Most of us are either too young or too old to remember what American cars were like in the 1920s and 1930s. Unless we watch classic car auctions, we are unaware that America produced some of the greatest family cars, especially luxury ones. In the 1920s and 1930s America produced luxury cars like the Duesenberg, Pierce Arrow, Packard, Auburn, Cadillac and Lincoln. These cars could compete with Europe’s Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes and Jaguar in beauty, power and luxury.
Many of us are too young or old to remember American family cars of the 1950s and 1960s. After going through the 1940s with a non-productive period caused by bad design and the war, American cars started a comeback in the early 1950s.
For me it really began again in 1953 with the Buick Skylark convertible and the Cadillac 62, which also came in a convertible. The following years saw the birth of America’s sports cars - the Chevrolet Corvette and the Ford Thunderbird and then the boom of 1956, one of the best years ever for American cars. The 1956 Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac were perhaps the best they have ever been. Chrysler had the Imperial and the 300 that began the year before. Even the Mercury had its best year ever as far as design and popularity. And the Lincoln Continental was every bit as exquisite as the finest foreign make. Cadillac had its super luxurious Eldorado Brougham which just got better in 1957 and 1958.
During these years, people would go to the dealers in August or September to see the new models. Each year each model changed slightly, not always for the better. By 1959 cars had become too big and unattractive. The huge fins destroyed the graceful lines of 1956.
Around 1962 America decided to make smaller family cars. There was the Chevrolet Corvair, the Pontiac Tempest, the Buick Skylark, Olds Cutlass, the Plymouth Valiant, Dodge Dart, Mercury Comet and Ford Falcon. They were smaller but well equipped. They were challenged by foreign cars like the Volkswagen, Volvo and Saab, which were smaller and used less gas in their less powerful engines. Each year these American small cars grew a little larger. By the mid 1960s many of them became muscle cars. The Olds Cutlass evolving into the mighty 442, the Pontiac Tempest grew up to become the Lemans and then the awesome GTO, even the Skylark got a big engine.
For the second half of the 1960s, America fell in love with the big, powerful American family car. Chrysler Corporation came out with the Plymouth Barracuda and Roadrunner, the Dodge Challenger and an even bigger 300 series. The two sport cars had grown considerably with the T-Bird becoming a large four passenger car even available in a four door model. The Corvair had been killed by Ralph Nader who claimed that it was unsafe at any speed. The Studebaker and the Packard went the way of the Duesenberg and Pierce Arrow, which disappeared in the 1940s. American Motors, which produced the Rambler and the Metropolitan was also on its last legs. By 1969, American cars were neither attractive nor reliable.
The 1970s saw the American family car fall further from grace. The foreign invasion not only from Germany and Sweden but also from Japan began threatening our car production. By 1979, the only American family car that we could be proud of was the Cadillac which produced the 1979 Seville and the end of the Fleetwood line. Americans were turning to Honda, Toyota, Datsun which became Nissan and to VW and Volvo. These cars were more attractive, more reliable and much more fun to drive.
By the beginning of the 1980s American family car was on life support. It appears that at that point American car executives made some terrible decisions. First they decided to reduce the amount of chrome on their cars in part because of its country of source, Rhodesia. American government officials did not want to trade with what was considered a racist state. Also chrome was heavy and expensive and Americans were beginning to show concern for gas economy. The second mistake that has continued to this date, was to follow the lead of the 1975 Triumph TR7 which billed itself as the shape of the future. The new shape was almost triangular with the front of the car much lower than the back. The ad for it was the car driving into a triangular shaped garage. While the TR7 probably was the worst and last Triumph ever made, the new shape seemed to be the way to go reducing drag and increasing fuel efficiency. The third mistake and one that has also continued into the present was to start building trucks with closed cabs and calling them SUVs. The idea was that the car companies could produce them cheaply but sell them for a lot figuring that we were dumb enough to fall for it. They were right. We were dumb enough to pay big bucks for the Escalade, Navigator, Durango, GMC, Explorer, Tahoe, Equinox et al even though they were basically pick up trucks. They were also attractive to some because they did not use the wedge shape so looked more like cars used to look.
For all these reasons, the American car companies stopped producing attractive sedans, coupes, hardtops, fastbacks, convertibles or station wagons. The American luxury sedan or hardtop was nowhere to be found. The Japanese and Europeans rushed in to fill the void.
Honda, Toyota and Nissan came out with their own luxury lines: the Acura, Lexus and Infinity, respectively. Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Audi and even VW came out with affordable luxury cars.
At this time, the end of 2012, America has no desirable luxury cars, does not produce practical station wagons, makes few if any convertibles, has few if any good hatchbacks and can not compete in the small car arena. America now produces mainly pick up trucks, SUVs and large family cars that few Americans want.
Have you seen the Cadillac or the Lincoln models lately? What are they? They are not luxurious or attractive. Who would buy them other than drug dealers, pimps and second string professional athletes? This was Tony Soprano's choice and he could have had any car.
What can the American car industry do?
First, we must admit that we have only six actual car lines. The Dodge line should be a truck line for Chrysler corporation as is GMC for General Motors. Then each line should come up with as many as three size models: one that is about 165 inches - plus or minus a few - and includes a hatchback; another that is 175 inches - plus or minus a few - and includes a station wagon and a convertible and a third that is about 185 inches in length.
General Motors should bring their 1956 Chevrolet and Cadillac to their designers and say make a modern version of these and use chrome and never mind the wedge look. For the small model, they could also be shown a 2006 VW Golf hatchback for inspiration. The G.M. car models should have names and not numbers. There could be the Chevrolet Corsa, Bel Air and Impala. The Cadillac would have the Fleetwood, the Seville and maybe the Eldorado. Attention should be paid to the proportion of window size to body and that of tire size to body. This was not a problem in the 1950s, but is one now as in the new Camaro with windows too small for the body.
At Chrysler while developing a new larger Fiat for their small model, they could produce a medium sized car also with a station wagon and convertible and a large, luxurious Imperial like those of the 1950‘s and early 1960s.
Ford should produce three models of the Ford and two of the luxury Lincoln with a midsize model and a most luxurious Continental to top its line. Lincoln designers can be shown the 1956 Continental and one produced in 1964 that also came as a four-door convertible with suicide doors for direction. Lincoln has been such a mistreated neglected line, almost as bad as was Mercury. The new model is doomed to failure. I would tell Lincoln designers what I did GM, forget the wedge look. Porsche did not go wedge. Neither did Rolls or Bentley. Triumph no longer exists because it introduced the wedge. Don't go the way of the Triumph that true to its name, produced great cars like the TR2, TR3, TR4a with irs even the TR250 only to end because the dread wedge. Forget the wedge!!!
There is no reason why America can not produce beautiful, economical, well sized, high quality, desirable American cars that Americans and foreigners will want to buy. We’ve done it before, we can do it again.
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