’t be surprised if one of those watching the listing hits the BIN button. Would you find yourself tempted to beat them to the punch?
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Comments
Adam, I was once allowed to take the controls of the Goodyear Blimp during a flight. I figure that gave me a taste of what it would be like to pilot this beast….
Being maybe the last person on the planet who needs or wants a car of this mass to get around in, I’ll leave it to those who can make use of all those doors, seats, and that monstrous trunk.
Which gets me to the point: I purely love this Imperial, and wish I had the wide open spaces to fit it in! I dig it all: the color (inside and out), the chrome, the sweeping lines, the fins…. Especially the fins. The irrational side of me wouldn’t even mind keeping the tank topped off, as I’m sure that 392 has a healthy appetite.
This is a great find!
Not my style of car, but love the color and hemi….Hopefully it goes to a safe home.
My Aunt used to drive one of these,but I think that it was
a lower level model.It was black,& it was HUGE!
Love the color on this one!
Just looking at the first pic, this is one heavy car.
That interior shot reminds me of the sea of green inside my ’65 New Yorker.
That interior looks to be turquoise, not green??
Green….Turquoise….Blue. Thanks Chuck, I’m already married.
Love the C post and back window style.
A gorgeous `57 Imperial for sure, and yes–very original in it’s overall condition. But please; don’t try to tell me that paint is factory because it isn’t. NO 65 year old factory paint job looks that good. Look at Lauren Becall’s baby blue `57 Imperial featured on Youtube; low-mile and all original, including the paint. You can instantly see the difference.
Said it before and I’ll say it again…Chrysler owned the luxury interior design of the late 50’s to mid 60’s
While Chrysler may have “owned the luxury interior design”, their quality did not. Great looking seats, but many of their materials did not hold up near as well as those in GM vehicles.
That is one beautiful Imperial, wow! It is a massive car, with likely the most massive air cleaner I have ever seen in a passenger car. Congrats to the owners for keeping this car in such amazing condition.
Absolutely STUNNING classic!
Stunning indeed! Wish I had won that big lottery and it would def be mine!
Love it! This is “stylin”.
Guaranteed that the owner just spent the last two months washing & polishing it. It would take a week to clean this wehicle if you ever got it dirty.
Bob
My dad had a white Coupe, with blue interior, gorgeous car
Omg….I’m drooling looking at this magnificent machine! The owners must have kept this beast in their livingroom to maintain that paint to that level. Absolutely gorgeous!
Behold the glory !
I KNOW.-)
Yes and WE know!!!
A “National Treasure!!!”
Another fan of Charles heard from!
The seller is Charles Phoenix, who you can see in many videos online. He’s huge fun, and knows his vintage American iron as well as anyone out there.
One of the most stunning forward look Mopar‘s I have ever seen! Has to be one of the best 57 imperials on the planet. Great colors, four-door hardtop, yes!
Two things I am critical of:
Look at the shift button coordination of the torque flight – reverse in the center! OK at least it is red in color so maybe you wouldn’t push it by accident thinking you were going into third gear shifting manually, how many people blew up the transmission shifting by braille at night?!
OK, pretty much no one manually shifted any Imperial, thank goodness.
I couldn’t own this car for more than one day without investigating and finding a smooth replacement trunk lid for that absolutely hideous fake spare blasphemy.
The lines of the car are magnificent in every way until I can get to that eyesore…
Perfect original car or no, it’s just that bad.
Per the owner’s manual, the car shifted into neutral if you pushed “R” above about 15 mph. Never tested that on my folks’ ’60 back in the day but it seems plausible.
My folks had a ’57 for a while (proved troublesome so was traded in on the ’60) and I recall that the “N” button also started the car. Pushbutton start. The ’60 was key start as I remember it.
The pushbutton arrangement was later changed to R-N-D-2-1. That’s how it was on the ’60.
My uncle had a ’62 Rambler Cross Country wagon with push button transmission and that had an override for that same purpose. Ypu couldn’t accidentally hit reverse.
I can confirm the reverse lockout was on my ’57 and ’58 DeSotos with Torqueflite.
Price seems aggressive. The popular classic car insurance site has $49k for a Grade 1 concours example and this is not that as can be seen by the warped green trim under the windshield (with missing fastener) and the slightly deformed dash pad and steering wheel pad.
Long ago I had a black 1959 Chrysler Imperial 2dr HT with the stainless steel top and swivel bucket seats. I wish now that I would have never sold that car
Same here. Mine was silver pine poly and had every conceivable option including working dual ac, mirrormatic, auto headlight beam changer, power swivel seats, etc. Way nicer than this ’57. Sold it back in ’94. The guy I sold it to still has it I think. He keeps it in AZ, his winter home. Now I have a ’69 Marquis conv. which I am very happy with.
Love this beautiful Imperial. The price is just a bit aggressive for me.
Arf, if this car sells for 49 K, at what price can i sell my ’57 Imperial convertible !!!!
This is Charles Phoenix’s car.
. . . and here’s his video tour of the car!
(Charles Phoenix is an author, car lover, and connoisseur of all things “Mid-Century Modern”)
Video tour of this car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS-zg5q-lNI&t=105s
This was the first car I remember my parents owned.
It was the turquoise body color.
Big fast cruiser.
This car illustrates the number 1 automobile design change that scared GM terribly; Actual CURVED side glass! That simple change made cars like the 1957 Cadillac 60s looked positively obsolete.
The 1957 Chrysler products, for the first time in automotive design, had curved exterior surfaces everywhere — even on the Plymouth, while the GM and Ford products had flat side glass.
If you ever have an opportunity to look at 1957 Mopar and 1957 GM sedans next to each other, the difference in side glass is amazing!
The curved side glass must be an imperial only thing, flat side glass on all of the rest of the mopar line in 57.
Steve,
You are correct, I forgot the others didn’t get it until several years later. [I plead ignorance because all the 1957 Mopar cars I owned were Imperials!]
I believe that the next with curved side glass was the ’63 AMC Rambler and Ambassador.
I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong on that.
Onree,
I think you may be correct, 1963 WAS the first year for curved side glass on Ramblers.
I can vouch for the claim that pushing the R button (above 10 MPH) would shift the transmission into neutral. I tried it on my ’56 Plymouth and later on my ’60 Valiant with no problems!
A lady that lived by my shop had a 37 Packard sedan that looked as big as a limo. She was about 5’0″ and you could just see her head above the steering wheel. All original paint and interior, it was beautiful.
49 grand for a 4 door??? Maybe he should try Barrett Jackson
But it’s a 4-door with a Hemi!!
And I’m seeing more and more old cars advertised as low mileage based strictly on the odometer. With no documentation at all! And if you ask them to verify the miles, they blow up at it and say things like, “Just look at the car. You can tell the miles are right.” Or how about, “Look at the pedals. You can tell a low-mileage car because the pedals don’t show much wear.” And then there is the ever-popular response, “Because the original owner’s great, great grandson said that information had been passed down from generation to generation thru the years.”
My response is that I have never made a low-mileage claim about any vehicle I sold unless I had concrete proof of it. So, unless a seller has some sort of proof for me, I consider the mileage claims to be lies.
I was passing one of these Imperials on the freeway one summer, about 35 years ago. It was a beige/cream color with hints of rust on the panels. It looked huge, and the tires were so small, and narrow/skinny. Not a good look from the back. I was driving behind a 57 Corvette with the same problem (narrow tires). No symmetry.
Three times, you aren’t getting a kick back here are ya? Seriously like the car but not too many people today want to put this in their garage. Sorry cold hard fact, collector world is changing and some aren’t going to get saved. Twice the steel, power, detail of an 80’s muscle car, use that term loosely, but no buyers.
Am I missing something with the first photo??
Tires look like they are leaning?? or an optical illusion…
Yes an illusion, check it out in the YouTube videos.
It has a great color combo, low mileage, and great condition. A definite driver quality car, but not a show car. Priced like a show car.
@Billyray
I guess Charles Phoenix is a nice enough guy but I do believe he thinks his ownership adds a great deal of value to his vehicles.
He might but I don’t.