DeSoto Six History

The DeSoto Six was the brand's launch model, introduced for the 1929 model year when Walter Chrysler created the marque to fight in the mid-price field. In its first year 81,065 single-model DeSoto Sixes were built — a US first-year production record that stood for 31 years, until it was broken by the 1960 Ford Falcon.

Built around Chrysler's L-head straight-six, the Six carried the division through the early Depression. A short-lived companion DeSoto Eight was offered for 1930–1931, after which DeSoto returned to a six-cylinder-only lineup. The Six name covered DeSoto's bread-and-butter cars until the streamlined Airflow and the more conventional Airstream took over the mid-1930s range.