The 1934-36 Desoto Aiflow was an advanced, well-built, soundly engineered automobile. And it wasn’t what the American car-buying public wanted. 

If ever there was a star-crossed American car make from a major producer, it was DeSoto. Launched by Chrysler in summer of 1928 almost simultaneously with the introduction of Plymouth and the corporation’s purchase of Dodge Brothers as well, it was originally slotted into the product line below Dodge and above Plymouth on the price ladder. (See our feature on the birth of DeSoto here.) Handsome, popularly priced, and sharing many Plymouth components to pare costs, the DeSoto did remarkably well in its mid-range role, racking up 80,000 sales the first year.

But then Chrysler reshuffled the deck as the revolutionary Chrysler Airflow was under development for its 1934 introduction. There it was decided that DeSoto would be moved two slots upmarket, above Dodge and below Chrysler, and share the radical Airflow design. WIth the rebranding, DeSoto’s market identity was now starting to appear a bit fuzzy, an issue that would shadow the division for the next 27 years.

As the junior brand in the Airflow family, DeSoto employed the very same forward-looking design elements as Chrysler: steel-reinforced body; semi-unitized body/frame  construction; engine relocated well forward in the chassis to allow the rear passengers to be seated within the wheelbase rather than over the rear axle. (See our look at the Airflow’s engineering here.)

Where they differed: The DeSoto’s wheelbase was a modest 115.5 inches in length, eight inches shorter than its big sister, which made the aerodynamic shape look even more polarizing to car buyers, if anything. And there was a 241.5 CID straight six with an even 100 hp under the sloping hood instead of the Chrysler’s more imposing L-head straight eights.

The DeSoto AIrflow was every bit as advanced as its Chrysler sibling. Where the DeSoto Airflow departed from the senior Chrysler in a critically strategic way was that there was no plan B. While Chrysler continued to offer a conventional model, DeSoto’s 1934 product line consisted only of Airflows. When production problems delayed the rollout to dealer showrooms, and as customers ultimately rejected the controversial AIrflow styling theme, DeSoto had nothing to fall back on. Sales plummeted to fewer than 14,000 cars for the entire ’34 model year, a staggering 39 percent decline.

For ’35, DeSoto rushed a conventionally styled car into the product line as a stopgap, borrowing a Dodge chassis and basic body shell and calling it the Airstream. (Chrysler introduced an Airstream as well.) The totally ordinary Airstream outsold the highly advanced Airflow by a three-to-one margin. (1935 Convertible Coupe shown below.) DeSoto’s print advertising now modestly presented the Airflow as a “companion to the Airstream DeSoto,” and the Airflow was quietly retired after 1936. The DeSoto division soldiered on at the Chrysler Corporation, through good years and bad, until November 30, 1960.