What Happened To Car Design? Convertibles to Cocoons, automobile styling 1950s compared to today

People think of the 1960s as a wild time. And the 1950s are seen today as a time of complacency and conservatism. In many ways those generalizations are true. But it's NOT TRUE AT ALL about automobile styling--in fact, it was exactly the opposite!

No other decade in automotive history spanned so large a swing in auto design as the 1950s. Just to show how much styling changed in that decade, take a look at the 1950 model Chevrolet... and the 1960 Chevrolet. That's a 10-year difference and it is obviously... a big one. For comparison, take a look at the 10-year difference in a 2008 and 2018 Chevrolet. Excuse me while I yawn. Hardly any difference at all in those two.

Not only did styles change with increasing FREQUENCY in the 1950s, but the breadth of those changes widened like never before, with styling running a wide range in those years from the mundane to the insane. The single wildest year in all of auto styling came at the end of the '50s, 1959.

As high flying things do, auto design began to come back "down to earth" in the 1960s. "Down to earth is an apt phrase for it since auto design spent the '50s absolutely obsessed with the imagery of...flight. The fins, wings, rockets, and flying V's had been the prevailing theme ever since Cadillac's first use of the tailfin on its 1948 model.

All of this more or less ended in the 1960s, with the biggest change coming--all of a sudden--immediately following that wildest of years, 1959, in the changeover to the 1960 model year. This occurred to me while walking through Deer Park Auto Museum the other day, down in Escondido, California.

There are pretty much all convertibles in this place--wide open cars in which you waved hello to your temporary neighbors out on the open road. And there are lots of great store signs and advertising signs here too. Many in neon. Neon has been friend to the automobile ever since 1924, when the first neon sign in America was installed in Los Angeles-- at a car dealer, selling Packards.

So let's look at that big model change that came in 1960. The big 3 top sellers in 1959 and '60 were the Chevy, Ford, and Plymouth. Check out these '59 models. That's the Ford. But as you can see, the '59 Chevy is already itching to get to 1960 with its lower headlights and slimmer grille. By contrast, the '59 Plymouth--along with the Ford-- both still feature those Elizabeth Taylor eyebrows over the headlights and are looking dated compared to the Chevrolet. But look how far Ford went to catch up in 1960. This '60 model Ford front end didn't just catch up-- it zoomed past Chevy in the styling department. What a difference from the '59.

Back in 1957, Plymouth thought they had the future figured out when they proclaimed in promo materials for their 1957 model, "Suddenly, It's 1960!" But by the time ACTUAL 1960 rolled around, the "forward look" that Plymouth and all the Chrysler products promoted...didn't look so forward anymore.

Things don't turn on a dime, of course. And there are many many style details, exceptions, and downright abberations that are a part of what makes collecting cars so interesting. Here is one of those: Chevrolet, in 1960, having one last fling with the flight-obsessed '50s, with this terrific side rocket.

But the '50s ended that year, 1960, both literally and figuratively... in automotive design. The cars toned down just as everything else was heating up.

We only know from hindsight which of the styling trends you see here would fade and which would survive. The same can be said for auto design in the present day, of course, but the fading of current trends can't come fast enough for me. These trends are all on display at the annual auto shows the car makers put on... to show their new models. At one of these, you can be dazzled and amazed at the gadgetry... but as to the design trends, what you'll see are... cocoon-like cockpits, short windows, darkened glass, and all the rest of it--all designed to foster anonymous--and aggressive--driving. Like the car ads on television for many of today's leading auto brands, the appeal is to all that is sociopathic in today's driving experience.

Few realize what I'm about to say, and fewer still would admit it, but for many people, the only power they still wield in modern life is when they are driving. When they're cloaked in the anonymity of today's cars, this power is sometimes dangerously abused. Today's automakers know all about this power dynamic and cynically exploit it for profit, no matter what the cost to life and limb of the rest of us on the road just trying to enjoy the ride.

Rather than secreting ourselves in our little cocoons, I remember when THIS was the future we were promised. A bubble top--inside of which it was easy to see and be seen. Or even better--no top at all, like the cars here at Deer Park. No, you can have your auto show. I'd rather be in a room like this full of convertibles--all exuberantly different designs, wide open to the world.

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