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New Member, Is there any information that would give an approximate number of the 48' Custom Convertible that are known to exist? Thanks!
Les Pesavento is the technical advisor for 46-48 models. He might have that information.
To my knowledge, nobody specifically tracks the surviving S-11s. For some other years, such as 1956 that I do, we have registries that have been maintained by club individuals going back decades. A general rule I have found is that there is about a 5-10% survival rate, with more common cars being in the 5% range because they were used up and more rare cars being in the 10% range because they were recognized as something special earlier on and were either better cared for or saved when others wouldn't be. Convertibles kind of fall in between because even though they were special and rare, they also leaked a lot and that caused more rust issues than a non-convertible in some cases.
As was mentioned in the Facebook group, we have a number of the surviving cars listed in the annual club roster, but that only tracks cars owned by club members that they have reported to us as owning. That leaves more out there not included in that list.
If, by chance, this is something that greatly interests you, we are always happy to help another person start tracking specific years of DeSotos. We currently have covered: 1938, 1941, 1956. 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961.
