27/02/2023
1948 Chrysler Town and Country Sedan
The first Chrysler Town and Country was a wood-bodied, barrel-back sedan in the 1941 six-cylinder Royal line. Neither sedan nor station wagon, it had a fastback profile with twin hinged “barn doors” at the rear. Exactly 999 were built, 200 of them in six-passenger configuration and the rest with three bench seats to hold nine people. A similar lineup was continued into 1942, with nearly identical production despite the war-shortened model year.
The response was such that an expanded range of five body styles was planned for 1946. In the end, only a conventional trunk-back sedan and an eight-cylinder convertible coupe were built. Just 100 long-wheelbase eight-cylinder sedans were built, the rest being six-cylinder cars on the shorter Windsor wheelbase. The new-design second-series 1949 line dropped the T&C sedan, and for 1950 the model retreated to an eight-cylinder hardtop coupe with painted insert panels. Thereafter, the name “Town and Country” graced a long succession of Chrysler steel-bodied station wagons and minivans.
Total Chrysler Town and Country sedan production for 1948 was limited with just 1,175 examples built. Most wood-bodied cars were lost long ago, and according to Town and Country authority Donald Narus, this car is one of only 41 known to survive.
