That is an excellent point. You may recall the Chevy ads in the '60s touting their “Jet Smooth Ride”. The father of one of my friends bought a Chevy of that era, only to find out that their young daughter got “car sick” every time she rode in their new Chevy.
After almost a year of having to clean vomit from the interior, the guy decided to replace the “Jet Smooth” Chevy with a new Dodge. The result was no more “car sickness”.
Most people would have considered the Dodge’s ride quality to be somewhat “rough” in comparison to the Chevy, but the constant up and down oscillating motion of the Chevy’s ultra-soft suspension was what caused his daughter to become nauseous every time that she rode in the Chevy.
When my father was car-shopping in 1963, he and I both disliked the constantly-floating ride quality of the new Chevys, and he opted for a Plymouth Belvedere, instead. Both ride quality and seating comfort are highly subjective, and what feels good to one person can be perceived very differently by someone else.
Yeah, that luxury “Floating Ride” was certainly one of those things that turned their kids into Euro and Japanese owners. Not too bad on a highway but in some stop and go, well just break out the ■■■■ bags. Another reason why back then we called them “Boats””.
A couple of Lincoln’s At a dealer that will buy anything but includes lots of photos, including underneath and service invoices in the cade of the sedan. Co worker Yeats ago had a similar town car saying it was like the tires never touched the ground but you were lucky to see more than 11mpg city. He’d daily a beater Vw keeping “maggie” safe in the garage.
I really liked the late 80s ('88 I think) Grand Marquis I inherited from my Dad. Had a great floating ride and comfortable interior. The best riding car I had was an older Eldorado, I forget now the exact year, maybe '85?, but it was front wheel drive and had an anemic V8 engine. But the ride and especially the automatic transmission was flawlessly transparent. My buddy had almost the same vintage Toronado but it was much less refined in terms of ride quality.
TwinTurbo mentioned some good choices especially in the “Near Luxury” category, Buick, Oldsmobile and Mercury.
- Provided the “Luxury Ride” and appointments.
- Used many of the time tested and generally available shared components
- While avoiding the cutting edge problems (Early NorthStar V8’s in Cadillacs)
- And offered some striking models. Early Olds Tornados, Riviera Boat Tails and Cutlass Supremes.
- And were generally owned by Older Buyers who generally had the money to maintain them while less likely to abuse them.
