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http://www.flickr.com/photos/myoldpostcards/6780988854/
Interesting that some upper-highline makes have dabbled in the diagonal pleating in recent years.
Two years seems to be a very short time for something to be "old news." 1951 was the first year of the Chrysler ohv V-8, Ford did not get one until 1954, By the time Packard and Chevrolet got theirs in 1955, the design must have been ancient history.
Like them or not, I think the downsized 62 Mopars like Dodge Polara and Plymouth kind of had that in their design. But I agree, that Studebaker was an early adopter of that styling trend in the 50's. Ironically, their Euro focus might have actually held their sales back a bit in those days.
I think you make a good point about the 4 seater T-Bird bringing personal luxury to a larger sales base. Cars like the Mark II were very high priced. I'll also go with your comment that the Studebaker Hawk was more of a sporty car than luxury. I think Studebaker as lux would have been a hard sell and perhaps that's why they chased Packard.
A case of a poorly "tuned" exhaust.
Nowadays DI makes such a clatter that manufacturers just gave up and pipe artificial noises in to the cabin. Would be cool if a Volt made small block V8 sounds, no? :shades:
I think nobody did 'sporty with a backseat' before that era Stude coupe.
That might be the pioneering segment for the Stude - sporty with a backseat. I'm having a hard time thinking of anything similar.
Historians on the other hand, love to document that sort of thing. I find it interesting sometimes to 'trace the evolutionary tree".
Although truthfully, I'm not a fan of Golden Hawks, I'm not a fan of 'squarebirds' either, and I think it's mostly because those rear wheels looked so far pushed up in the body design to my eyes. But I'll agree that the car doesn't belong on a list of 100 ugliest cars.
A girlfriend's brother bought a brand new Daytona coupe in '86 or '87 and I got to drive that. I actually liked it, though it was not really very powerful either but at least it handled decently and felt sporty.
My dad's last car was a Dynasty. I drove that when he was in the hospital for the last go-round. Hated it - way too soft, squirmy, and just not my kind of car. Circumstances may have colored my opinion of it.
Finally, I almost bought a '83 (I think) LeBaron coupe new - it was the original version that looked like a tarted-up K-car. It was just that, nicer than a K-car, but still felt like a cheap car in terms of engine noise, etc., though it did have the talking nanny in the dash that told you a door was a jar, etc.
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My boss' boss did have a Daytona with the turbo, some special edition IIRC. I remember helping him create the ad to sell it.
My other roommate had a Dodge Raider, which was a re-badged 2 door Montero.
I was the only Ford, surrounded by Dodges.
Dad had an 84 Omni
86 Shelby Charger
87 Shadow ES Turbo
My cousins had an 85 Shelby Charger, and an 87 Daytona
Mom had an 85 base Charger
Later on my Stepdad had an 83 E-class, and my stepbro had a 3.0 Spirit I think it was 92?
My Aunt also had a 94 Shadow ES V6. That was a quick little car. I remember hers was an odd duck loaded to the gills. It wasn't often you would see a Shadow with a power seat.
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I remember my uncle had an E-class, and before that, one of those Omni/Turismo fastbacks. My dad had a Horizon 5-door, and a couple 90s era minivans. My brother had a (then old) K-car as his first car, and later a Sundance Duster V6. I remember a neighbor had a LeBaron coupe, replaced with a Caravan, and a friend of the family had an early Aries coupe. High school friend had a black Aries sedan that I want to say had odd louver kind of things over the rear door quarter window.
My driver's ed car was an almost new Acclaim, I suspect it was a 4cyl.
I think I've posted this before, but he said that in his opinion, AMC built better Fifth Avenues than Chrysler had! (Fifth Avenue production went to Kenosha at some point.)
What did they call 'em? Too square, too narrow, with buyers too old to notice?
Funny thing was my first boss at my current job has a New Yorker or something like that, and it fit her to a T.
Also a hideous customized NSX - body kit, black wheels, weird roof mounted air scoop, and it sounded like a motorboat.
Except for the plastic intake manifolds, which, unfortunately, were the ruination of many 3800s.
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"Ford Edsel" and "Studebaker Wagenaire"?
BTW, the 940 units sold mentioned for '63-66 Wagonaire, is actually only the 1966 sales figure. For '63-66, the sales total is 19,927.
As a friend of mine said this morning, "...not exactly statistical rounding".
Nissan shot themselves in the foot when the Altima came out shortly after the J30 did, with the same soft tail design. The ads aped Lexus on the dyno, but I think it cannibalized the J30 more than anything, as sales plummeted once the Altima launched.
If they want low-selling cars, the recent Acura ZDX and later RLs beat the pants off anything they mentioned. A 60 Edsel is cooler than either.
I'd happily take an exact Edsel as the one shown in the (ahem), "article".
A friend and coworker of mine, longtime Ford guy, has told me for years that the Ford dealer in his hometown of Wadsworth, OH, absolutely, positively had a new '60 Edsel convertible in his showroom. They only built 76 of them! This guy is a 'detail' guy so I believe him. He's 65 BTW.
Another dopey comment about the "Wagenaire" (sheesh)--his mentioning that only the luggage gets any sun from the sliding top. He must be completely oblivious to the third-seat option in those cars.
They could be bought with supercharger, 4-speed, bucket seats, and disc brakes, and full instrumentation including tach in the instrument cluster (not strapped to the column or stuck on top of the dash). I know I'm biased, but not your typical Falcon or Valiant or Chevy II wagon.
The Stanza was pretty popular back in Nissan's heyday. I had a friend in high school who didn't have his own car, but would alternate among his parents' cars. They had a Mopar minivan, an Aries or Reliant wagon, an old abused '72 Dart sedan, and an '83 or so Datsun Stanza.
When we went to college, he bought a new car, an '89 Escort LX coupe. They used the Stanza as a trade-in. It was really beat-up by then...smoking and wheezing.
As for the Dart, they took the tags off of it and then the county threatened to tow it away. Initially they offered to give it to me. I was able to get it running, but then it started leaking gasoline, so they freaked out and didn't want to risk giving me anything that "dangerous", so they just let the county take it.
My Mom and stepdad had a 1991 Stanza, which by that time was essentially a toned-down, boxier, more conservative, 4-cyl version of the Maxima. It was nothing all that great either. Transmission started to go around 90,000 miles, although they did get it to around 120,000 or so without having to replace it. It was replaced with a 1999 Altima...ugly, uncomfortable little thing, but it's proven pretty reliable. Although it did eat a transmission around 35,000 miles, I think it now has around 330-340,000 miles on it, and the car still even looks good.
It seems like as the 1980's soldiered on though, Nissans began to fall from favor. The Camry really caught on fast, and was a much stronger seller than the old Corona that it replaced. And, as the Accord grew up and became a compact, rather than a sub-compact, it really took off as well. So the Stanza sort of became forgotten.
The Corolla and Civic really seemed to overtake the Sentra, as well. Back in 1985, there was only one Japanese car that was in the top ten selling car nameplates, and that was the Sentra. But, the tide definitely shifted.
Are there any loaded supercharged Wagonaires in existence today? I'd have to imagine one of those would be worth a pretty penny.
Here's one for $12K
http://bringatrailer.com/2011/11/07/paxton-power-1963-studebaker-wagonaire-dayto- - na-r2/
I'd say a show ready version would sell for $25K, so an affordable collectible.
That car has the grille badge put on at the factory only on cars with the complete "Super" package...and only two '63 Wagonaires were so-equipped. Of course, emblems get added over the years as we all know.
The fender badges are a good three or four inches below where the factory put them, indicating new front fenders but that's hardly a deal-killer.
Some smallish things that irk, although I realize it's not a big-dollar car:
Aftermarket roof rack, wrong wheelcovers, wheels painted red instead of off-white, bumpers lack the 'winguard' wrap-around portions that all Daytona models had that year; interior door panels are aftermarket. Seat trim looks authentic from what I can see.
As I've noted before, with a serial number, the authenticity of the car can be confirmed with a build sheet from the Studebaker National Museum, as well as original owner information if desired.
That exact car is listed on a dealer's site for sale--"Call for Price":
http://www.cosmopolitanmotors.com/listing/daytona-wagonaire/
You guys who like '60 Fords have gotten me to 'take another look' at them. I've always liked '61 Starliners, but I'm liking the '60 Starliners more now than ever. I'd take a robin's egg blue one. '60 Edsel hardtop, even better, despite the vertical taillights.
I wish they'd built a Starliner-version of the '61 Mercury. I like whatever model (upper) got the wheel-opening trim and I like the Lincoln-esque rear lights and panel, but don't care for the boxy roofline.
I see on uplanderguy's link, the car is at a dealer local to me. Their prices are often kind of optimistic.
I know I have mentioned it, but back in the 90s, my dad had a 60 Ford Country Sedan. Red and white on red and white, 352, it was an attractive car - bystanders seemed to love it on first sight. Wish he would have kept it - but as he bought cars on a whim, he sold them that way too. Also a huge car, 60 Fords are so wide...I remember practicing parking in that car, thinking that if I could handle it, I could park anything.
I sent them an email, inquiring as to price. I also asked for the serial number, as somewhere in my house I have a printout of all 'Avanti Powered' serial nos. for '63's which list color and equipment. It'll be interesting to see if I get a response.
I think most dealers of 'classic' cars are optimistic in their pricing!
At Hershey maybe three years ago, I was admiring a '60 Ford Sunliner convert, robin's egg blue (not the correct name I know), in the Car Corral (for sale) and the owner was a nice guy and didn't mind chatting with someone who wasn't a serious buyer (me). He told me that story too and I recall him saying sometimes the cars were shipped without the moldings at the edge of the (flat) fins and the dealers installed them. Not sure about the logic of that, but I did hear that same story you did.
There are some similarities, but whenever I see a '63 Plymouth, I think of two things:
1) The car that nerdy Robin Williams drove in "Awakenings".
2) The commercial currently on TV for Sensa, which I think shows the car and its inhabitants at a drive-in. They show that asymmetrical instrument cluster in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wU4K6-MNUM
http://bringatrailer.com/2011/11/07/paxton-power-1963-studebaker-wagonaire-dayto- - - - na-r2/
According to the comments below in the thread, the 'Buy It Now' was exceeded and the winning bid then was $15,601.00.
It's apparently lost the "T" in "STUDEBAKER" on the tailgate between 2011, when it sold, and later when for sale by the dealer out fintail's way.
A car like that would be a little gem with a modern V-8, fuel injection, AC and a killer sound system.
That 60 Ford is a good example of a bridge between the 50s and 60s.
I have to ask:
For god's sake, why? I can barely think of a more anonymous car.
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Leave it to Beaver's last season was 1962-63, so there certainly would have been plenty of '63 cars showing up. However, I don't think the Cleavers got a new car that final season. In the jazzy opening where they're hopping in the car and Beaver turns to look out the rear window, I'm pretty sure that one's still a '62.
But, I'm sure there were '63 Plymouths used as background/minor vehicles. And for some reason, I'm picturing a '63 Dodge Polara, when Wally goes out with some friends, in one of their parents' cars and they take a shortcut but go through a puddle and stall out.
As for the Cleaver cars, I think Ward started off with a 1957 Ford Custom 300 sedan...pretty modest, as the first season was '57-58, you'd think they'd put him in a '58 car, and a fancier Fairlane!
And I'm thinking the next car they got was a 1960 Plymouth. At least I don't remember them ever having a '58 or '59 anything. They also had a '61 Plymouth. Sometimes they'd goof up though, and use stock footage of the '60 pulling up into the driveway, but then in the closeup it would be a '61.
And then, finally, there was the '62 Plymouth.
I guess Mr. Cleaver didn't have as good of a job as Mike Brady, who could buy a nice new convertible every year. And one year, actually went through TWO cars...a 1972 Impala and what was probably the only 1972 Barracuda convertible ever built!
You mean the Plymouth looks like a downsized and squared off Ford? Well, Elwood Engel worked at Ford before Chrysler quickly brought him over to replace Virgil Exner after the downsized 62 debacle hit. Since the 63 was a short lead time, crash effort to make the prior 62 look bigger, Engel may have been involved since Exner was now gone. Of course, there were a lot of designers floating between auto companies back in those days as well. Interesting observation, particularly because you don't seem to see a whole lot of either of those vehicles. I always thought the 60 Ford's front end had just a touch of 62 Continental influence, maybe the grill texture or front end fender curves or something. Meanwhile, I think the 60 Ford and 63 Plymouth both have somewhat unusual front end appearances that made them stick out a bit back in their day.