{"id":370018,"date":"2026-10-10T22:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T22:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370018\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T22:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T22:27:14","slug":"rare-orphan-1951-frazer-manhattan-parked-for-decades-is-fighting-for-a-second-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370018\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Orphan: 1951 Frazer Manhattan Parked for Decades Is Fighting for a Second Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"1951
\n<\/a>\u00a0 11 photos<\/p>\n

Photo: Maxwell Hoogland\/Facebook Marketplace<\/p>\n

It’s 2026, and we have 13 major brands manufacturing vehicles in the US. Ten of them are operating under the Big Three automakers. Things were quite different after World War 2. The Big Three had 12 divisions, and no fewer than seven independent manufacturers were still in operation. All of them disappeared by the late 1960s.<\/p>\n

The list includes the mighty Packard<\/a>, which used to compete with Cadillac, as well as Hudson, the company that developed the outstanding Hornet. There’s also Studebaker, which went under following a merger with Packard. Hudson merged with Nash to form American Motors (AMC), and both brands were discontinued.<\/p>\n

We also lost Willys, which was merged into Kaiser Jeep, with the latter purchased by AMC in 1970. Kaiser was born in 1945 as a joint venture between the Henry J. Kaiser Company and Graham-Paige Motors. The latter was run by Joseph W. Frazer, who eventually had a brand named after him within the company.<\/p>\n

Created as an upper-medium price luxury division, Frazer was rather short-lived. The first automobiles arrived for the 1947 model year, but the brand was phased out in 1951. Largely forgotten, Frazer introduced a few key innovations during its short time on the market.<\/p>\n

It was among the first companies to debut brand-new automobiles after WW2 and pioneered the hatchback design with the Vagabond in 1951. It also experimented with unique body styles on standard sedan architectures (four-door convertibles<\/a> and utility sedans) and produced award-winning interiors.<\/p>\n

Frazer’s most popular model was the Manhattan, a name that it shared with Kaiser Motors. Frazer debuted the Manhattan in 1947, selling it with a Continental-made inline-six engine. The car went into the history books following a shortened 1951 model year. The name was transferred to Kaiser, which retained it through 1955.<\/p>\n

The Frazer Manhattan was relatively successful for a premium vehicle at first, moving over 32,000 units in 1947. However, sales dropped to under 20,000 examples in 1948 and nearly 10,000 cars in 1949. Frazer only offered leftover cars in 1950 and 1951. The latter saw only 283 units roll out of dealerships.<\/p>\n

The 1951 Manhattan<\/a> is one of the rarest American classics from the era. Not only due to the very low production number, but also because these cars didn’t get much attention when the original owners were done with them. They’re so rare today that this rusty four-door sedan is the first one I’ve seen in years.<\/p>\n

Hailing from Wausau, Wisconsin, this Manhattan is a four-door sedan. This detail alone narrows its production number to just 152 units (the other 131 cars were four-door convertibles). Unfortunately, this orphan car has been sitting for far too long, and it’s pretty rusty.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear when it was parked and why, but its condition suggests that it may have been parked outside<\/a> for a while. The lower part of the body is quite rusty, and much of the floor is gone. There’s no word on whether the paint covering the rest of the body is original or an older respray.<\/p>\n

The interior is nearly complete, but it’s not usable as it stands. The original powerplant is still under the hood, though. The seller says that the previous owner had it running, but it’s unclear when that happened. The car comes with a spare engine, which is locked up, new rocker panels, and “some other parts.”<\/p>\n

Previously listed for $1,500, the Manhattan is now for sale for only $1,000<\/a> or the best offer. That’s a clear sign of how unloved these vehicles are. And while it may not be worth restoring relative to its market value, this Frazer deserves a second chance due to its outstanding rarity. Would you rescue an orphan classic?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 11 photos Photo: Maxwell Hoogland\/Facebook Marketplace It’s 2026, and we have 13 major brands manufacturing vehicles in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[136532,136529,136528,136531,136530,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-370018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-abandoned","tag-barn-find","tag-classic-car","tag-frazer-manhattan","tag-kaiser-frazer","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}