This has to be one of the lamest options ever offered. Hideous in a word.
It seems a bit far-fetched to think a cell phone will remain in place…
In 1960, the full sized Chrysler Newport was offered with a 3 speed manual transmission with a floor shift. I have only seen one of these cars. Also, in 1965, a dealer in my town had a 1965 Mercury that had been traded for some other car. The Mercury had a 3 speed column shift manual transmission. The dealer had a really hard time selling the car.
The one i have been seeing around town is a late 80’s grand voyager with the fake wood on the side in SE trim (Usually you had to get the fancier LE trim for that).
My memory is very hazy on this but I think that back in the 50s Chevrolet offered an option which was a plate or mirror that mounted on the dash above the speedometer. Traffic lights were difficult to see because of the roof line and the reflector allowed the driver to keep tabs on the traffic light without having to lean forward and look up.
A guy I knew way back in the day had a 57 2 DR Bel Air and I seem to remember he had something like that on his car.
@ok4450–I think you are recalling a convex plastic lens that was mounted on top of the dashboard to view overhead traffic lights without leaning forward. I’ve seen them on Chevrolets and Pontiacs and these were particularly useful if the car was equipped with another rather rare factory option–an outside sun visor over the windshield. With the outside sun visor, it was almost impossible to see an overhead traffic signal without this device.
There was also an accessory that did the same job that was available at places that sold auto parts that did about the same thing. It was a convex plastic lens with a suction cup that could be mounted on the windshield. As I remember, the cost was under a dollar.
Maybe I missed it but no one mentioned the wonder bar radio. My 59 Pontiac had the wonder bar which was the forerunner to modern seek and scan. Push the bar and it would advance to the next station. Never worked real well though.
My 59 VW had the gas heater in it. Don’t know if it was factory or not but think it was. Once you were on the highway though, the floor vents would keep the car warm though so didn’t need to keep the heater on all the time. I think it used as much gas as running the engine but was like having a kerosene heater in the car when you needed it.
Our 61 Merc had the fender mirrors too mentioned somewhere in one of the threads. They were nice for seeing the blind spots but a bear to try and adjust. Adjust the mirror, get in the car, adjust it again etc. Then at the gas station, the guy would clean it and get it out of whack again.
@Bing–my 1954 Buick had the wonder bar Selectronic radio. As well as the bar under the dial of the radio, there was a button on the floor between the brake and the clutch to advance the radio to the next station. There was also a “sensitivity” control that would allow the radio to stop at any station that could be received or only local stations. The one in my Buick worked very well.
Another rarity in that Buick, even for 1954 was a manual transmission. I think the original owner bought the car for highway travel where the automatic wasn’t necessary and the wonder bar radio was better than the preset pushbuttons.
One interesting experience I had with that Buick at a Buick dealer was in my second year of graduate school. I had no place to work on the car and the clutch needed to be adjusted. I took it to the Buick dealer. While I waited, I saw them drive the Buick into the shop, put it on the rack, do the clutch adjustment and drive it back out. Yet, I was kept waiting. When I did go to the cashier’s window, the service manager and the cashier were going through books. When I asked about my car, I was told that there was a problem. They didn’t know what to charge for a clutch adjustment as they hadn’t seen a Buick with a manual shift in years (this was 1963). The owner of the agency finally came in and inquired about the problem. When they told him they didn’t know what to charge, he said, “Charge the man a dollar”.
Just went to Wal-mart and saw a Chevette Scooter, the most stripped down econo-box, equipped with a set of grotesque fake wire wheels, complete with fake “spinners”. These looked awkward on a Buick Riviera or Cadillac, but they looked completely nutty on this car. Probably not part of the original option list.
I amazed that any ‘Scooter’ survived. They even lacked a back seat, I think!
@texases This one had a backseat (optional) that folded down; it was really a stripped hatchback. No carpet, rubber mats throughout. My sister had one as a second car in the 70s, and I remember it having no power steering, no synchromesh on first gear, no cigarette lighter, terrible seats, in fact not much of anything. This car was originally designed for Brazil, Argentina and a price leader for Europe. When gas prices rose they (GM) did the bare minimum to Americanize it. The project manager had one benchmark; “KEEP IT UNDER 2000 LBS!”
The Chevette was an Opel Kadette from the late 60’s early 70’s. The body was “updated” and as @Docnick posted, headed for Brazil before GM re-routed the tooling to the US as a cheap, entry-level car. Car and Driver magazine once voted it the “Best Car from a Third World Country” even though it was built near Atlanta, GA. C&D just considered it so crude it really deserved to be from a 3rd world country. At one point it had a diesel engine and automatic transmission that would go 0 to 60 (with a tail-wind) in about a month!
Don’t be too hard on the Chevette. They were pretty rugged. I know a family that had 2 teen age drivers and a Chevette and it held up with all the abuse it got. As for the ride of the Chevette, I took a test drive in one and it wasn’t any worse than the Ford Maverick.
In my book of the worst cars ever made, they talk about it being RWD and a short wheelbase to make spin outs common and uncontrolable.
The thing I hated about chevettes was the off kilter steering column. Could they have not found a way to make it line up? IIRC they were angled to the drivers door.
A jeep wrangler is probably no worse than a chevette in reguards to RWD and a short wheel base. I had a wrangler and it was terrible in the snow, it would go no problem but it was unstable. The old honda civic was more stable in snow than the wrangler. At least in 1-2 inch snow covered roads.
@Triedaq No slam on the durability of Chevettes was intended! They were as reliable as an anvil (and about as fast!). The only weak spots, in the Midwest anyway, were the tendency to rust out the floorboards forward of the seats. Weld in a patch panel from JC Whitney, and you were good for several more years. Several friends had them and several more used them to train their teenagers to drive. If they wrecked one, another was available for $400.
The short wheelbase didn’t make them unstable, they handled just fine, but traction was a bit weak in the snow.
I agree that considering the price, the Chevette was reliable enough for a second car, and light years better than the Renault “Le Car”, for instance. My sister treated hers as an appliance, and did not expect miracles from it. Both her kids learned to drive in it.
One last hurrah… What is one of the rarest optioned gm cars every made? Hint Its not a corvette or muscle car…
I did a quick search and I have not seen it mentioned ever on these boards.
A pre-war Oldsmobile could be had with an EXTERNALLY MOUNTED Air Conditioner. This was a huge contraption mounted over the trunk, like a bit office window unit. Not many were sold, but one of the GM engineers dreamed it up and figured they had to start somewhere.
Ok, I reread all of the comments and it wasn’t mentioned. I knew of it, but the only reason I remembered it is I was just watching one of the most popular tv shows of the 1990’s and there was a car on the show that had this option. You could see the option on the tv show plain as day.
It was one of the first vehicles ever to offer this as an option, The first year it was offered, most vehicles equipped with the option were sold to fleets. The next year it was available on certain gm models to everyone. It was discontinued as an option after a few years after that and now they are standard on all new cars sold in the USA. Its a heck of a story and an engineering marvel.
I will reword the question-
What is one of the rarer options ever offered on on gm cars? Hint Its not a corvette or muscle car were talking about.
Any more guesses?