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On the "desigining the top" thread, we started fooling around with Edsel pics. Our guy TSX "R" US even put together this top for our site:
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(Don't worry, it was a joke.)
I started wondering, what other cars have made us go "wow"?
Usually "wow" meant good, but it didn't have to. And sometimes the car was so "wow" (or whatever) that you couldn't tell if it was good or bad.
Here are some other "wow" cars that I remember, more or less in chronological order.
Early '50's: Hudson -- It wasn't anything about how it looked or drove or anything like that, it was that in the TV commercials, you found out that the Hudson had a bed in it. Why anybody would want a bed in their car, I had no idea (hey, I was only about 3) but I still thought it was cool.
Late '50's: Studebaker -- Nowadays any car from the '50's looks cool (although also stupid, of course), but at the time that kind of look was very ordinary. Except for the Studebaker, which seemed to have all these extra indefinable shapes in it, making it interesting but also weird, and also was smaller than most other cars. Now, if you see a pic of a Studebaker, it actually looks pretty big, like all the '50's cars, and I think even the styling doesn't stand out so much. But at the time it really did. I never knew anybody who dared to have one.
'60's: Nothing. (I guess people's minds were on other things.)
Except maybe the MB's.
Early '70's: The little BMW's -- You didn't see many, but you saw a few. I think first it was the 1600, then the 1800, and eventually the 2002 which was discontinued when they came out with the 320i in '76 (model year '77). Other foreign companies had come out with little cars in the U.S., but those cars weren't particularly interesting and they weren't regarded as particularly good -- the idea at the time was that you'd get them to save money, not to get a great car. The little BMW's were the first ones that struck me otherwise.
Mid '70's: A very fertile era for "wow" cars of the stupid variety. My 2 favorites (which looked like they coulda been distant cousins):
Citroen -- famous for its "hydraulic suspension." I didn't know what that meant but from its look I could see there was plenty of room in there for lots of water. We really need a pic for this:
(Sorry, couldn't find one easily. Probably will post one later.)
It was regarded as a pretty good car but with rotten reliability. Anyway the Citroen didn't stay here very long.
AMC Pacer -- It was sort of like the Toyota Echo but more upscale -- it was mid-level. The Echo is just tall; the Pacer was kind of spherical. I'm not kidding. It felt like a space module, and maybe in fact it was inspired by that. I test-drove one. It was interesting -- quiet but "echo-y," like when you put a sea-shell to your ear. But it mainly felt just weird. It felt futuristic, but not like any car you'd want to own. I guess everybody pretty much agreed. The Pacer didn't last very long either.
I'll quit there for now. Maybe more later. But, how about anybody else's "wow" cars?
(Don't worry, it was a joke.)
I started wondering, what other cars have made us go "wow"?
Usually "wow" meant good, but it didn't have to. And sometimes the car was so "wow" (or whatever) that you couldn't tell if it was good or bad.
Here are some other "wow" cars that I remember, more or less in chronological order.
Early '50's: Hudson -- It wasn't anything about how it looked or drove or anything like that, it was that in the TV commercials, you found out that the Hudson had a bed in it. Why anybody would want a bed in their car, I had no idea (hey, I was only about 3)
but I still thought it was cool.Late '50's: Studebaker -- Nowadays any car from the '50's looks cool (although also stupid, of course), but at the time that kind of look was very ordinary. Except for the Studebaker, which seemed to have all these extra indefinable shapes in it, making it interesting but also weird, and also was smaller than most other cars. Now, if you see a pic of a Studebaker, it actually looks pretty big, like all the '50's cars, and I think even the styling doesn't stand out so much. But at the time it really did. I never knew anybody who dared to have one.
'60's: Nothing. (I guess people's minds were on other things.)
Except maybe the MB's.
Early '70's: The little BMW's -- You didn't see many, but you saw a few. I think first it was the 1600, then the 1800, and eventually the 2002 which was discontinued when they came out with the 320i in '76 (model year '77). Other foreign companies had come out with little cars in the U.S., but those cars weren't particularly interesting and they weren't regarded as particularly good -- the idea at the time was that you'd get them to save money, not to get a great car. The little BMW's were the first ones that struck me otherwise.
Mid '70's: A very fertile era for "wow" cars of the stupid variety. My 2 favorites (which looked like they coulda been distant cousins):
Citroen -- famous for its "hydraulic suspension." I didn't know what that meant but from its look I could see there was plenty of room in there for lots of water. We really need a pic for this:
(Sorry, couldn't find one easily. Probably will post one later.)
It was regarded as a pretty good car but with rotten reliability. Anyway the Citroen didn't stay here very long.
AMC Pacer -- It was sort of like the Toyota Echo but more upscale -- it was mid-level. The Echo is just tall; the Pacer was kind of spherical. I'm not kidding. It felt like a space module, and maybe in fact it was inspired by that. I test-drove one. It was interesting -- quiet but "echo-y," like when you put a sea-shell to your ear. But it mainly felt just weird. It felt futuristic, but not like any car you'd want to own. I guess everybody pretty much agreed. The Pacer didn't last very long either.
I'll quit there for now. Maybe more later. But, how about anybody else's "wow" cars?
