Coolest Automotive Inventions: The 1942 DeSoto & Its Cigarette Dispensing Steering Wheel!

James Dean wasn't a "thing" yet in 1942. The image of the cool guy smoking a cigarette for that period was Humphrey Bogart.

When I was 15 in the early 70's with my new "Learners Permit" there was a local character named Charlie who owned and drove a 42 DeSoto complete with the Fluid Drive and steering wheel cigarette dispenser, which still worked and he used, since he smoked like a chimney 😂! I feel fortunate that he let me drive his car a few times. It was ancient even then and I'm certainly one of an ever increasingly small club who's ever seen in person let alone knows about both features! Great video by the way, thank you for the effort! 👍

Hi from Sydney, Australia. I'm now in my late 60's when I was little one of my Great Aunts had one of these a coupe in dark grey with maroon leather interior, she'd owned it since new and LOVED it. I had always thought as an adult that this was probably some aftermarket special "smokers" wheel that you could buy and have fitted, as a little boy in the late 1950's I was amazed at this cigarette dispensing device, when I was out with her sister, my Nanna, my job was to get tobacco out of Nanna's smoking pack, pull out a cigarette paper , assemble the tobacco , make the cigarette and lick it together , then present the finished product to Nanna who was driving , push in the cigarette lighter & pass that to her, how times have changed . Her son Mervyn had tried to coax her into a newer car, and in 1959 bought a whole "set" of '59 Fords, a Galaxie sedan, Ranchwagon and even a retrac Convertible coupe. Aunty Alicia was not swayed, not interested, her 42 Desoto ruled supreme. Mervyn tried again in 1964 and bought her a lovely grey 64 Pontiac Star Chief in dark metallic grey with maroon interior she was luke warm with this and used it occasionally, but still mostly the '42 Desoto. One day the '64 Ponti' was stolen and never recovered. What did take her fancy was a racehorse owning friend had just ordered and received a '64 XL 500 Galaxie Sedan which had the front to rear console and basically 4 bucket seats, these were a verry elaborate sedan with the little red & white courtesy lights on the doors etc, I know why she liked it. She phoned all the Sydney Ford dealers and found that Swann Ford at Narrabeen on Sydney's northern beaches had a "porcelain" white with "ming" blue interior example in stock, she bought it new in October 1964 and drove it until her death aged 96 in January 1995, they were her 2 favorite cars in her massive driving career.

That '42 DeSoto really was SOMETHING!

Suprised this wasnt more common, everybody smoked back then. The one that really kills me are the GM station wagons with ash trays in the 3rd row seats. Bobby, quit poking your sister back there. Have a smoke and chill the hell out back there!!

Wow! A Pezz dispenser for smokes.

I want that steering wheel for my current car...rather have Phillip Morris kill me than Takata!

I remember cigarette machines in hospital waiting rooms. Kids could just walk up & buy them. And floor stand ashtrays & spittoons. In our local Baptist church, there were ashtrays & spittoons on the pews, & most people smoked & spit there.

I'm in total agreement with the 1942 DeSoto, the looks! Magnificent design.

Can you imagine what that feature would look like today? It would have to be a "smart" dispenser, with 14 computers to operate it, and you would need an app on your phone. And, it would require age verification to dispense a cig. On top of that, the system would automatically open the power windows, and turn the ventilation system to HIGH. Then it will shut down the whole car if you don't pay your monthly subscription to the manufacturer, especially if it were on a BMW or Toyota.

Funny how you could get a smoke and maintain attention to driving.. Now you can't even get an ashtray in a car but you can have a giant TV as a dash to play with while drifting over the line, clipping curbs, pickin' off pedestrians and rear-ending someone..... Muffins.. We just used beer for that back in the day.. and cool. Here's a smoke!

Cigarette dispensers; but automakers resisted installing cupholders

I've commented at different places about this, regarding smoking in the 40s. My eldest sister was born in 1941. Some time after that, my mom was concerned that she was having trouble getting her weight back down to her pre-pregnancy level, so she mentioned it to her doctor. He said that she could consider smoking, as many people find that smoking curbs their appetite! She didn't do that and lived to be 94 years old and was still driving when she was 93!

Those hidden headlights were an unusual feature, the 1937 Cord 812 is the only other car that had them back then. DeSoto was a luxury make, next to Chrysler and above Plymouth and Dodge in the corporate ranks. DeSoto shared its body with Chrysler, this made it the biggest car in its price class or the cheapest car in its size class depending how you looked at it. DeSoto was Chrysler's most innovative make, and the flashiest. It often debuted new features and styling.

I always liked the Scotsman interiors on these DeSotos - they also got rid of the running boards the hidden headlights were a master stroke. An interesting factoid about cancer rates pre and post WW2 among cigarette smokers. After WW2 we brought over new pesticides from IG Farben in occupied Germany , these sprays were used on the tobacco crops with great effect unfortunately they were also highly carcinogenic.

When you said the cigarettes were loaded vertically, I suddenly remembered how big steering wheels used to be and how grateful I am for power assistance. Alec Issigonis, famous chain smoker, put an ashtray in every model he designed, but he disliked heaters and radios because they were "distracting".

KOOL! 🚬 Adam is a sucker for hidden headlights!

The cigarette dispenser is really something, but the concealed headlights and grille design for ‘42 really blew my mind. That’s like something out of the 60’s!

I have to say, I commend you for not being one of these channels where someone is clearly just reading (or shudder a computer voice reading) from a script. How refreshing.

Love the 42 mopars, this and the Chrysler are among the best of the deco streamlined cars