Dear
All,
Thanks to all
those who replied to my query regarding the numbers
of 59
New Yorker
convertibles left. The following may be of interest to show the
harsh reality
of the consumer society, especially in the sixties when your
economy
started booming again, on the numbers
left on the streets of an average 10 year
old car.
In 1972,
Special Interest Autos ran a report on the survivor
ship of an average
American car. It showed that at the end of ten years,
60% of production was
gone from the road-way, that is 6 out of 10 cars
being scrapped, wrecked or
otherwise abandoned. (I would like see a more
updated study of this
subject.)
For an example, they selected the 1956 Plymouth. Starting with
1957,
there was an estimate 98.5% of all 1956 production still registered
and
on the roads. That means 1.5% of 1956 Plymouths were gone by the end
of
1957. And it got worse. At the end of ten years (1966), only 40% of
the
1956 Plymouths were left, and when this study was done (using
1971
statistics, 15 years from date) only 9% remained. Following
their
projections, they estimated that by 1981, only 1/10th of 1%
would
remain, or only 1 out of a 1,000 Plymouths produced for 1956 would
still
exist. Well, it is now 48 years and I would venture to say that out
of
the 471,634 built, you would be hard pressed to find 471 Plymouths
from
1956 still in existence today, or 1/10th of 1%.
The cars that we cherish today were
pretty disposable in the early to mid sixties.
For example who needed a 1959 NewYorker
convertible in 1962, when you
could get a brand new Chrysler
convertible without fins! The damage had already
been done by the mid sixties just by
"Keeping up with the Jones"
Robbie Garrow
56 Imperial Southampton 4 dr.
hardtop
59 New Yorker
Convertible
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