Three Designs, One Major Facelift in Four Model Years: Buick 1956-1959

General Motors dominated the American automobile market in the 1950s, as it had for most of the previous 30 years.

Part of this dominance was due to its styling unit led by Harley Earl.  Market share and design features fed on one another, forcing other carmakers to at least pay strong attention to GM's designs.  Happy days on Detroit's West Grand Boulevard.

Suddenly, change happened.  Chrysler Corporation's new 1957 designs created under the leadership of Virgil Exner were sensationally successful, whereas new-for-1957 GM designs were comparatively heavy looking.  It seemed that the once-magical Harley Earl touch was gone (note that he was nearing compulsory GM retirement age when those design were gestating).

Today's post considers styling of GM's Buick brand during those years of reacting to the collapse of styling dominance.  As the headline notes, the introduction of completely new bodies was rapid, given that three or four year production runs per body design were typical for the corporation during the first two thirds of the 1950s.

Buicks were radically redesigned for the 1954 model year, a futuristic (at the time) feature being wraparound (panoramic) windshields.  These cars sold well during the body's three-year production run.  Then came the '57 redesign that was less exciting than Chrysler Corporation's new 1957 offering.  So Buicks were given a crash facelift for '58.  And the 1959 model year saw GM launching another redesign.

As things turned out, Chrysler's post-1957 facelifts resulted in weaker sales.  Meanwhile, General Motors styling remained in the doldrums until 1961, when Bill Mitchell, Earl's successor, was able to create new designs.

Cars pictured below are all four-door sedans to facilitate comparisons.  Examples of 1954 and 1955 Buicks are included for some historical context.

Gallery

1954 Buick Century - Hessney Auctions photo
This is the least-sexy model of the very futuristic (as of release date in the Fall of 1953) new design.  Buick Specials and Centurys were based on GM's B-Body.

1955 Buick Special - Hemmings photo
This model year's Buicks received new grilles and revised rear fender tips.

1956 Buick Special - car-for-sale photo
Again, another new grille.  Rear wheel openings are enlarged, rounded.

1957 Buick Special - Mecum Auctions photo
Harley Earl's unfortunate new design.  The A-pillar is more crisp, but the the rest of the greenhouse is heavy-looking -- especially the backlight window segment dividers (seen in profile here).

1958 Buick Special - car-for-sale photo
Here is the massive facelift that was a crash-reaction to the 1957 Chrysler Corporation design.  Front and rear ends were redone (not seen in this profile view).  Lots of new chrome.  Real wheel opening reverts to '54-'55 style.  The large spash in the rear fender zone does not relate to the traditional (at the time) Buick Sweepspear also seen in the images above.  Tasteless.  Especially coming from a styling studio that once led the industry.

1959 Buick Invicta - photo via driveshare.com
Special and Century names were replaced for '59.  This is the new body with Chrysler-inspired tail fins.  A lot less unnecessary chrome decoration.  Interesting sculpting, but not a very successful design.  As mentioned, Bill Mitchell's influence did not really kick in until the 1961 models arrived.

Profile Evolution of Buick Roadmaster/Electra Sedans, 1949-85

I seem to post a lot about American car styling in the post- World War 2 decade or two.  One reason is because I was alive then, and remember those cars when they were new.  Another is that such styling was quite interesting, sometimes even significant.  Besides, body forming technology had reached the point where interesting shapes could be mass-produced.  And government regulations forcing wind-tunnel influenced shaping had yet to occur.

Today, side views of Buick's line-topping Roadmaster and successor Electra over ten generations are presented.  (Buick's Series 90 Limited, its prewar top dog, was not revived after the war -- aside from 1958, when a Series 700 Limited on a Roadmaster chassis was marketed.) 

Until 1957, General Motors was widely considered the American car industry's styling leader under the helm of Harley Earl.  His pre-retirement designs indicated a loss of design touch, as can be seen on 1957-1960 GM products.  His successor Bill Mitchell righted the ship during the 1960s.  But his skills began to show decline in the early 1970s, and the effects of the 1973 oil crisis and government regulations lessened design quality.  He retired in 1977, and by 1980 or soon after, GM styling became largely mediocre.

General Motors' declining market share was another problem, in that it had to economize when developing new models, with examples from different brands often looking more similar than they needed to be.  I was keenly aware of these budget problems by the early 1980s when I became a consultant to the firm.

All that said, looking at examples of Buick sedans (hardtop and B-pillared, according to what was being marketed) might be interesting.

Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1949 Buick Roadmaster
The first postwar design for Buick on GM's C-body shared with Cadillac and Oldsmobile 98s.  A pleasant design, though the rear fender seems heavy in this photo.  Note the cascading shapes at the aft end of the car.  Plus the first appearance of the brand's trademark "portholes" on the front fender; Roadmasters got four of these, lesser models fewer.

1950 Buick Roadmaster - factory photo
GM's 1948-49 C-bodies were replaced for 1950.  I don't think this was a design improvement -- especially the busy fender treatment and overall bulk.

1954 Buick Roadmaster - via curbsideclassics.com
1954 Buicks were considered futuristic due to wraparound (panoramic) windshields.  The fenderline was raised, hoods and trunk lids flattened.  Note the Sweepspear chrome trim on the side.  This first appeared on some 1949 Roadmasters and were common on Buicks in the early 1950s.

1957 Buick Roadmaster
This design is nice, but seemed heavy compared to the new, sleek, tailfinned Chryslers.

1958 Buick Roadmaster
So it was given this crash-job facelift for '58, a strong argument that Harley Earl was losing his powers.

1959 Buick Electra
All GM brands got new bodies for 1959.  Buick models were renamed , a bad marketing decision in my judgement -- I never thereafter could keep track of Buick's model hierarchy.  No portholes, no Sweepspear.  Barrowings from Chrysler included flatter roofs and tail fins.

1961 Buick Electra 225
Panoramic windshields and tail fins disappeared for 1961's redesign (or possible drastic facelift).  Here the front fender is extended to a pointed form to provide additional physical and visual length.

1965 Buick Electra 225
Same 126-inch (3200 mm) wheelbase, but visually and actually (4.9 inches, 125 mm) longer.  The passenger compartment greenhouse seems quite short, the hood and trunk lid quite long.  Simple shapes, horizontal trim and character line, "porthole" strips neatly aligned to the latter.  Nothing wrong from a professional design standpoint, given the "package" styling staff had to deal with.  Bottom line: package too long, shaping and ornamentation too bland.

1971 Buick Electra 225
Slightly longer than the 1965 generation car, but softer shaping: subtle improvement.  Interesting that the side chrome trim is similar to that seen on the 1959 Roadmaster.  This is the last of the long Roadmasters/Electras.

1977 Buick Electra 225 Limited
First of the shrunken Electras, and the last styled under Bill Mitchell.  Simple, like the 1965 version.  Perhaps too simple for a top-of-the-line car positioned at the lower edge of the Cadillac brand.

1985 Buick Electra
Shrunken further, to the point it doesn't seem like a luxury Buick (on the outside, anyway).  GM's styling director was Irv Rybicki, under whose leadership GM styling reached a possibly budget-influenced low point.  The Buick design team was led by the competent Bill Porter, who did the best he could given the package he had to work with.  1985-1990 Electras were the last of the line

1962 Buick Skylark Walkaround

In my 10 September 2018 post "The Outstanding 1962 Buick Skylark Sport Coupe" I wrote:

"I suspect that most readers of this blog have warm places in their hearts for some of the cars their families had when they were young.  That's certainly true for me.  One of those cars was the 1962 Buick Skylark Sport Coupe with the body painted black and the top painted white.  Plus having a red interior."

Today's post is a Walkaround regarding that design.  Some Skylark background is here.

As noted in a caption below, subject car photos were taken using a wide-angle lens.  That made the car look longer, sleeker than actuality.  Yet I used that set because the expected eight viewpoints were available (decent images sets of 1961/62 Skylarks are still rare on the Web).  Also, because the car had monochrome paint, the photos provide a better feeling for body sculpting.

Gallery

1961 Buick Skylark Coupe - General Motors photos
First-year Skylarks were coupes with fixed B-pillars.  For 1962 they became hardtop coupes with no visible B-pillars.

Most 1961/62 Skylarks were two-tone.  The 1962 model my parents owned had a black-and-while scheme such as the one shown here.

1962 Buick Skylark Hardtop Coupe - car-for-sale photos
Frontal styling is quite similar to that of standard-size '61 Buicks.  The main differences are grille bars and small pseudo-bumper guards on the larger cars.

This image is a test of the preceding one that was probably taken with a lens set in the wide-angle direction.  Nowadays many car photos seen via the Internet are wide-angle.  Sometimes that is necessary -- when the subject is in a cramped area where the photographer cannot stand away far enough that a normal setting can include the entire car.  The GM photo here was taken by a professional and can be considered essentially accurate.  The previous photo shows the car as being longer.  Try to ignore the distortion and focus on design details.

Buick's "compact" Special line included coupes with the same body as seen here.  Skylarks can be distinguished from mere Specials thanks to the wraparound tail light assemblies.

Rear detailing is horizontal-rectangular, unlike the multi-shaped sculpting on many of today's cars and SUVs.

The rear deck flares outward over the rear fender zone, a continuation of a form beginning at the front end.

That unifying sculpting is seen better here.  The lower sculpted line subtly hints at Buick's classic SweepSpear side-chrome motif such as found on 1953 Skylarks.  Front fenders sport rectangular echoes of Buick's 1949 "portholes."

The pointed fender fronts found here and all 1961 Buicks disappeared on standard-size 1962 Buicks, but were retained on Specials and Skylarks until 1963.

And an example of the red interior.

General Motors' 1961 "Pointed" Fender Ends: Buick Front, Olds Rear

Designers of clothing have a profound constraint on their creativity: the human body.  Even so, the variations in design over the centuries in the West have been astonishing.

Automobile stylists have their own constraints.  Setting aside production economic considerations, there are engineering factors such as weight distribution (largely engine placement), front wheel turning angles, shipping size limitations, and others that serve as background.  Closer to the drawing board or computer terminal are packaging details.  Those include headroom, legroom, door shaping, and outside visibility (window placement and shapes).  Even so, there have been hundreds of distinct car designs since styling was professionalized in the late 1920s.

Thanks to such constraints, styling creativity often is a matter of details imposed and then discarded as means of making a new design or freshening it during a facelift.  This detail churn was strongest in the USA during the era of annual model changes roughly early 1930s into the 1970s (nowadays facelifts are less frequent).

Today's post deals with similar details that existed on two General Motors brands during model year 1961 only: "pointed" in profile front fenders on Buicks, and rear end profiles on Oldsmobiles.

Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1960 Buick LeSabre
This was a hardtop coupe facelifted version of a 1959 design.

1961 Buick Invicta - factory photo
It was replaced by a new design (or just possibly a major facelift) for 1961.  Note the front fender's leading edge.  It curves to a point that extends forward of the front of the hood.  Lesser pointing can be seen at the car's rear.  These yielded increased visual and actual length to the car as viewed from the side.

1961 Buick Skylark - factory photo
Even the new "compact" Buicks received the same treatment at the front.

1962 Buick LeSabre
But that feature was abandoned when standard size Buicks were facelifted for 1962.

1960 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
The rear deck became a sort of horizontal tailfin with a narrow rear fenderline point suggested.

1961 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
Here the rear fender's aft shaping is a curved taper to a point similar in feeling to the '61 Buick's front fender design.  Again, the concept was to increase the impression of length.

1962 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
Like Buick, the 1962 facelift dropped the points and squared-up the design.  Apparently, GM styling honcho Bill Mitchell decided that visual length was now less a priority.

General Motors' 1961 Y-Body Coupes

The title above refers to 1961 model year cars, but most 1962 versions had essentially the same styling as the '61s.  So I'll include 1962 examples in the Gallery below.

I compared styling of 1961 generation "compact" (Y-platform) 4-door sedans here.  Today's post deals with coupes.

This platform was noticeably smaller than the "standard" size cars produced by Detroit's three largest automobile makers. For example, Oldsmobile's compact F-85 had a wheelbase of 112 inches (2845 mm) compared to 123 inches (3124 mm) for its standard size 88 models.

This was in response to American Motors Corporation's Rambler compact car line that was rapidly increasing its market share in the late 1950s, while Studebaker introduced its compact Lark model for 1959.

Chrysler Corporation introduced its compact Valiant for the 1960 model year, and Ford Motor Company launches its Ford Falcon and Mercury Comet compact cars for 1961.

As was the case for brands and models sharing the same basic platform, Y-body cars shared many features in the interest of development/production economy as well as brand-specific differences needed for marketing purposes.

Unless noted, images below are of for-sale cars.

Gallery

1961 Pontiac Tempest - BaT Auctions photo
Model year 1961 saw the return of Pontiac's two-segment grille that was introduced for 1959, but abandoned for '60.  Thereafter, two-segment was a visual brand identifier for Pontiac.  The grille design seen here differs from two-segment grilles on 1961 standard size Pontiacs.

1962 Pontiac Tempest LeMans
For some reason, Tempests lost the two-segment theme for 1962, yet returned to it for '63.  An odd repeat of the 1959-1960-1961 pattern of the standard size line.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass
"Cutlass" was used to denote F-85 coupes.  Later, it was applied across much of Oldsmobile's line.  The car pictured here has fancier trim than the Pontiacs shown above.  That would be expected becuase Oldsmobile was one notch ahead of Pontiac in General Motors' brand portfolio.

1962 Buick Special
Buick Specials featured the same projecting, tapered leading fender profile as standard size '61 Buicks had.  All 1961 Y-body coupes were just that -- Buick added a hardtop (pillarless) version for '62, as did Olds.  There were no compact Pontiac hardtop coupes until the 1964 redesign.

1962 Pontiac Tempest
Fronts and rears differed for reasons of brand identity.  Sides were more uniform.  The bold, near-beltline character sculpting is found on all 1961 Y-body coupes.  Tempests had a faux air exhaust vent abaft of the front wheel opening with an attached character line extending back over the rear wheel opening.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass
No faux air vent, but the lower character line is the same as Pontiac's.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire - Jay Leno Collection
The Jetfire hardtop coupe was added to the F-85 line for 1962.

1962 Buick Special - BaT Auctions
1962 Specials looked nearly the same as '61s from the side.  The lower character line and side sculpting differs from Tempest's and F-85's.  The line does touch the tops of the wheel openings, however.

1961 Buick Skylark
Buick's '62 hardtop coupe.

1962 Pontiac Tempest LeMans
Rear quarter views.  This car lacks vinyl roof covering, revealing the crisp metal sculpting.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass
Similar to the Tempest.

1962 Buick Special - BaT Auctions
Buicks ranked above Oldsmobiles in GM's hierarchy.  So side sculpting takes a scooped-out form.  The backlight window is wider than on the other cars.

1991-96 Chevrolet Caprice Sedan

Because of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the gasoline shortage it caused, also Federal regulations related to fuel economy, by the late 1970s American "standard size" car models were becoming smaller.  So by the late 1990s, Chevrolet's new Caprice sedans struck me as being almost too large.   Their wheelbase was 115.9 inches (2944 mm) and their length 214.1 inches (5438 mm).  That length was in line with most standard American cars of the 1950-1975 period.

Other B-body cars of that generation at General Motors were the Buick Roadmaster with the same wheelbase, and the longer Cadillac Fleetwood, both higher-priced than the $16,500-$18,500 Caprice (respectively around $23,000 and $34,000).

Ford launched its competing Crown Victoria for the 1992 model year.  That car was almost the same size as the Caprice, and it had similar styling features.  Interestingly, at that time I didn't consider Crown Vics as heavy-looking as Caprices.  A likely reason why can be found in the photo captions below.

Gallery

1991 Chevrolet Caprice Classic - via Car and Driver
Long passenger compartment greenhouse and comparatively short hood and trunk lid.  Also, six windows.

1992 Buick Roadmaster - car-for-sale photo
The Buick version had four windows, a large C-pillar zone, and a less-tapered aft roof profile.

1993 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham - car-for-sale photo
The wheelbase is 121.5 inches (3086 mm), length 225 inches (5715 mm).  That permitted a more formal greenhouse design.

1992 Ford Crown Victoria - Mecum Auctions photo
The Ford Crown Victoria  is surprisingly similar to the Caprice shown in the image below.  Greenhouses have six windows.  Doors and door post angles are similar.  Ditto frontal profiles and side trim.  I suppose basic dimensions and passenger packaging factors played a part in this similarity, along with wind tunnel test results.  Still, I have to wonder if there wasn't a whiff of industrial espionage going on during development of both designs.

1993 Chevrolet Caprice Classic - BaT Auctions photos
Note how the roof profile flows onto the trunk area.  I think this fairly small detail caused me to consider the design to seem "heavy," despite that huge amount of glass area.

A clean, though not exciting, design as seen from the front quarter.

The roofline flow seen from a normal viewing perspective.  Note how high the trunk lid is and how the flow relates to it.  Some visual heaviness is found here.

High quarter view.  The backlight window is huge -- larger than necessary.  The whole rear area seems heavy-looking, unlike the more conventional Crown Victoria.