The Dodge Mayfair is a 2-door sedan / 4-door sedan / 2-door hardtop / 2-door convertible from Dodge, built from 1953 to 1959, at the height of the post-war boom.
The story
The Dodge Mayfair was an automobile built by Chrysler Corporation of Canada Ltd. This vehicle was produced solely for the Canadian market from 1953 to 1959. Its American equivalent was the Plymouth Belvedere. It was based on the Plymouth. The Mayfair name first appeared as a 2-door hardtop in the 1951 Dodge Regent series, just as the Belvedere appeared in the Cranbrook series. The 1952 Mayfair adopted the same paint scheme as the 1952 Belvedere with the roof color sweeping down onto the rear trunk. When the 1953 models were introduced, the Mayfair was again the hardtop in the Regent series. In April, 1953, though, Chrysler of Canada introduced a new, upscale series to do battle with the Chevrolet Bel Air and Pontiac Laurentian. The D43-3 Mayfair was introduced in both hardtop and sedan models.
The exterior had the front fender trim extend onto the front door and backup lamps were standard. Interiors were two-tone, in either blue or green, with a matching steering wheel. With the new D43-3, the Regent Mayfair hardtop was dropped. Under the hood, the engine was increased from 218 cu in (3,570 cc) to 228 cu in (3,740 cc) and Chrysler of Canada introduced Hy-Drive on Plymouth and Dodge models. For 1954, the Mayfair used the interiors of the new Plymouth Belvedere. The base engine and transmission were unchanged. For the first time since 1937, Chrysler of Canada offered a convertible in its Plymouth-based models, importing the Mayfair convertible from Detroit, a badge-engineered Kingsway Custom. The V8 engine came to Chrysler of Canada's low-priced models in 1955. As befor
Under the skin
The record carries the shape — a 2-door sedan / 4-door sedan / 2-door hardtop / 2-door convertible — and the layout: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Corvette, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Dodge catalogue sit the Dodge 1500 and the 1955 Dodge.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Dodge Mayfair has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.