One of the cars that really made “Detroit” (actually Flint, I think) was the 1955-1957 Buick. It was popular enough that Buick became the 4th most popular brand of cars sold in the US. They were built in the days that GM had only three body types, and the Special used the middle priced version.
Chevrolet, of course, was consistently the best selling brand in those days, and the 1955-1957 Chevys have reached a mythological cachet among auto fans.
However, let us not forget that the '55-'57 Buicks had really weak brakes.
In an era of generally poor braking ability, those Buicks stood out for their particularly bad brakes.
Henry KNEW people would buy his Model T over maintaining a horse and buggy. But what he didn’t realize was that people would FALL IN LOVE WITH THEM, would look upon them as status symbols and he would sell more of them than in his wildest dreams…The entire automobile industry is built on that quirk of psychology. Whether or not a car could get second gear rubber was far more important than it’s transportation value. Successful car makers cashed in on that. That '57 Chevy everyone seems to love…Drive one for a month today and report back…
The best year General Motors ever had was 1978. They have been selling fewer cars and losing market share ever since.
lets bring back some of these old car the first pony my 1956 ford and any other we dont need a car that u have to tear the front of it to change a light
That’s because for the past 25 years styling became unimportant to the bean counters in Detroit. It was cheaper to run the same style Olds or Buick for ten years instead of changing the styling. Then poured all their money into overgrown Suburban look alikes and let everything else rust.
I agree with sopwithcamel that all the cars seem to be 25+, of course most of the infamous cars that wrecked detroit are also 25+ years old. So I figured I’d point out some of their more successful recent ones:
Ford Mustang:('79-present)the fairmount based mustang that replaced the terrible
Mustang II and made the cars desirable
Chevrolet corvette:('84-present)replaced an past its sell-by date design and gave 911 class performance at half the price
Chrysler K-cars: allowed the firm to pay of its government loans early and eventually helped underpin…
Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager: created the new minivan segment with a car the japanese couldn’t match until well into the '90’s
The Saturn brand: which with no haggle pricing and plastic panels managed to give people a dealer it could trust which makes it a shame the UAW and GM upper management didn’t apply the principals across the board
Dodge Neon: despite poor quality reviews was irresistably cute and the sold a million of them, my folks didn’t have a problem in its first 5 years/80k miles
Chrysler PT cruiser: the last great car from Chrysler’s stable before its “merger of equals” Chrysler thought it would sell something like 10k a year they sold more than that their first week
Ford Ranger:if taken care of they last forever my '94 has had 2 people ask how much I want for it in the last 3 years
Ford Focus: this Euro import was the world’s best selling car the year it was introduced to the US
Pontiac Solstice: if GM hadn’t gone bankrupt it probably would have challenged the miata in the sports car field and I personally know multiple people who are worried they will become to expensive to buy when the model is discontinued
Cadillac’s current range: their new razor edged styling is love it or hate it but has made new cadillac’s the star of more than one rap video
Buick: it recently bested the almighty Lexus according to JD Powers dependability range
Dodge Ram: another love it or hate it design which caused every other truck maker to have to substanially beef up their trucks looks
Chrysler 300C:the star of rap video’s and a car that shows you made it in more than one neighborhood