When did heat become standard?

[lancemb]

Has anybody actually seen a 57 with no heat?  Did it become standard in 57?  In the attached document it shows heat as an option, but  I've seen cars with nothing stamped on data tag and still having heat.  Also, I've never seen one without heat, period.  I'm wondering if they chose to make it standard early in year but after this document was produced.

[Pete Phillips]

I owned a 1963 LeSabre two-door sedan back in the 1980s. It came from Atlanta, Georgia when new, and had no options, not even a heater or defroster. I;m not sure about Buick, but Chrysler in the early 1960s alternated from having a heater as standard equipment on its Newport models, to having it as an option, depending on whether they were trying to be a low -price leader that year or not (1962 and 1963).

Pete Phillips

[1957buickjim]

Lance,

 

I bought a radiator for my 57 that did not have a heater hose connection at the bottom, just a factory installed plug. I'm guessing, like Pete, that in warm areas and if they wanted to be the price leader, they would have certain options available for heat / defrost. I have yet to see a 57 without the heat and defrost controls, though...as I have with the radio delete and clock delete plates.

[lancemb]

Interesting...so it seems they did exist.  One thing for sure is they didn't always include the code for it on the data tag when it did have heat.

[1957buickjim]

The data tags hardly had any codes on them. The most complete ones that I have seen are on my wagons, which were not put on by Buick or Fisher Body, but by Bentley-Mitchell, the Inonia manufacturer that built the wagons from half finished a 4dr hardtops shipped from Buick. The best you are going to find is on a build sheet, if your car is lucky enough to have one in it (under the rear seat or somewhere hidden).

[kgreen]

Standard may have a different meaning here for a car sold in two different areas.  I have found that standard equipment on cars in wealthy suburban areas includes several options while standard in a rural farming community is as plain as Jane can get.

[lancemb]

36 minutes ago, kgreen said:

Standard may have a different meaning here for a car sold in two different areas.  I have found that standard equipment on cars in wealthy suburban areas includes several options while standard in a rural farming community is as plain as Jane can get.

I was wondering if that may be true with relation to weather, and also how consistent they were with stamping the codes on the tags depending on which plant they were built at.

[John_S_in_Penna]

On 11/21/2017 at 9:17 AM, Pete Phillips said:

I owned a 1963 LeSabre two-door sedan back in the 1980s. It came from Atlanta, Georgia when new, and had no options, not even a heater or defroster....

 

Interesting!  Did your LeSabre then have a

blank cover plate of some sort where the

heater and defroster controls would otherwise be?

[Pete Phillips]

ON the '63s, the heat and defroster controls are in little slots under the upper center lip of the dashboard. When there is no heater or defroster, the slots are still there, just no finger knob in the slots.