@MikeInNH ,The1960 Corvair had a 108 inch wheelbase and was 180 inches long. The Studebaker Lark was on a,108,wheelbase and 175 inches long. The Ford Falcon was on a 109.5 wheelbase and 181 inches long. The Rambler American 2 door was on a 100 inch wheelbase and about 180 inches long. By your definition, the Corvair wasn’t a,small car. It looked small, but actually the Studebaker Lark was,smaller in 1960. I owned a,1961 Corvair and drove quite a few miles in a Studebaker Lark my brother owned. The Studebaker was much easier to maneuver in tight places.
Of course, the VW was much smaller than the Corvair or Studebaker. The Morris Minor was about the VW size. IMHO, after driving VW Beetles and Morris Minors, the Morris was the better handling of the two.
To bring this discussion back to Pennzoil, perhaps the use of Pennzoil in rhe Ford Falcons, original Buick Skylarks, Oldsmobile F-85 and Pontiac Tempests caused these compacts to become bloated with sludge and become intermediate sized cars.
The Studebaker and Falcon both came with V8 options. If you consider the Covair the same category as the Falcon and lark…then it’s a mid-size…
When my family went car shopping in 1968 they looked at a Valiant 2-door, an Opel Kadett, and a Renault. I think my dad was just curious about the imports, we ended up with the Valiant, which we used for MANY years.
I always thought a 2002 grand Cherokee would be a “big car” but found out otherwise when I tried to park my 02 Camry in the same garage that my friend parked her Jeep in. It didn’t work it turns out the 02 Camry is is almost 8 inches longer overall and has a longer wheelbase, than the Cherokee. Who wouldv’e figured that! Not this guy.
The plot thickens. We went to wallyworld to walk again and as I passed the oil isle, I noticed that they are out of Mobil 1 EP 0w20 oil. They have some Mobil 1 fuel economy in 0w20, but not the EP or the regular Mobil 1.
I didn’t check the other stores as I am not shopping for oil at this time, and I didn’t check the other brands either, but I’m begining to wonder if there is an issue with 0w20 that is just now coming to light, or will soon come to light.
I just got back from Rural King. The shelves were full of Pennzoil in all viscosities from 5W-20 to 20W-50_and straight 30W. However, I didn’t see any Pennzoil synthetic. The price was $3.39_a quart. The house brand, RK, full synthetic was $2.79 in all viscosities including 0W-20.
@MikeInNH The Ford Falcon didn’t offer a V8 until 1963. The original 1960 Falcpn came with a 144_cu in 6…Later in the year, it offered an optional 170 cu in 6. Studebaker Lark did offer a 259 cu in V8 from its introduction in 1959. The standard engine was a,169 cu in 6 flathead that was used before WW II in the Champion and in the mid 1950s was upped to 186 cubic inches, but reverted back to 169 cu in for the Lark. Interestingly, the 259 V8 got as good mileage as the 6 and better under some conditions. IMHO, Studebaker should have forgotten about the 6 and installed the V8 in all the Larks. The 259 came from the 221 V8 Studebaker introduced in 1951. I think it would have been great for Studebaker if the standard engine had been the 221 cu in V8 with the 259 cu in V8 as an option. My brother’s Studebaker Lark was the V8 and had a manual transmission. It had great acceleration for its time and got reasonable gasoline mileage–better than my 1965 Rambler Classic 550 with manual transmission and a 199 cu in OHV 6.
@Triedaq - doesn’t matter when or if the V8 was offered…those are NOT small cars. Take a look at the Toyota’s and Datsuns offered at the time. Smaller and weighed about 1000lbs less.
So my original statement stands…American manufacturers had a very limited offering of small cars.
Gee, we had all of those cars except a Rambler. No one in our family ever owned a Rambler. We had a 60 and 62 Falcon. One of them needed a new engine but can’t remember which one. They were 6 cyl and seemed once they hit 60K, they were prone to over-heating and that was the end. Had the Lark too and it was pretty basic car. The Morris was a fun little car but a piece of junk. Compared to the Morris, the VW Bug looked huge. later had the Corvair that I paid $150 for. Wife used to complain about the exhaust smell inside the car with the heater on. Seemed like the Falcons and Lark were about the same size except the Falcon was luxury compared to the Lark. The Corvair though seemed a lot smaller. Interesting that they were the same size but low and sleek compared to boxy maybe created the illusion.
I learned on a '61 Corvair and my dad traded it for a '65 my last year of HS. I had a '61 Beetle, but I enjoyed driving the Corvair and borrowed it at every opportunity. I would definitely classify it as a small car. I also consider it a very underrated and unfairly maligned car.
I liked small cars. Still do. If I could get in & out of it I’d probably be driving a Miata. Or a '75 Spitfire that I looked at perhaps ten years ago. Or, if my “intelligent” side of my brain hadn’t won the battle with my “emotional” brain half, even the '75 I almost bought in '75! Damn those cars were fun to drive! My “intelligent” brain side isn’t smart enough to listen to my “emotional” brain side. 
“Went from that to a Renault Dauphine, which also only lasted 3 years.”
…which means that yours lasted about one year longer than most of those awful cars.
;-))
Except for the seats–which were incredibly comfortable–those Renaults were a true failure of engineering.
@VDCDriver Yes the Renault Dauphine was a very fragile car. The company bragged that the prototypes were tested on Corsica; that’s like GM testing their cars on Catalina Island!
A friend had the Gordini I performance model and it was close to bio-degradable in the salt laden Great Lakes area.
It was mercifully wiped out in a snow storm in a collision with a truck.
He next bought a 1966 Dodge V8 Polara and had many trouble-free driving experiences.
My dad was a,friend of the DeSoto/Plymouth dealer in our community. The dealer also picked up foreign carcar franchises and sold Ausin and Morris and MG. I was at the dealership in 1960 when he had the Morris 850 and the identical Austin 850. These cars made a VW Beetle seem huge. The owner of the agency let me drive the Morris 850 and it was a great driving car. The Morris 850 was the forerunner of today’s Mini Cooper.
I drove a Honda Civic a friend owned back in 1978. That Civic made today’s Civic seem huge. In fact, the Accord back then was,much smaller than today’s Civic. Today’s Civics and Corollas are huge compared to the Honda Civic of the 1970s.
Hmmm, my Morris was a 1000 but never knew what that stood for. Engine CC? They had a Morris dealership downtown Minneapolis right by the cathedral, Loring Park, and the Guthrie Theater, Dunwoody, etc. I’d go there for parts in 1966 for my 61. They had brand new Morris’ that looked just like my five year old one. Never changed hardly a thing. I should have swapped them when they weren’t looking.
@Bing The 1000 was the approximate displacement of the engine in cubic centimeters. I think the actual displacement of the Morris Minor 1000 was 952 cc. The Morris 850 had an engine of about 850 cc. The Morris 1000 and the Morris 850 were completely different cars. The Morris 1000 was a rear wheel drive with a longitudinally mounted engine. The Morris 850 was a front wheel drive with a,transversely mounted engine. In 1960, the Morris 850 design was quite revolutionary.
Thinking about what a,small car really is, today we have the Smart car. In 1960,_we had the Isetta. Both of these cars are huge compared to the King Midget.
“I drove a Honda Civic a friend owned back in 1978. That Civic made today’s Civic seem huge.”
About 1970 I owned a Honda motorcycle and would travel to a Honda motorcycle store a distance from my house, when I needed parts. I was shocked to see the miniature little cars they began to sell there. I believe it was a Honda Z600. The Civic wasn’t out, yet and these little cars would have made the original Civic seem big.
CSA
People didn’t stop buying the GM b-bodies until CAFE forced their prices north of 30k…
When did a B Body ever go for more than $30k? The only on that I can even see plausibly selling for over $30k new would be a 1996 Roadmaster Estate Limited, with every option box checked, and even then I wouldn’t bet money on it.
That Honda 600 was TINY. Guy at school had one, ‘friends’ turned it sideways in the parking spot, he was late for his after school job…
There was a Honda 600 parked in a parking garage the other day. The guy usually rides a Vespa, but it was raining that day. Tidy little car, but clearly lacking any form of accident protection at all.
When I was a young lad, fresh to the Navy and going through aircraft radar maintenance school at Miramar (San Diego area), I met a guy who had bought on of the first Honda’s imported to the US in 1971. I asked him if it was safe to drive.
His response was that the salesman told him it was one of the safest cars on the road because it was so light, it would just bounce off of anything else in an accident. All I could think of was to never challenge this level of stupid.
Just curious, so I stopped by my locally-owned auto parts store the other day where I usually purchase Pennzoil conventional 10W-30, and they had the normal amount they usually stock there, on the shelves.