Mecum 1948 Chrysler Town & Country is road-trip perfection

Mecum Auctions
This Town and Country needs only a driver.

The gorgeous, over-restored 1948 Chrysler Town & Country pictured above did not sell at Mecum's Indianapolis sale last month. At an event where nearly 70 percent of the items on offer sold and sales exceeded $52.6 million, bidding for this particular car stalled at $75,000 and did not budge.

Chrysler woodys such as this one are among the most prized vehicles ever to have been given wooden bodywork, and this one might just be the perfect road-trip car.

It certainly isn't the most powerful or best-handling car on the road, so you'll want to budget some extra time. But packing into a tin can and rocketing down the interstate toward the next traffic jam at 78 mph is for commuters, not leisure travelers.

A calming road-trip over winding country lanes suits the Town & Country's stately character perfectly—plus it's a relaxing, social exercise. Unlike modern bucket seats, the low, plaid-on-vinyl benches don't divide front and rear passengers. No, in these old cars, everyone sits in the same room and shares the same conversation. Even with its massive interior space, the T&C has plenty of space for a weekend's worth of luggage. Between the capacious trunk and the lovely wooden roof rack, the Town & Country should be more than up to the task of schlepping anything four people could need for a weekend away.

Practicality aside, the thing has the kind of eyeball and presence that should haunt the Chantix-addled dreams of designers of modern luxury cars. Most of the luxisms that populate modern luxury-car press releases were invented to describe objects and places that feel like this old Town & Country. It would be honest, authentic, hand-crafted, iconic and exclusive if any of those words still meant anything at all. And it's not just the wood, either. It's the totality of it.

At something more than $75,000, all of this comes pretty dear. However, park this old Chrysler next to a line of Rolls-Royce Phantoms, BMW 750s and Mercedes-Benz S65 AMGs and watch where the crowd gathers. Word has it that the very thing happened at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa D'Este a few weeks back, only with far more rare and important cars serving as a backdrop to the magnificence of an old Town & Country woody.

If this were a just world, this T&C would have just returned its new owners home from a long weekend in Northern Michigan. Hopefully, it will soon find a new home with an owner who will give it plenty of exercise.