"Back in the day" odometers only went to 99,999 miles before going around again. Wouldn't it be interesting to see the maintenance record for those cars that had to document the odometer going around 5 16 and 30 times. Not to mention the weather stripping, paint, upholstery. 100,000 miles on a car these days is so common it's almost considered low mileage. "Back in the day" MOST cars with 80,000 - 90,000 miles were already stacked, rotting in wrecking yards. Designed obsolescence was a reality. It was engineered into every car manufactured. Japanese manufacturers saw that and improved the engineering to a point where American manufacturers had to also improve to compete... Business competition through capitalism is a good thing that everyone benefits from.
When my family moved to northern California in 1956 I got my first experience in auto shop class, and then when we moved to North Beach, San Francisco it got better. We had some students that had hot rods, and drove them to school. We had a great auto / machine shop teacher, Frank Presoto, and yes, he drove a Desoto, a 1939 model.
Thanks to Chrisbcritter and to Nickthebandit for reminders of shop class. In about 1964 I took shop class at summer school in San Mateo Cali. Not my high school, but the one offering summer school. Did not retain the teachers name, but he was a cool old timer. Probably near end of his career. He had a 60's C10 sitting on an older Cadillac chassis n drivetrain. It sure rode smooth but looked like a Chev pickup with a camper. This was around the time some folks were converting ambulances and hearses into "motorhomes". If they could only look ahead and see the astronomical prices of 1959 Cadillac hearse, ambulances and flower cars I'm sure the 59s would have been spared. Probably wouldn't have ran them in demolition derbies either. 1 more car I promise, Rex Winter Dry and windy Lubbock TX
Note the unusual van based pickup in the background - Maybe an Austin or Atlas or Standard, not familiar enough with them to guess. Edit: After googling, it might be a Morris.