Founded by Walter Chrysler in 1928, DeSoto sold more than two million cars before it was discontinued in 1961. The company struggled to maintain a solid market share in its final years, but that’s also when it created its hottest offering, the Adventurer.
Originally introduced as a sub-series of the range-topping Fireflite in 1956, the DeSoto Adventurer evolved into a limited-edition, high-performance model similar to the more luxurious Chrysler 300 “letter series.”
Updated to Virgil Exner’s “Forward Look” for the 1957 model year, the Adventurer hit dealerships with Chrysler’s revised 361-cubic-inch (5.9-liter) V8 engine under the hood. The high-power unit was rated at 345 horsepower, which made the DeSoto almost as powerful as the exclusive Chrysler 300C.
But despite its praised styling and hot-rodded underpinnings, the Adventurer moved only 1,950 units in 1957. Sales went down even more in 1958 when DeSoto sold only 432 examples, including 350 hard-tops and 82 convertibles.
The Adventurer soldiered on until 1960, but the 1958 model remains the rarest ever produced. Come 2021, and the 1958 Adventurer is quite the rare gem, with significantly fewer than 100 still around. This white hard-top is one of the lucky ones that survived, and it’s looking for a new owner via Facebook Marketplace.
A two-owner car, this DeSoto has been with the seller for 27 years. It’s been in California its entire life and, as a result, but it does have a few rust issues on the floorboards, trunk pan, rocker panels, and hood. However, it’s still a mostly original car, numbers-matching V8 included, save for the missing spinner hubcaps and the seats.
Just like the exterior, the interior needs some work, especially in the door panel department. The seats look better than the rest, but the color and the upholstery suggest that they’re not original. The car is equipped with a 150-mph (241-kph) speedometer that still works.
The seller describes the car as a “very good driver,” which is excellent news about the 63-year-old V8 engine and the push-button automatic transmission. The car comes with current registration with California black plates, as well as an extra 1958 Chrysler hood as a replacement for the rusty, original unit. While identical to the DeSoto hood, the Chrysler lid needs new holes for the “DeSoto” letting on the nose.
Needless to say, this Adventurer needs a lot of work, but it might be worth restoring with only a few of them still around. The owner is willing to let it go for $23,000, which is a tad below the value of a 1958 Adventurer in Fair condition. He is entertaining offers, so pricing may go down a bit.
Would you restore this car, or is the DeSoto Adventurer a car that should remain confined to the history books?