The modestly equipped Chevrolet Delray offered the lowest price in a full-sized car from the Big Three in 1958, but it was discontinued after a single year.
When the 1958 Delray made its dealer debut in October of 1957, it wasn’t the first time the Chevrolet sales force had seen the name Delray. From 1954 to 1957. the label was applied to an extra-cost interior package or sub-model for the mid-range Two-Ten series, featuring plastic upholstery materials in bold, contrasting colors. Years ago, old timers explained the Delray as “a convertible interior in a standard sedan,” and while the description isn’t technically accurate, it does capture the flavor. The name was inspired by Delray Beach in South Florida.
For ’58, Delray was promoted to a stand-alone model among the Chevy passenger cars, at the very bottom trim level of a lineup that included, in ascending order, the Biscayne, Bel Air, and Bel Air Impala. As you would expect of a price leader, this Delray featured a very basic interior, and a bare minimum of standard equipment, too. However, the exterior boasted a full-length chrome spear on each side, a relative rarity in the GM division’s base models.
Body styles were limited to a two-door post sedan, a four-door post sedan, and a two-door Utility Sedan with a parcel shelf in lieu of a rear seat. At just $2,013 with a 145-hp Blue Flame 6, the Utility was the cheapest full-size passenger car offered by the Detroit Three that year. However, the Studebaker Scotsman from South Bend was priced even lower at $1,796, and it was even more sparsely equipped. (See our feature here.)
There were wagons at the Delray trim level, but they were given their own model name, Yeoman. Making things interesting, the full slate of Chevy powertrains could be ordered, including the 348 CID Super Turbo-Thrust V8 with 280 hp and three two-barrel carburetors, along with standard, overdrive, Powerglide, and Turboglide transmissions.
Naturally, the Delray found favor among sales fleets, taxi companies, and police departments, but the model would last just one year. The Chevrolet product line was shuffled once again for 1959 as the Bel Air Impala became the stand-alone Impala series with a full range of body styles. The Biscayne now occupied the bottom of Chevrolet’s three-rung model ladder, and with no further reason to exist, the Delray was dropped.
While another automotive site reveals many of the cars I had, I believe this is the 1st time MCG did so. I had a ’58 Delray 4 door, like in the 2nd picture. It drew comments at every stop. It was as bare bones a car as one could get. I don’t think it even had a passenger sun visor. 6 cylinder, that loved oil, 3 speed, no radio, at a cost of $2,013 new, it undercut the then cheapest Ford 4 door by $100. Looking at the gee-gaws of todays cars, if you can call them that, it’s amazing we got by at all with these.
Delray was also known as the Hungarian section of Detroit, much like how Hamtramck was Polish
I always think of Delray in this context: gritty working class neighborhoods tucked in among the steel mills and auto plants. I doubt if that was the Delray GM was thinking of.
When the 58 Chevy came out I thought it’s styling looked clumsy, bloated and confused. But I was only 11 years old, so what did I know? 65 years later I still think the same thing.
I think that’s quite fair but I like many of the details.
I had a Yellow Delray, 6-cylinder straight drive. My neighbor gave it to me because it drank oil. It disappeared while I was away at school. I later found that my Mom had given it to my older brother who lived about sixty miles away.
My Dad bought a used very low mileage Delray for my sister for her first car. Probably $250 in 1972? It was a pretty good bare bones car. We were on I-70 and we told my sister to see how fast it would go with it’s 6cyl-250 engine. She got it up to 98mph. Those were the days.
Unless the engine had been replaced, it would have had the 235 Blue Flame six. The 250 didn’t come around until 1966 I believe..
My Grandmother bought a Silver Blue 2 door Delray in April of ’58. I still own it. I scrounged every available option I could find out of wrecking yards, back in the early 70s, when I inherited it with only 19,000 miles.
People tell me they prefer the sedan roofline to the Impala, but I can’t say I totally agree.
Where can I get a copy of that black and white photo of the ’58 Delray 4dr?
I had one of the many reissues of the AMT ’58 Impala model kit as a kid, and somehow the base sedans look so much better than the Impala. I think it’s the taller greenhouse and overall bigger cabin that brings the rest of the body proportions in line and makes the whole car seem less bloated.