1958 Buick Limited- GORGEOUS Car

American cars from the '50s and '60s, yeah, they were just gorgeous. Here's Pontiac's two-tone green '58 Bonneville.

Greased lightning.

R1, That Pontiac is a 1960 model.

If you click on the pic, r3, you'll see the '58. Thanks.

The Buick was considered ugly and excessive even in its own time.

That 58 Buick was a disaster for GM with it's jukebox styling.

The designs of GM’s entire 1958 lineup are universally regarded as the worst ever by automotive experts.

It was GM Design head’s Harley Earl’s last year before retiring. It’s been said that when he was shown varied approaches to a model’s design, he used all of them on the same car.

[quote]The designs of GM’s entire 1958 lineup are universally regarded as the worst ever by automotive experts.

It's the only Chevy I don't like from 1957-1964. I sure like this shade of green, though.

To me nothing says peak chrome like a '58 Cadillac 60 Special

The recession played havoc with car sales in 1958 (unless you were Rambler).

The real bright spot though, was the new 4 seat Thunderbird.

My favorite by far. 1960 Chevrolet Impala bubble top.

R9- That is my favorite car of ALL Time. The 1959 Cadillac had the bigger fins but this 1958 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special was absolutely STUNNING 😍.

My first car memory is of my dad pulling up to the house in a brand new blue '59 Chevy and all the excitement that caused with everyone in the house and neighbors coming over to look. Right then at barely 4 years old I knew cars meant excitement and fun. I've been a car guy ever since 🙂

R13- Those 1959 Chevrolets with the Gull Wings fins were so COOL 😎

ALL of the 1958 GM models had similar front headlight designs.....

[quote]Those 1959 Chevrolets with the Gull Wings fins were so COOL

At the time, the rumor was that air passing under the gull wings created a lift and made the car unstable at speed. Of course it was bullshit,

But the fact is, the conservatively styled Ford had a surge in sales that year nearly outselling Chevy, despite the fact that the Chevy was so much more spectacular looking.

For 1960, the full gull wings were eliminated.

We had a '59 Chevy.....it was a beautiful car.....and our Dad loved driving it FAST!

Very low to the ground....tall people had to really bend their heads down to get in it. Not a lot of trunk space. Yes, the '60 models were a design disappointment. Red four door hardtop.

I loved the 1960 Fords.....but there was never another design like it.

1960 Ford!

But design wise - for me - nothing really even comes close to the '56-'62 Chrysler cars.

the '58 Lincoln is pretty ugly and was the heaviest thing on the road

^ Poor Ford didn't know what to do with the Lincoln, so they gave six designers each a section of the car to create, then they mushed it all together and got one BIG giant mess

^ Yeah, it was the same 6 guys who got fired from Edsel 🙄

I always liked the 1961 Chevy Impala. My friend Kathy's mother had a white one with a red stripe that matched her lipstick, and I loved it when I'd get a ride with them somewhere.

R21 that was a great design on the Impala SuperSport......but it looked really clunky on the 4-door sedans and station wagons.

1958 wasn't a good year for GM styling. The chrome was way too heavy, and the Flight Swept styling from Chrysler made the 58 GM cars look stodgy.

I tried my 1957 vibrator recently and it started right up.

^ Unfortunately you forgot what to do with it 🤔

R23- Wrong.

That excess of chrome as you call it was THE very thing that made GM's cars for 1958 so FABULOUS.

Don't forget Oldsmobile and it's dazzling display of chrome magic...

R27- I have not forgotten about the 1958 Oldsmobiles - they were beautiful and one might say stunning at times.

Today's cars/SUVs all look so generic, especially neo fascist pig Elon Musk's 60 yawns per hour creations.

Peak Buick, 1958. Chrome was not enough.

Presenting The Wells Fargo Limited convertible. Gun racks, hand-tooled leather seats, and factory air…

^ Oh, my... Boss Hogg just had a postmortem orgasm 😳

I remember all of the cars shown, and so many more while growing up in the 60s. Each was unique and identifiable those days. The color schemes were amazing.

I drove a 1964 Thunderbird convertible, like this, in high school. Mine was cherry red.

I wasn't popular in high school. They wanted to use my car to transport the homecoming queen, but I wasn't allowed to drive it. Needless to say, they didn't get the car.

R32- Spoiled you

@r32... Rich kid 😏

No, actually my father worked in one of P&G’s factories and took outside jobs building decks and sheds and extra rooms in his spare time, R34. We just ran into luck finding that car. I drove it in the mid-70s.

My parents started saving for my college education on the day I was born. I am grateful for all the hard work he put in to give my future a boost.

This is the most significant car to come out of the 50s. The '57-'58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. @ $13,074 it cost more than a Rolls Royce and was virtually hand built

^ I'd kill for one of those, but they run about a $100K and north these days ☹️

[quote]This is the most significant car to come out of the 50s. The '57-'58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. @ $13,074 it cost more than a Rolls Royce and was virtually hand built

The Eldorado Brougham was hardly the most significant car to come out of the 50s.

It was pretty wonderful, but there was nothing innovative about it.

It was Cadillac's response to the hand built Continental Mark II. At least the Continental had timeless styling. The Eldorado's flashy styling quickly dated.

^ That wasn't better than the Cadillac, it was Ford's offering that had a similar hand made pedigree. Both cars were financial losers each costing about $10K more to produce then they sold for. I prefer the Cadillac, you might not

Preferred the more understated Buglemobile.

GM's 1958 designs were an emergency reaction to Chrysler's new long low finned "forward look " lineup. The were two ton chromed rhinoceroses and sales plummeted. By 1959 GM had re tooled and redesigned and the 59 Buick was truly ready for blast off.

And what's WRONGGG with my suburban frau bronze-colored huge 2012 Sienna SUV with the stick family and dog stickers in the rear-left mirror plus the (compulsory, of course) rear-left-side dent, always parked crusing 25 mph below the posted speed limit in your very highway's passing lane in front of you?! Hater.

But the culmination of everything 50s is still, hands down, this...

You can have your Cadillacs and Lincolns, but I made the best limousine...

^ Jackie Kennedy liked it so well she got her very own

So people liked their fins a little more understated

I preferred the hood ornament on the 1958.

R45 Why Jackie Kennedy preferred Imperials to Lincolns.

[quote]Why Jackie Kennedy preferred Imperials to Lincolns.

Actually Jackie Kennedy drove a 1961 Continental convertible as her personal car.

The Imperial was a chauffeur driven car.

Those cars BTW were on loan to her, they were not owned by her.

[quote]GM's 1958 designs were an emergency reaction to Chrysler's new long low finned "forward look " lineup.

Not true.

GM's 1959 designs were an emergency reaction to Chrysler's "forward look ".

@r49, Yes, she was First Lady, they didn't let her keep the White House either 🙄

[quote]That wasn't better than the Cadillac

The Eldorado's leaky air suspension was nothing but trouble.

The Continental was better built. Notice how many are still around compared to the Eldorado.

[quote]Yes, she was First Lady, they didn't let her keep the White House either

Pretty dumb response.

BTW: The car that Jackie actually did own was a BMW Bavaria.

@r52, Ok, Mr. Ford, Your little Continental coupe was adorable, but where you prefer strings and woodwinds WE prefer jazz and pizazz!

@r53, "Pretty dumb response. "

I was trying to keep it simple for you 😏

[quote]Ok, Mr. Ford, Your little Continental coupe was adorable

God your an idiot.

If I had to chose between the two right now I would want to own the Eldorado. I love the garish kitschy style and all the gadgets. And because of its delicate build quality there are few survivors compared to the quality built Lincoln. It's a rarer car today. I'd take the Caddy.

But none of that negates the fact that the Lincoln was a better built car with timeless styling that was genuinely influential.

[quote]God your an idiot.

You should talk.

@r56, Oh, Princess, they're cars, no sense getting triggered... Oh, and it's *You're*

You're welcome 😏

You're all peasants! 😠

^ Only 825,000?

This '58 is going for 11 million.

^ Sports cars are a different class...

"1. 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut Coupe” — $142,000,000 (2022)"

I believe the most expensive 1950s American luxury car at auction was a 1953 Buick Skylark

I stand corrected: "this weekend bidding at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas event went through the roof according to the Hemmings Auto Blog, with a 1957 Lincoln Continental Mark II selling for an incredible $700,000."

Take that Cadillac Eldorado.

I'd be interested to know if anything beats that for a 1950s American car.

^ You're silly 😂

My dream car:

1961 Caddy Eldo Biarritz in Fontana Rose with matching ostrich skin leather. Newman drove same model in Sweet Bird of Youth

^ Friend of Dorothy

@r65, Ooh, beautiful 😍

When I was a kid the town rich lady had one exactly like it with a matching dyed mink stole and matching dyed poodle. She was the fanciest woman I had ever seen. My mom thought she was an idiot

@r66, I wouldn't let Judy Pills anywhere near such a nice car

[quote]matching ostrich skin leather.

Ostrich grain. Not skin.

The color Fontana Rose was beautiful. Cadillac had gorgeous color charts in the '60s.

That's amore...

Nothing screams "class" like the Ruth Buzzi Lincoln... Take that, Mr. Ford 😂

"What better place to wear your matching mother/daughter endangered animal coats than your shinny new 1960 Cadillac?"

"Merry Christmas, honey, I just bought you a new Cadillac... Just don't tell my wife"

Robert Wagner and his '47 Cadillac... What did you do to earn that, RJ? 😜

Dolly and her '64 Sedan de Ville...

Marilyn and her '54 DeVille convertible

Big boobs, big fins, Jayne Mansfield in her '59 Cadillac... Bet it was pink

R71 actually believes that ad is real.

Forgotten......I've been forgotten......get no letters in the mail.......

@r78, You mean Lincoln didn't use a sexy, dynamic trend setter like Miss Buzzi to promote their elegant, classy cars? No 😳

@r79, "They'll know you've arrived when you drive up in an Edsel"

Yeah, they'll hear the laughter from miles away 😂

This ad is real 🙄

My favorite Lincoln

Agree with posts up thread, for the perfect combination of "fin excess" and still class, the Imperial. 1957 especially.

Imperial reached peak tail fin in 1961.

The fins rivaled the '59 Cadillac in height.

Give me a Nash Metropolitan any day. This was the 1962 model.

The Chryslers of this period were particularly ugly. Lacked the kitsch of the Caddies or the absurdness of the Lincolns.

In 1961 Lincoln became the trendsetter. No fins, little chrome, slab sides. Soon Cadillac and Imperial followed suit.

[quote]The Chryslers of this period were particularly ugly.

The sublime 1957 Chrysler 300C

Mumsie and Dadsie taking the Caddy to the Club.

Biff and Scooter polishing their fins.

^ Careful, son, you don't know where that fin has been

Here's a car no one ever talks about. The last gasp of a once great automobile company, the Packard Caribbean. Beautiful and elegant

Is that gorgeous hood ornament @R47 available aftermarket or only as a dealer installed option?

R93 Packard made an heroic effort but no way could that car compete with the 1956 Cadillac, Lincoln or Imperial.

It had a great engine and suspension system but that '56 was basically a '51 Packard in disguise.

The '55 and '56 Packards had tremendous quality problems--a brand new V-8 and the need to assemble their own bodies for the first time in decades, using a plant that wasn't integrated with their main facility in Detroit. They made many mistakes in the years just after WWII that were difficult to reverse---starting up their cheaper volume lines before they re-introduced the luxury models, putting money into developing an inferior automatic transmission when they could have bought one from GM or Borg-Warner and put the money into an new high compression V-8, and bet on styling concepts that were out of step with what other makers were doing---lower, longer and aerodynamic bodies.

The previous Caribbean was just as lovely. My 8th grade math teacher inherited a Caribbean exactly like this one from his wealthy father. I had never seen a Packard before so I bugged him relentlessly about it asking a million questions. He let me go out and sit in it as he showed me how everything worked. He said it was a beast to operate compared to modern cars, but he was going to keep it because his father loved it so

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