1958 Classic Cars for Sale
Recession cuts industry sales by a third, the Corvette gets quad headlights, and Cadillac fins reach their absolute maximum
1958 was a reckoning. A sharp recession hit the American economy and auto sales dropped from roughly 6.1 million units in 1957 to around 4.3 million, a fall of nearly 30 percent that shook every manufacturer. Ford had just launched the Edsel with enormous fanfare and found almost nobody waiting at the dealerships. The independents were in serious trouble. Even GM felt it.
The styling, though, kept going in one direction. This was the year of maximum chrome, maximum length, and maximum fins. The Cadillac Series 62 wore tail fins that stood higher than any before or since on a production Cadillac. The Lincoln Continental Mark III stretched to 229 inches long. Buick added four chrome sweepspears to the front fenders and called the car the Limited, reviving a historic name for a car that cost $6,283 and weighed over two tons.
The Corvette got a modest makeover with quad headlights and chrome trunk louvers that collectors today find either charming or excessive depending on their taste. Production rose slightly to 9,168 units. The car was finding its audience even as the broader market contracted, which says something about what the Corvette had become by this point in its short life.
- Overall US auto industry sales fell to roughly 4.3 million units from 6.1 million in 1957, a decline of nearly 30 percent driven by the economic recession, making 1958 the worst sales year since 1948.
- Ford's Edsel launched in September 1957 as a 1958 model with an estimated $250 million development budget and sold only 63,110 units against a break-even target of roughly 200,000, becoming the decade's most public automotive failure.
- Cadillac reached what most historians consider the absolute peak of American tail fin design on the 1958 models, with fins that were subsequently reduced in height on the 1959 and 1960 cars as the styling trend began reversing.
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1958 Bentley S1
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1958 Chevrolet Corvette
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1958 Chevrolet Impala
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1958 Chevrolet Corvette
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1958 Ford Fairlane 500
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1958 Chevrolet 3100
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1958 Ford Thunderbird
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1958 Edsel Sedan
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1958 Chevrolet Impala
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1958 Ford Fairlane 500
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1958 Chevrolet Bel Air
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1958 Chevrolet Biscayne
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1958 Chevrolet Apache
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1958 Chevrolet Apache
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1958 Chevrolet Impala
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1958 Buick Limited
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1958 Chevrolet Bel Air
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1958 Edsel Ranger
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1958 Chevrolet Viking
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1958 Chevrolet Apache
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1958 Cadillac Eldorado
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1958 Pontiac Chieftain
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1958 Edsel Corsair
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1958 Ford Fairlane
Market: The 1958 Corvette trades at a modest discount to 1957 examples, with fuel-injected cars typically in the $70,000 to $120,000 range and carbureted cars from $35,000 upward depending on condition. The Edsel, once the punchline of the industry, has become a genuine collector car, with a Citation Convertible in excellent condition bringing $40,000 to $60,000 from buyers who appreciate the historical irony.
Buyer's note: On 1958 Corvettes, inspect the aluminum-trimmed dashboard carefully since the bright metal pieces are difficult and expensive to restore and are frequently replaced with reproductions that do not carry the same value as original components.