For Sale at Auction: 1953 Dodge Coronet in Williams, Iowa

1953 Dodge Coronet 4-Door Sedan. It's not often what is considered a "Plain Jane" car has any special significance in the collector car community, but this '53 Dodge Coronet is just one of three Chrysler built to use as a demonstration model for the company's air conditioning system. Chrysler had been one of the early innovators in air conditioning systems after Walter Chrysler had a system invented and designed for his new Chrysler Building in New York City. Systems in the 1930s were bulky and complex so Chrysler went to his engineering staff to come up with a new way to cool buildings, The Airtemp Corporation was born from that effort and the systems were also developed to be installed in vehicles. Some early vehicle air conditioning systems appeared in the late 1930s but until 1953 the major manufacturers didn't introduce systems that were true options. Ford and GM launched factory A/C systems for Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile and Lincoln and Chrysler put a system in the 1953 Imperial. But Chrysler's system was different from the GM and Ford systems and the company wanted to show the public what they had and why it was better. Which brings us to the 1953 Dodge Coronet Daryl Hemken managed to find in Arizona with just 16,000 miles on the odometer. Chrysler created three demonstration vehicles that were shown around the country with the air conditioning system installed. This is one of those three and it was actually sold by the company to Winnie Hogg in Coralville, PA on June 12, 1953. Chrysler's Airtemp systems utilized a trunk-mounted evaporator with fresh air inlets located on the rear fender, a much tidier installation than the chunky scoops Ford and Lincoln employed to draw in fresh air. The evaporator both discharged cooled air and recirculated inside air through the rear parcel shelf. Unlike GM and Lincoln, Chrysler did not use ceiling mounted diffusers with clear plastic ducts to distribute the air, but discharged the air right into the parcel shelf. To avoid freezing the rear passengers' necks, cold air was discharged through the center register, while the outboard ones were used for air return (opposite from Lincoln and GM systems). Even though Chrysler had a distinct advantage with their Airtemp systems being well known in the residential and commercial use markets, Chrysler wanted to expand its use of the systems into its regular car lines and these Coronets worked perfectly as potential demonstrators. This one-of-kind car still runs and drives and has had one repaint. All the components are in place as installed at the factory.