DeSoto Custom History

Full-size car · 1946–1952

Catalog record

This is a brief catalog introduction with limited source documentation. A licensed, identity-checked lead photograph has not yet been added for this page. Detailed year, configuration and ownership coverage must be identified separately; this page is not a complete vehicle catalog.

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History

The DeSoto Custom was the upper of DeSoto's two postwar series, sold above the Deluxe from 1946 through the 1952 model year. Like the Deluxe it used Chrysler's L-head 236.7-cubic-inch six (around 109 bhp), with warmed-over prewar styling at first, then the boxier facelifts of the early 1950s.

The Custom line spanned the body styles that defined late-1940s DeSoto, including the long-wheelbase eight-passenger Suburban. It carried the division until the 1952 model year, after which DeSoto replaced the Custom/Deluxe naming with the new Firedome (V8) and Powermaster (six) series.

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