1958 "new car" road tests...

I agree. Watching these videos, I also thought... the GM and Ford cars were awesome riding cars on the normal roads and the Mopars probably had a much firmer ride. I would say that being the heavy cars they were, they still rode well... especially the New Yorker and Imperial. I think for the highway though, the GM and Ford cars would have been superior. These bumps were not normal terrain for these vehicles. lol. I think it was up through the mid 80s that Mopars had firmer suspension overall than Ford or GM. Chrysler degraded GM for airbag suspension in '58, then in '88 Chrysler put air bag suspension on the FWD New Yorker, which had super soft suspension. My grandmother had an '88 New Yorker, it was like riding on a cloud. I owned a '95 Chrysler Concorde myself, with a soft suspension, but it had coil springs. Mopar kept leaf springs on ALL of their cars up through the 70s... Ford and GM had them for years. Ironically, Mopar now uses rear coil springs on their trucks! Ford and GM still use rear leaf springs. Chevy used rear coils on some trucks in the 60s-early 70s.

 

Actually the Pontiac also had the X-frame in '58 with no perimeter. (My daily driver..) I've thought about trying to put in a side brace however.... Thanks for the reminder.