Chrysler's 1956 Highway Hi-Fi Phonograph

1. Edward
   December 19th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

   You know, I have seen reproduced ads for this and have heard about it before the Internet, however, I have never seen a photograph of one. Has any Neatonaut ever seen one of these up close and personal?

2. roadnate
   December 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

   I have seen a picture of one of these in my dad's first car. He said that it didn't work very well. I want one so bad!

3. Sam R.
   December 19th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

   Aside from choosing a short-lived rpm format (seriously, 16 2/3?), that's a rather amazing piece of engineering. I want one, but I'd be afraid to ever use it.

4. DOJ
   December 19th, 2008 at 6:31 pm

   You wear gloves to operate it?

5. Larfin Jackarse
   December 19th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

   @Sam R 3. 16 2/3 was a proprietary format and you had to buy the records from Chrysler at expensive prices. People who changed it to play standard records were sued.

   Ok, it is a piss-take but I couldn't help meself.

6. Nicholas Dollak
   December 19th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

   Ironically, at 16 2/3 rpm the sound quality becomes so poor that it could hardly be called "hi-fi"! My Mom had a phonograph with an 8 rpm setting on it; this was limited to Talking Book records (Free Matter for the Blind & Handicapped) and not used for music. I guess the fact that the music recordings sounded not very good was harder to notice over the noise of the car as one drove.

   Oh, and everyone wore "driving gloves" if they were in a car ad in those days.

7. SparkS
   December 20th, 2008 at 12:06 am

   Every little bump would cause the needle to lose track. Seems pretty lame to me.

8. Gary
   December 20th, 2008 at 12:31 am

   My uncle had something similar to this in his Ford Torino
   before 8 tracks came out. it hung upside down under the dash and the record had to be held in place with a special mechanism. He had two stolen before he gave up on it.

9. Jo
   December 20th, 2008 at 12:37 am

   Sweet!! It took me 2 years, but I finally got something posted on Neatorama!!

   Alex just made my vacation!

10. Bret Hammond
    December 20th, 2008 at 1:39 am

    Edward, Google is your friend. Just do a search on "Chrysler Highway Hi-Fi." You'll find many articles and pictures including this one: http://jalopnik.com/cars/retro/screw-your-ipod-chryslers-in+car-phonog raph-237401.php

11. Sofar
    December 20th, 2008 at 3:49 am

    What's wrong with listening to the radio?

12. Vlad
    December 20th, 2008 at 3:59 am

    If you consider that 1956 is before the tape player existed, it wasn't such a bad idea. Using a proprietary record system was however, in my opinion.

13. Brian
    December 20th, 2008 at 5:39 am

    My friend had a 1958 DeSoto that had a record player in it. Worked like a charm since the suspension was so amazing - the car was like a tank and floated on the highway. It had a dash record player that the needle floated sideways across. You could play any record and it sounded great. I have a lot of memories of that cool contraption.

14. TakeAimDead
    December 20th, 2008 at 9:32 am

    This was auto-audio state of the art! I had a friend with one in his 1961 Ford Falcon! Pretty much sucked "in-flight" but his "45" stacks-of-wax collection beat the crap out of small-town commercial radio during the after-school meets to kill an hour. Their demise came rapidly once LearJet and the sub $100 underdash Pioneer 8-track brought the "rearranged" LP to the market.

15. renderanything
    December 20th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

    Jay Leno has one in a Dodge Wagon. Took him a while to dig up some old 16 2/3 records to play on it though. You can find video of it on his jaylenosgarage site.

16. Rocky Rook
    December 20th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    I bet it skipped like crazy.

17. ted
    December 20th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

    Ah, but imagine the nights in Lover's Lane. You weren't stuck listening to the radio. With the car parked, you could listen to whatever you wanted. And by the time the needle started to skip, you were far too busy to even notice.

18. ted
    December 20th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

    Oh, and it looks like a toaster-oven.

19. marcusbacus
    December 20th, 2008 at 9:22 pm

    "Every little bump would cause the needle to lose track. Seems pretty lame to me."

    That's pretty much like the first car CD players though.

    My sister had an old portable record player (Philips) that had a 16rpm setting - and 78rpm too.

20. liphttam1
    December 20th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    Did you read the article? It said it was made not to skip.

21. 300H
    December 21st, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    "You wear gloves to operate it?"

    Women actually used to wear gloves. You know, before women started dressing like men.

22. dotfret
    January 20th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    Not just ladies ... in the 50s, it was "classy" to wear gloves for driving. Racing drivers did it, and driving gloves were a favorite Christmas gift. Nowadays, you only find golfers wearing them.

23. Phil E. Drifter
    January 23rd, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    Totally photoshopped, I would know, I've seen a few photoshopped images in my day; that one's totally photoshooped. The shadows are all pixelated.

24. roffe
    January 25th, 2009 at 3:21 am

    Hej vad skulle man få tag i en HIGHWAY HI FI RECORD PLAYER i fint skick å vad får man betala för den någon som vet tack på för hand.........

25. Shabazz
    April 1st, 2009 at 10:14 am

    Photoshopped?

    They didnt have photo shop in '56. They didnt even hace tape decks, lol.

    Come on get a clue, its an ad not a documentary. Who cares if they fudged the photo?

26. EDZIU
    April 7th, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    i have a highway 7 found it in our family repair shop that we opened just after ww2 we just closed it,it was located in the motor city, it has slight rust on the top of it, but other then that it looks new even has original instructions and the needle is there make offer it could be yours you can contact me at edziu325@yahoo.com

27. hobarey
    July 15th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

    this is really unique an "pimped"

28. Mike Burke
    September 18th, 2009 at 10:52 am

    My friend, Larry had a Philips HiWay Hi-fi in his '57 Ford, It worked pretty well. He left a bunch of 45s on the shelf under the rear window,in the sun. They looked like lasagna ! My friend, Dave fixed it one day & had it hooked up to a 12 power supply. He turned it upside down & it still played ! It hooked into the radio thru the antenna.

    Peace ----------------------------------- Mike.

29. t.rex
    September 20th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    I always wanted one of these as a young man.(I had to settle for an 8-track tape player instead.)

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