My dad bought one in '57. It was HUGE! It rode like a dream and was super fast. Earl just had to get the biggest engine, too. Mom thought that was such a waste of money...until she drove it. She was used to our old '53 dodge...Red Ram V-8. but NEVER got on it. When dad let her drive the DeSoto she loved it. Now and then you could see Winona with a shit-eating grin when she got on it. That car had push-button drive and it was like being in a space ship. You had to be there, kids, it was truly a specially time in America.

I had one of these when I lived in California in the 90's. It was what a car should be...powerful comfortable good handling superb on the highway and great styling. It also would seat 6 actual adults. Mine was so nice that a guy from Iceland who was traveling the country looking for one bought mine. He was shipping back home. So, somewhere in Iceland my old car "Shirley" is putting around.

Oilite bearings were no small potatoes. Chrysler invented a hugely successful bearing that is in use to this day. Absolutely brilliant engineering.

I remember in 1960 I had a 56 Ford and my friend purchased a 57 DeSoto, I couldn't believe how much better his rode than mine. A third friend had a 57 Chevy and wow, it couldn't compare to that DeSoto. Whenever we went on longer road trips we were always arguing that he should drive because it was so much more comfortable. It really was noticeably better than anything else on the road at the time.

My parents had a 59 De Soto Fireflight with the street hemi engine. Boy was that car fast. We we on a number of fun summer vacations with that car. I remember thinking the push button transmission was cool.

My dad was a huge fan of DeSoto. We had several when I was a kid.

Love those fins and tail lights!!!

Growing up my parents had probably my favorite car of all that they owned, a 1957 Desoto Firedome Sportsman 4dr hardtop, with 341c.i. Hemi with 4bbl and Torqueflite 3 speed w/overdrive. It had factory a/c with clear plexiglas rear deck directable air vents. I always thought that rear air feature was the coolest thing. It had Spice Metallic Brown and Sahara Tan exterior and interior. They owned the car until they bought a ‘65 New Yorker. They never kept a car that long again. But they also never had a car they liked as much.

I was a first grader then. Cars suddenly started looking like space ships! Chrysler really went nuts with it.

I want a new 1957 Desoto! Wow!

My pops had one. When i was really young. Gold with white trim. Never forget that car. He had a fury before that.

The DeSotos are some of the best looking cars out of Chrysler I have a 1956 sportsman

The 57-58 Chrysler 300 and 57 DeSoto Adventurer are my absolute favorite 1950's cars. The 1955 Chrysler 300 with the 300 horsepower 331 cubic inch Hemi engine was the first real American muscle car...the first car to carry a 300 horsepower factory rating since Duesenberg in 1928. The 56 Chrysler 300 was even more of a beast...packing a standard 340 horsepower 354 cubic inch Hemi engine with an optional 355 horsepower version available. Also in 1956 the other 3 Mopar divisions released their own high performance models...the Desoto Adventurer, Dodge D-500, and Plymouth Fury. The Chrysler 300 was the fastest American production car in 1955 and the Dodge D-500 was the fastest in 56. Mopar invented the muscle car...not Pontiac. Even Jim Wangers himself wrote that in his memoirs

This 1957 DeSpot is a stellar car, particularly from a body design standpoint. Three vertically placed lamps on the back of the fins are uniquely attractive and visually practical. Glass area provides excellent visuals for safety as well an attractive appearance. Chrysler was fifteen years ahead of the world with recessed outside door handles for aerodynamics, safety, and neat, attractive appearance. I wish this was pointed out. This is amazing and Chrysler was way ahead of the times with this simple application. As much as I like and respect all the Big Three, Chrysler had everyone beat with their recessed door handles. They carried this on with the Barracuda and Charger in later 60s into 70s. GM was particularly frustrating with their otherwise excellent machines, but with GM "stickout" thumb push door handles. All cars today have some form of recessed outside door handle. Chrysler also brought car design into the modern age with the low and wide look, derived from Raymond Lowey's brilliant forward-thinking design concepts. Studebaker was also ahead in design in this respect. The full frame on this DeSoto is excellent, better and stronger than Chrysler's large, heavy unibody cars. The engines were excellent, transmissions not so much. The 3.36 ratio differential made this DeSoto an excellent, efficient highway cruiser with sufficient high torque for acceleration. She likely buried the 120 mph speedometer needle with fair ease, and would hold high speeds for hours with positive results. Tire technology in those days would be a possible vulnerability. 15 inch tire rims might have been better. This Desoto still will run and ride great in today's world. Now compare this vehicle to any car in Europe or elsewhere, outside of Ferrari, and some few other Italian fine cars and German Porsche this Desoto beats them all. Mercedes, outside of their their sports car, looks obsolete. Ford and GM also had some fine designs back then, as well. Made in USA V8s are the best and strongest engines ever made. Nobody in the world hits 335 mph in 1/4 mile as we do. World's fastest ICE piston powered vehicle has two Chevy Bus. Mickey Thompson's son achieved 460 mph on the Bonneville salt flats. The original version 2 generations ago used 2 427 Ford V8s for over 430 mph. Recent 300.4 mph early Ford GT used exact consumer sold stock block and heads with billet forged internals, bi-turbo 2000 HP 9000 rpm in 5th gear on a manual 6 speed, $900 race tire. Imagine an undersquare 4.25 inch stroke V8 running this brilliantly with stock consumer block and heads. Now compare this to a BMW W16 cylinder $3,000,000 Bugatti Veyron with $3,000 tires... junk. Swedish supercar Koenigsegg has bi-turbo V8 derived from a Ford 4.6 modular V8. Saleem S7 with bored stroked 351 to 427 recently thumped Ferrari. Think Ford v Ferrari in 60s LeMans. Hennessey Venom, a Lotus Elige with a Chevrolet 427 bi-turbo V8 can achieve nearly 300 mph. A 1988 twin Calloway 350 cid 4 bolt main Corvette achieved 258 mph smoothly. To this day. Ferrari and Lamborghini have no showroom car that performs like this. High performing Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, Chargers and Challengers are the best, most reliable, most reasonably priced, most easily maintained and repaired, simplest, safest high performance vehicles in the world. And we will be the best at alternative power, as well. Don't listen to anti-American inside money-changing bankers, government, or media propaganda. The US still builds the best, and always will. Love Made In USA forever! Love cars forever!

I love those double wishbone setup but never mentioned in the video because all manufacturers were using it.

1957 was the best selling year for the DeSoto carline, it was also the most beautiful of all of the 1957 makes of cars.

I had a 57 DeSoto Fireflite in High School in 1973.

We tend to think that cars of this time period were overly simple, but actually a lot of thought went into engineering them! And I am glad they were at least thinking about handling/cornering!

No plastic bumper covers on these beautiful cars!

My dad had a 57 Fireflight and what I remember most is that he got a ticket for going 115 on a highway in Arizona. He was racing someone… with my two older brothers in the car with him. Mom wasn’t happy! 😂

The Torqueflite auto was much better than any GM or Ford auto for the next 20 years.

These promos had alot of useful information. Very educational.

What a beautiful car

Go to your DeSoto - Plymouth dealer today.....and tell them Groucho sent you !

I bought this car when I was 18 years old. I sold it when I lost my license. I’m 75 years old now.

I like the elegant fins. The front end has a great big smile.

The 1957 De Soto was the best looking De Soto of All Time. If I could turn back the clock I might have purchased one. Somehow this information just didn't get to a lot of people including me.

My house was built in ‘57. Can you imagine buying one of these today to be your every day driver

desoto was a wonderful Car wish I had owned one! As the Ads said Delightful Delovely its desoto

Little did they know these Firedome engines' successor, the HEMI, would become world famous for drag racing!

I recall my uncle buying one of those '57 DeSotos in 1958, when it was about a year old.As a 6.5 year old child,I couldn't wait to get a ride in this wild looking new car of his. It was comfortable and stylish,no question about that. However,I can recall him coming to our house,in about 1961, to borrow my mothers '54 DeSoto,which wasn't nearly as stylish,but was a lot more reliable. As it turned out,his '57 DeSoto was prone to overheating, and it was also an oil burner.The '57 Chrysler Corporation products were all new and exciting,but unfortunately,quality and reliability were something else again.I never drove one myself,but I have been told that the brakes were also quite poor...

Ok, ok i`m sold, where`s my nearest dealership!

Thank you for uploading these gems, Mopar or no car.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle manufacturers let all the American states and territories know that the 1957 model cars would only accommodate a standard-sized license plate of 6 x 12". Up till then, each state's plates were different. Chrysler styled its 1957 cars with a license plate well in the trunk lid in back, just to show off this new size. You can see it throughout this filmstrip.

Really was a shame about the poor quality control on these powerful and beautiful Mopars ! They could have been some of the greatest ever !

All the new 1957 Chrysler Corporation cars were stunningly designed - the DeSoto being the most wonderful of all - but they sold so well that dealers ran short of cars, and defective cars got shipped from the factories without being repaired, just to fill up inventories. Plus, being entirely new, they had various defects which took awhile to track down and fix.

My Grand dad had a red , 2 door 57 and that car was beautiful. He traded it is for a 65 Polara.

Beautiful, thanks for posting!

My first car was a 1957 Desoto Fireflite 4-door. I paid one hundred dollars for it in 1964 and, in my opinion, that's all it was worth. It had great power but was already rusted through in a number of places and the brakes were lousy!

DeSoto. car of the future!!! .lol.. at least they were full of good Innovations and they thought about engineering! My dad had Desotos.. and they were pretty good cars..

The music heard over the titles was used on the later "Life Of Riley" TV show starring William Bendix.

Had a 57 desoto firedome convertable. Red with white top, red & white interior.

De lovely, de lightfull , De Soto as the commercials went back then.

Totally cool! Mad old, but incredibly cool. Some were even fuel injected.

I wish it was 1955, and I was 16. My mind m says the 50's was the best era in America.

Technical and ergonomic features: the way to sell a car. Terrific video

love the "bonk" from the old filmstrips. i miss those!

My dad had a black 57 DeSoto 4 door when I was a kid. Those fins were unreal! He traded it in on a new 61 DeSoto. About a week later Chrysler announced that they were going to stop making them. He went out the next day and traded it for a Cadillac and never bought another Chrysler product.

It was Desoto's best year.

Tail fins really were quite beautiful. I miss them.

year of my birth. grew up with a '56 chevy 4 door. not as sexy as the desoto but still miss it.

I think that 1957 was the best of America's post-war prosperity. Not just automobiles, but movies, kitchen appliances, consumer electronics, women's fashion and design in general. Unfortunately, the recession of 1958 put the kiboshes on that.

The Newspapers told the story DeSoto out of business..long live the Hemi..😸

Everything I know about Desotos I learned from "Happy Days." "Exciting" was the last thing I'd have thought they'd have promoted them as.

That was a good idea comparing the new model against the last year model.

Good car. The only thing is the front torsion bar broke. Replaced as a call back. Good engine and a great ride.

Ultra planned obsolescence between 1956 & 1957 DeSoto I'd say

Then, along came Christine.... (yeah, yeah, I know--she was a '58 Plymouth Fury, but you can see the early resemblance...)

The most amusing breakthrough in the jargon department for 1957 was the substitution of the word "getaway" for "start." In the event of a hit-and-run accident, for intance.

Chrysler's 1957 models sent GM scrambling for new designs beyond what they already had planned. Thus, the 1958 GM products were one year only designs, and borrowed heavily from the previous 1954-57 designs. GM began to catch up with Chrysler in their 1959-60 models, another all new design that ran for two model years. Ford just kind of held onto their '57 era models through the 1960 model year before they debuted anything new. My take on the big three's car designs from this era.

Wow looks so much more modern than my 1997 Citroen Ax11

the torsion bar & leaf spring suspension...amazing. far better than the mustang II derived stuff ppl are putting on their muscle era mopars now..they're unfit for road use, long term. why throw out the baby w/the bath water when simply a few new bushings every few decades & a front end alignment would put you where no coil spring rubbish can go? no true mopar fan would ever foist that magnum farce crap on their classic chrysler corp machine.

One big problem with all DeSoto commercials was the way they had the announcer pronounce DeSoto. The announcers always say "Dee Soe Toe" instead of the more natural-sounding "DaSoto".

My grandfather had a car dealership in Chicago. De Soto was one of his brands. He aslo had Nash, Essex, Willys, Hudson, Kaiser-Fraiser, and Jeep. I also remember a magazine we were using when I was in Primary School. Showed the Chrysler products in the late '50s with the huge tail fins. The "reason" for those fins , according bto the advertisement, was to equalise the force of a side wind, so the car would not sway and be hard to handle in a side wind. I was about 8-9 years old and knew this was BS.

"New, from rubber to roof!" This isn't a "film", it's a filmstrip. Filmstrips got shown in schools at the time as well.

Wow 😳 when commercials were the length of a full feature movie

I was going to make a snide remark about the waterproof electrical system but then I remembered I own a vintage VW Beetle.

I was born in Libya & didn't immigrate to USA till 1950 ,when I was a boy in Libya I think I had only seen 1 or 2 automobiles & a few farm or military type trucks ,I will never forget getting off the plane at the now defunct Detroit city airport & seeing automobiles everywhere,I can still remember being on I 75 in a taxi stuck in a traffic jam,which I thought was the most beautiful sight in the world since it was night time ,if I close my eyes I can still envision the sea of huge brake lights for what seemed like forever ,I remember my mother telling me the streets were lined with gold in America before we left the embassy bound for the USA and when I saw all those tail lights I knew she was right . Watching all these dumb kids burning down buildings & attacking people for the 2nd time in my life ,over the same demands for socialism they demanded in the 1970's,well it just makes me sick ,America is the greatest country in the world .

Beautiful car...

Unfortunately, not too many people liked the "torsion-aire" ride. It was way too stiff for most people who liked the softer ride that G.M. and Ford offered. It did ride better when you got it up above 80 MPH but, in 1957, not too many people drove that fast. 70 was considered fast at that time.

Gee..A car made of METAL!!!! REAL chrome, real glass headlight units, that dont turn yellow in the sun, and you have to replace yearly or polish them with tons of chemicals to try and get them clear again. Steel all around you, you can crush every plastic Hyundai on the road:)

New from rubber to roof. Pretty cool!

My dad loved dragging the kids in the other makes in our new 58 and challenged them to keep up on winding mtn roads out west. Starting in 55 the new forward look was costing GM sales so they managed to sneak steel with carbon burned out sold to Chrysler which rusted immediately. They didn't catch it till mid 57. Then in 58 GM had UAW union strike Chrysler cutting sales in half. And for the guy who got all snarky about the Chrysler using 14" tires. Everyone used them in 57. But he had no comment about Chevy only using 7:00 14 while DeSoto used much safer and larger 8:50 14.

The first (1951 DeSoto) and best automobile I ever owned. Groucho Marx was right!

Nice car 🚘

I was disappointed when the DeSoto was discontinued early in the l961 model year.

Darn it, I just bought a new 57 Plymouth Savoy.

I have to say... I'm impressed with this car and that surprises me. I wonder why torsion springs haven't swept the Auto industry?

Just as a general matter, never buy the first year of a completely new design. Things need time to work in, basically you are doing the company's road-testing for it at a premium price.

I had one of those

Fins to the left, fins to the right, and you're driving the only VW in town, LOL.

The 57 chrysler and desoto beat the heck out of dodge and plymouth in looks for 57/58...

Difficult if not impossible to sell outside the U.S. Simply too large for Europe, takes too much fuel, sharp curved roads or 'hairpin' turns would present real handling issues. The cost of the car (and cost of up keep), plus low resale value would doom this product anywhere else...not much of a 'world car'. But that was the U.S. in 1957. Car makers had all the market they ever thought they would need with domestic sales alone.

This model looks a lot like a 1959 Plymouth Fury.

Does anyone know where's a Desoto dealership nearby?I can't find any and I want to purchase one.

Built for the road. As distinct from all those other cars built for the sea, the river, the air..

didn't Elvis Presley sing with the torsion-aires?

I want one. Largest V8 automatic convertible.

I want my 57 DeSoto 😊

Mopower

My Grandmother traded in her 36' Ford for a 1960 Dodge.

Se a Chrysler voltasse a fabricar esses carros [electronicamente modernizados], eles seriam vendas certas...

Did u guys get a load of that scary assed tire! Deathtrap!

Wow! Those drum brakes! We won’t tell them Jaguar cars were beginning to put 4 wheel disc brakes on their cars around this time...

Why did they pronounce the word "Wheel" in "HHWheuhhll" instead?

If FCA were really, really smart, their next new SUV should be called the DeSoto Adventurer, a name used during the 1950's.

Wow what a car,I thought Chrysler were unibody

"Please turn the record."

They made real cars back then.

So desoto is built by Chrysler?