What Make Owned Which Year???

I was on the thread which talked about a 1930 Part and naturally I thought Durant, but they where talking a Willy's.

I thought this would make for a good fun thread.

i.e.: 1957 - You think Chevy

 

32 Ford
36 Ford
40 Ford
49 Merc

 

Today we think of the 57 Chevy as the hot car of that year. In 1957 it was an also ran.

The Chev was a rehash of the 3 year old, 55 Chev. It did not stand a chance against the brand new 57 Ford, which beat it in sales. While the 57 Plymouth was the sensation of the low priced field with its soaring tail fins, sports car like torsion bar suspension, 290HP 318 engine (hottest performer in its class) and 3 speed Torqueflite transmission.

Plymouth more than doubled their sales for 1957, Ford beat Chev for the first time in 30 years, and Chev sales dropped.

 

I would say 1955 was Chevrolet's year. That was the year they introduced their sensational new V8, which they promoted with a heavy racing schedule and one of the smartest sales promotion campaigns ever.

In one year they established Chevrolet as a performance car in the public perception, even though most years there lots hotter cars on the market.

 

1958 belonged to Thunderbird and Rambler. In a generally down year, they were the only 2 makes to post sales gains.

In 1960 it was the new compact cars that got all the attention. Rambler and Studebaker Lark (new for 1958) were joined by Falcon, Corvair, and Valiant in a move that shook up the car industry's thinking more than anything since the Stutz Bearcat.

Then there was the 1963 Corvair Monza, a sporty version of the Corvair that proved economy cars did not have to be boring. Ford followed suit with the Mustang, the sensation of 1964, and the beginning of the youth market of the sixties.

 

I actually think Ford.

probably already mentioned but 1946 = Ford coupe to me.

1941 = Chebby truck

1949-'51 = Ford

'53-'56 = F-100

'55-56 = Ford Victoria

I think responses will normally have to do with vehicles owned rather than popular vehicles.

 

1947 - Studebaker, the first old line car maker to come out with a sleek new postwar design. It set the design trend for the next 5 years, and caught the public fancy like few cars ever had. Not many radio comedians got through the year without a few "which way is it going?" and other Studebaker jokes.

1949 - Ford, a total revision of Ford thinking and the first car they made with no traces of the Model T.

1949 - Rambler, the first compact car.

1951 - Studebaker again, with its radical bullet nose style and hot OHV V8, the first low priced OHV V8 and the first from an independent.

1953 - Studebaker again, the low sleek Loewy coupe was years ahead in styling .

 

1942 - 1946 Willy's jeep or Sherman tank?

 

1959 - Pontiac. New management pushed the Pontiac from being an old man's car to being the hot new car for the up and coming executive. They really pushed their racing successes, thanks in part to Smokey Yunick, and their advertising and promotion was second to none. Pontiac was hard to beat in sales and on the track. The old silver streak ornamentation was long gone, and the only place old Chief Pontiac appeared was in the high beam light on the instrument panel. Everything else was brand new.

 

'59 I think Cadillac
'57 Chevy
'54 UGLY everything
'32 Ford
'28 Ford
'46 International ('cause I know where there is one that hasn't seen the light of day in 40 years and can't get my hands on it).
'63 Ford Big car "fast back"

 

That's what I thought. Actually I wanted the Popular Answers but you know how you HAMBers are with the numbers, and that makes for a good thread.

 

1954 - Buick. Actually pushed Plymouth aside to take third place in sales after Ford and Chevrolet. We may not think of the Buick as a hot car but in 1954 the public felt otherwise.

 

You know what would make a good thread but it would cause some of to have to think is what year cars were most owned by you and what were they?

For instance the wife and I were talking and the most of the cars that we have owned were built between '53 and '68, the overwhelming majority of them were built between '54 and '64. Mostly FoMoCo and GM products and about even across the board for each.

But it makes you think. Then you will got some that only count their hot rods while other that will count all the cars.

But ti may make a good thread, especially if you get good response.

 

1922 - Hudson's Essex. The Essex Coach was the first low priced closed car. Up until then the open touring was the best seller, a sedan cost at least $500 more than a touring. In other words, a typical car would be $800 to $1000 in touring form, $1300 to $1500 for a sedan.

The Essex Coach came out at only $100 more than the touring. The next year, they cost the same. The year after, the coach was cheaper.

Nothing like it had been seen before and the Essex sales took off. Soon all cars were featuring sedan bodies and the touring car became a back number.

1923 - The first Chrysler. Sleek, low slung chassis, powerful high compression six cylinder engine, 4 wheel hydraulic brakes. Yet it sold in the low end of the medium price field, just above the cheapest cars. Chrysler was the hot car of the twenties, the 1928 Imperial was advertised as America's most powerful car, 112HP. Chrysler jumped to a leading position in the industry, even in Europe connoisseurs rated the Chrysler highly and bought them by the boat load.

1928 - The new Ford Model A. The first radical new Ford in 19 years. Showrooms were mobbed, the new Ford was headline news in papers from coast to coast.

1932 - Ford V8, first low priced V8 on the market.

1932 - Hudson Terraplane Eight, lowest priced straight eight on the market. Faster than the new Ford and $5 cheaper. Made a bigger splash in 32 but did not last long and is largely forgotten now.

1934 - 37 Chrysler Airflow. One of the most controversial cars ever made. Scared the hell out of the competition, they couldn't knock it enough. Yet, within 5 years every car on the market was a copy of the Airflow. Don't believe me? Compare the silhouette of the typical 1932 or 33 (pre Airflow) car to any 1938 (post Airflow) car. You will see every car on the market resembles an Airflow, with chubbier fenders. Not only in America, but around the world Volvo, Peugeot, Toyota, Standard and others made more or less direct copies of the Airflow design.

 

That might be the "Popular Answer", but incorrect- er, "not historically accurate" in PC terms

 

I think Ford had more NASCAR wins than chevy in '57 too. I'll confirm that later.

 

I have always loved that fact that the two big years in the hot rod world, the numbers were actually the opposite of the perception.

In 1932 Chevrolet outsold ford by a huge margin. Sure the new Ford V8 seemed to be a hot ticket, but it only put out 5 more HP than the Chevy, which was marketed as a Baby Cadillac, and had a Syncro-Tranny and Hydraulic Brakes. The public seemed to bite on the all-for-all more modern car, to the tune of 100,000+ more sales for Chevy.

In 1957 Ford outsold Chevrolet by a huge margin. Sure, the '57 Chevy was arguably the best of the tri-five-Chevies, but as was mentioned before, it was still a three-year-old design which stood no chance against an exciting all new car from Ford. Chevy lost the race to the tune of 150,000+ sales.

 

The '57 Ford was just a better looking car and if you had the bucks you could get one with a blower.

 

Commercial success at the time and our current perception really are two different things. As previously mentioned, the 57 Chevy and the 32 Ford are prime examples. They are probably the two most iconic cars to the general public representing 1950s cars and Hot Rods.

 

That was then.
This is now: 1957 = one of the tri-five = Chev

OTOH my father had a new Pontiac Star Chief in 1957, which was a great car I had a lot of fun driving.
And a few years later I had a 57 Ford, which was a fine ride.
But today, when you say 57, I think Chev....

 

I'll play.

'46 Oldsmobile - in my opinion, the prettiest re-design of the 1942 model that everyone used in '46
'47 Studebaker - as mentioned, first all-new full envelope styling
'48 Hudson - same as above but with integrated rear fenders as well
'49 Olds 88 - The first legitimately affordable overhead valve V8
'50 Chevy Belair - first legit affordable hardtop
'51 I've got nothing here
'52 Mercury - all new styling from Ford when others were still running a rehashed '49 design and arguably prettier than the Ford itself
'53 Studebaker - a design that would live well into the 1960's without looking dated
'54 Oldsmobile - all new GM body that unlike the Buick didn't strongly resemble the year before
'55 Ford Crown Victoria - Ford and Chevy both had great new styling but the Crown Vic seemed to have much more designer prototype/dream car aspect to it
'56 Lincoln - another all new design when everyone else had a rehash
'57 DeSoto - Exner's ForwardLook really hit hard and this is arguably the best example
'58 Lincoln - again, all new and with canted quads as a first
'59 Buick - tough to pick a '59 model as best, very arguable
'60 - again, I've got nothing for '60 that I didn't like better in '59
'61 Lincoln
'62 Chrysler 300
'63 Buick Riviera
Then a new GTO every year until 1970 and nothing would ever suprass that in design from then on

 

You are both absolutely correct here, I think the purpose of the thread has to do with what comes to mind when a certain year is mentioned and not which car sold the most pieces.

The tri-5 chebby has been a must have since I was a kid. Whether one likes them or not it is just a fact of life.

Certain years just conjure up different pictures in ones head maybe it is because ot popularity or maybe it is because of something that made us happy at one time or another.

Certain words do the same thing for me. If someone says Norton the first picture that pops into my head is a maroon Atlas. If someone says Willys my first thought is jeep then my brain rolls over to the more popular gas class cars. If someone says thunderbird my first picture is a square bird and etc.

 

I see the old mans International, which is kind of odd, as its a pretty obscure model. But my Mom still maintains that my first words were "sombitch" from listening to my old man trying to kick-start it, then keep it running, while hand-choking the Amal GP on cold winter mornings...

 

Norton for me = Interstate... the motorcycle....

 

Fucken A, we're fucken mechanics, we'll take it apart bolt by bolt and we'll come up with all the numbers. Huh, Rust'O'Tool? And as soon as I hit enter and post, all the, "Aww, I should of wrote . . . . . 's" come to mind.

I guess I was hoping for Popular Opinion. You gots to watch those numbers, man, they fuck Cool up all the time.

 

It's funny how perceptions change. I can just imagine someone watching Who Killed The Electric Car many years from now and jumping to the conclusion that the Chevy Volt was a best seller and the darling of the environmentalists, based on their fawning remarks in that movie. Not realizing the greenies loved the electric car as long as they could blame GM for killing it, not so much when GM offered to sell them one.

 

Truth be said, Us HAMBers too.

Would all of us be going on & on about "AV8's" as much as we would about SBC/Jag'd Rods, say . . . . , 25, 30 years ago?

Yeah, It's funny how perceptions changes.

 

EXCELLENT post.

 

My old 750 combat used to walk all over those overgeared, low compression boats...

 

Go back and read the subject of the thread- it didn't ask for your preferred brand or today's perception- it says "What Make Owned Which Year??? As in when they were new