General Motors' 1959 All-Brands Body Variations

The Styling of General Motors' 1957-58 Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs and its 1958 Chevrolets and Pontiacs was noticeably more rounded (even bloated, perhaps?) than that of most of its competition.  Sales suffered.  So an across-the-board crash redesign project was launched, resulting in every GM brand sharing essentially the same basic body (with variations, as shown below) for model year 1959.  This was in stark contrast to GM's policy since around 1940 of having three basic bodies, each used by some, but not all, of its brands.

I discussed how the 1959 bodies appeared on Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs here using four-door hardtops as the basis for comparison.

In the present post, variations on this basic body are illustrated.  Buick is used because it was the only brand where all such sub-types were marketed.  Images below are of cars listed for sale unless otherwise noted.  Since all the cars were essentially the same from the middle of their front doors forward, all the photos save the station wagon's show rear quarter views, where the differences are concentrated.

Gallery

Two-door sedan: LeSabre was Buick's newly (and confusingly) renamed entry level line, replacing Special. Only LeSabre offered two-door Buick sedans. Roofs were more rounded on '59 GM sedans and station wagons than on hardtops. The latter are nowadays sometimes referred to as "flat-roof" cars.

Four-door sedan: Another LeSabre, though Buick also offered 4-door sedans on its Invicta (formerly Super) and Electra (ex-Roadmaster) lines, but not on its luxury Electra 225 models.

Station wagon: LeSabre Estate Wagon.

Two-door hardtop coupe: This from the Buick Electra line, Electras being the top level, but just short of Electra 225s.  Back windows ("backlights") on GM's hardtop coups and 2-door sedans were tall, quite possibly admitting too much direct sunlight for comfort on the necks of back-seat passengers on summer days.

Four-door hardtop sedan, four-window type: Also an Electra.  This model had a huge amount of glass-area that was minimally obstructed by window frames (by the B-pillar stub) and the A- and C-pillars.  This is the model I used in the post cited above for brand comparisons.

Four-door hardtop sedan, six-window type: Only Electra 225s had six-window hardtops, and the only others of this GM body type were sold by Cadillac.  I don't have a source for this photo.

Convertible: An Electra 225 convertible, factory publicity photo.  I find it interesting because the car is posed by a Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop-powered airliner that entered service in January 1959.  The plane is painted in an Allison scheme, Allison being a General Motors division that built the turboprop motors for the Electra transports.  Chalk this photo up as a Double Whammy advertising coup.