Excuse me as I give myself a big old hug and a high five for sticking to my New Year's resolution to blog more about cars I either don't like or don't find interesting. Well, this 1954 Kaiser Manhattan is both! It's currently for sale on Facebook Marketplace about an hour east of us in Geneva, Ohio. Asking price is, pardon me as I gag on my morning Metamucil, $7,500.
Not surprisingly for a 72-year-old car at this price point, this one's not perfect. The engine runs but won't move because there's something wrong with the column shifter to the transmission. There are rust spots, the floor on the front driver's side has been patched, front carpeting as we see is missing too. At least the padded dash, which was advanced for its day, appears to be in good shape.
So, I know what you're thinking. A Kaiser?
Kasser was a short lived, independent automobile manufacturer that sprung up in 1947 and was gone, for all intents and purposes by 1955. Technically, though, the company was a rebranding of the Graham Paige Motor Company and survived as a passenger-vehicle builder making Jeeps through 1969.
Henry Kaiser was an industrialist whose company-built Hoover Dam and Liberty ships during World War II. In 1947, Kaiser invested in Joseph's Frazer's struggling Graham-Paige Motors Corporation, the company was renamed Kaiser-Frazer. Frazer was an accomplished automobile executive who had taken control and became president of foundering Graham-Paige in 1944; in order to resume automobile production after the war, Frazer needed a large infusion of capital, which Henry Kaiser provided. The two men were supposed to be equals in the company, Kaiser was chairman, Frazer was president, and as well-heeled, ego-maniacal men of a certain age tend to be when they work together, they disagreed over the direction of the company. Frazer left in 1951, the "Frazer" nameplate dropped from all subsequent cars produced. In 1953 the company became known simply as "Kaiser Motors". Additionally, in 1953, Kaiser purchased the famed Jeep manufacturer Willy-Overland.
Our Kaiser Manhattan here was one of the models that stuck around after Frazer left the company. Originally known as the Frazer Manhattan, it was the "deluxe" version of the company's large sedan series that included the Deluxe, Carolina, Dragon (yes, Dragon) and Traveler. Speaking of large, these pictures don't do justice to how big this car is, it dwarfs a 1954 Chevrolet by more than a foot in length although it's an inch less wide. Those dimensions do its proportions no favors.
Although Kaiser-Frazer had initial success, it's said much of that was due to the country's ribald demand for new automobiles after the war. Once that tide receded, sales declined sharply. Kaiser sold approximately four-thousand Manhattan's in 1954, just three-hundred or so in 1955. After 1955, Kaiser stopped automobile production and focused exclusively on Jeeps.
Under hood we have a confluence of new- and old-think. That's a belt driven supercharger helping to whip up gross-rated horsepower of this 226-cubic inch, flathead inline six to 140, up from 118 for versions of this engine without a blower. Blown or not blown, with two tons to haul around, the engines in the big Kaisers had their work cut out for them.
This car was designed by Howard "Dutch" Darrin, a freelance automobile stylist who cut his teeth drawing up Duesenberg's back in the '30's. Darin gave the car a low beltline and a high roof which led to an expansive glass area; some say these cars are so airy inside passengers feel as though they're riding in a convertible with the top down. To say nothing of being able to wear a hat so tall Abraham Lincoln would be jealous.
You almost don't notice this is a two-door although it's a two-door sedan in the literal sense; it looks like a four-door where the rear doors are welded shut. There were no "hard tops". The prow in the rear windshield, remember, around here we don't call them "back lights", was called a "Darrin" dip meant to reduce the greenhouse look of the roof. The front has one too.
In 1970, in attempt to buoy their little sinking fortunes, American Motors purchased Kaiser, AMC eventually swallowed up by Chrysler ostensibly for their Jeep division.
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