1962 Imperial Crown Convertible

By Jay Hirsch

The Chrysler Imperial seemed to be always the “step child” of the Chrysler Corporation’s luxury division. Until 1955 it was known as the Chrysler Imperial, not Imperial or Imperial by Chrysler. It even shared the same body with the Chrysler New Yorker. By 1957 Imperial finally had its own separate body and was the Imperial that was part of the Chrysler campaign of “Suddenly it is 1960!” The campaign was highly successful for Chrysler Corporation in 1957, as market share for the company went from 16 percent in 1956 to 20 per cent in 1957 — 35,734 being Imperials.

By 1960, Imperials sold for the year totaled 17,707. This was a time when American car companies — The Big Three: Chrysler, Ford and GM — got the American car buying public conditioned to design change every two or three years. Engineering played a part, too, but design came first. Nobody in this era wanted a “new” car that looked like a model did a year or two earlier.

In 1961 Ford and GM had radical new car designs. Gone were tail fins and use of chrome. Their 1961 cars were devoid of excess chrome and the models were even slightly smaller on the outside from previous years while having the same or more interior passenger room than earlier years.

It was not until 1962 that …

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