Junkyard Find: 1952 Kaiser

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

After checking out a bullet-riddled ’91 Mitsubishi Galant yesterday, I think it’s time to return to the inmates of the Brain Melting Colorado Yard that I visited on the Fourth of July. We’ve seen the ’48 Pontiac hearse, the ’75 Plymouth Road Runner, and the ’76 AMC Matador Barcelona so far, and today we’re going to admire a car that I’m dangerously tempted to buy for myself.

This is the greatest speedometer I’ve ever seen. Check out that font on the numerals!

All the emblems are gone, as is most of the trim, so I can’t say whether this is a Deluxe or a Manhattan (my Kaiser knowledge is spotty, but I think the low-end ’52 Virginian had a different grille).

The presence of a factory radio and automatic transmission suggests that this may be a high-rollin’ Manhattan. Kaiser-Frazer was taking a beating from the Detroit Big Three by 1952; the company’s rise and fall is chronicled in great detail by this excellent Ate Up With Motor piece.

Does this car have snakeskin door panels? How can I resist?

Pre-PRNDL automatic shifters are always interesting. This car has everything! Sorry, I couldn’t get the hood latch open, so no engine photos.






Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • KF Guy KF Guy on Nov 03, 2012

    Just some info on some of the previous comments. The lack of large roung bumper bullets on the ends of the "humped" bridge on the front and rear bumpers indicate it's not a Manhattan. The painted lower dash and ashtray also indicate it's not a Manhattan as those peices were chrome on a Manhattan. Radios and Hydramatic transmission were options on all models of Kaiser in 1952 so those things do not indicate which model it is. I've seen a number of 3 speed, no-radio Kaiser Manhattans. Also, it was alluded to in the original post the "low end model" in '52 was the Virginian - not true! There was a '52 Kaiser Virginian. The 1952 Virginians were those left over '51 Kaisers that had not sold by the end of the 1951 model year. To get these cars sold, Kaiser updated them with a new hood ornament and a stylish Continental spare tire on the back. The 1952 Virginian was available in standard and deluxe models as well as hatchbacks.

    • Duaney Duaney on Jul 02, 2014

      The car is a 1953 Deluxe. After 1951, the lower dash's were all painted, Manhattans included. We have over 800 cars available for sale. These cars are all saved from the crusher, if they weren't here, they'd be gone forever.

  • Duaney Duaney on May 21, 2015

    Still available, along with several others.

  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
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