If you're looking for a car

… this one is going up for auction sale in Scottsdale. Just be sure to bring at least $2 million with you.

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Does it come with heated seats? If not, it’s overpriced.

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I remember seeing ads in the newspaper for the Tucker back when I was in 2nd grade.
New designs after WWII were just beginning to hit the market. I remember when the 1949 Ford models were introduced in mid 1948. It didn’t look like a Ford. My parents were driving a 1939 Chevrolet, and I thought that they ought to trade for a Tucker. It was more modern than even the newly introduced 1949 Ford. My parents didn’t have the money for a new car and the Tucker never was marketed. A couple of years later, the 1939 Chevrolet was replaced with a used 1947 Dodge. The 1947 Dodge was almost identical in appearance to the neighbor’s 1942 Dodge.

Cool cars and ahead of their time but I don’t have a spare $2 million lying around.

I rather spend 2 million on something else than a car. This money would be better spent on cancer research than showing it off at the McDonald.Cancer affects 1 out of 2 person in their lifetime.

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Other than the middle headlight, the Tucker had a pretty good design for a sports coupe. For $2M I’d want a convertible.

I realize the car was ahead of its time in some ways . . . :+1:

But I think it’s ugly, compared to some of its domestic contemporaries with more traditional styling

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@db4690. I remember the cars of that period well. I made a scrapbook of all the 1949 domestic models. The 1949 was the year that Ford, GM, and Chrysler came out with new designs. The only exceptions in the GM line were the Oldsmobile 98 and the Cadillac which received new styling in 1948. Of the independents, the Studebaker was restyled in 1947 while the Hudson and Packard received new styling in 1948. The Kaiser and Frazer were new makes that came along in 1947. All the other makes had pre WWII styling. I personally think the Tucker held its own among the restyled cars and was way ahead of the prewar designs. My idea of good styling may be wierd. I really liked the 1949 Nash Airflyte design. Both the Nash and the Tucker had a fresh, new look.

I’ve seen in person the one that the Lemay family bought from the Peterson Museum years ago, a nice centerpiece for a collection but not really a first purchase.

Which Lemay family would that be? Kenosha?

Tacoma, I’ts in the museum’s collection but mostly at the Marymount location these days, It was in the then new museum next to the Tacoma Dome up against the wall of windows overlooking the city.

The Tucker was not a production ready design. The prototypes were built with surplus WWII helicopter engines. No way anyone could afford new ones for a production car. Forget the movie, it had not much to do with the real story. Maybe in 50 years someone will make a movie about the conspiracy that drove the Elio out of business.

Hence, their slogan:
First by far with a post-war car!

Actually, Tucker bought the factory in (I think) Syracuse, NY, that manufactured those engines, and they were newly-manufactured. That was the factory that originally produced the fabulous Franklin automobile.

The engines were originally air-cooled, but his engineers had successfully converted the design to one that was water-cooled. Tucker was ready to produce his cars, if not for a few spiteful–and powerful–people in Detroit and D.C.

The only thing about his cars that was “surplus” was the transmission. He was using recycled Cord pre-selector manual transmissions until the development of his automatic transmission had been completed.