What A Big Beautiful American Car

I had a 74 Lincoln with a moon roof. If you're long legged and tall, Mitsubishis etc. will always be a hellish ride, so cramped and bumpy. That car sailed like a boat.

There are no distinctive looking cars today. They all look the same.

Nobody ever accused a Lincoln Continental of looking like an Oldsmobile Toronado.

But today, you can't tell a Lexus from a Tesla or an Infiniti unless you have dealer's brochures in your hand.

I wish they still made station wagons and got the goddamn soccer moms out of those huge SUVs they tool around in.

[quote]Hop in my Chrysler, it's as big as a whale and it's about to set SAIL! I got me a car, it seats about 20 so hurry up, and bring your juke box money!

Love big cars !

The past is a foreign.. universe.

My first car in 1967. A 1964 Chrysler Imperial, shown below.

You could put five or six girls in the back seat back then.

How did people even park cars that were so big when all of them were so big?

R3- When I was a kid in the 1970's that was my favorite type of car. A big American Station Wagon like this car with the snotty kid.

We called the third seat the BACK BACK

[quote] We called the third seat the BACK BACK

We called the back section the "way back."

R7- Nice. That looks like a car one of the villain guest stars on Batman would have driven.

R8 Only a partially facetious answer:

World population in 1960: Just hit 3 billion.

World population in 2024L Over 8 billion

R12, you make an awesome point. I wonder what the ratio of car ownership is comparing 1960 to 2024. In 1960 there were probably fewer families who owned more than one car.

R11 I think you're thinking of The Green Hornet, a '66 customized by George Barris. The 66 had the same body but a different grill (and no more push-button Torque-flite tranny) on the stock model shown.

The pushbuttons were so cool. Touch a button and you were in Drive.

R13

1960: % of American families without a car: 22%

2020: % of American families without a car: 8%

2 car families didn’t come into vogue until the latter half of the 60s , from what I understand. Suburbia and the lack of decent public transit made it a necessity.

I have a 10 year old car with 165,000 miles (a VW Jetta Sportwagen). It is going to need to be replaced at some point and I am not looking forward to that. Cars are so expensive, bland and prone to obsolescence now.

Thigh support, OP? Do you have thunder thighs?

R6- I've always loved car styling of the late 1950's. Chrysler cars were the most beautiful.

R17- I have long legs so a seat with a long cushion has always been important to me.

LOL

My neighbor had chartreuse Mark IV with a white vinyl roof. It was a boat and got like 10 mpg. She palmed the steering wheel wherever she went, using the other hand to smoke her True cigarette. She felt fabulous.

r5, is that considered a pop song or country?

[quote] [R12], you make an awesome point. I wonder what the ratio of car ownership is comparing 1960 to 2024. In 1960 there were probably fewer families who owned more than one car.

Yes, it WAS easier for my village to afford meals back then. At least, that’s what my sangoma tells us now.

R8 The parking spaces were longer. Some big cars were almost 20 feet long then. They were wider, too - full-size cars were up to 80 inches wide from the late 50's into the 80's, and the brakes weren't as good, so you had to give people more room. At the time it seemed normal and what was not was driving something small like an MG (nothing American was that small except maybe a Nash Metropolitan) because you felt like the behemoths could crush you as they drove.

R15, you answered a different question.