Chrysler Styling Pendulum Swings, 1965-2005

In a number of things we encounter in life there are two extreme possibilities, and over time fashion or circumstances lead to pendulum-like swings in the direction of one extreme or the other.

To some degree, that can be seen in aspects of automobile styling.  One set of extremes is: (1) very squared-off, angular designs such as could be found on late-1920s cars, and (2) highly-rounded designs such as those seen in America around 1936 or 1937.

Today's post features senior-level models of the Chrysler brand such as the New Yorker over the four-decade period 1965-2005.  The designs are not as extreme as those just noted, yet nevertheless document the brand's design swings.  To some degree these shifts were simply a need perceived by senior styling and marketing executives that it was Time For A Change.  However, in the 1990s  aerodynamic efficiency requirements were likely an additional factor.

Images below are of cars for sale or factory-sourced unless otherwise noted.

Gallery

1929 Chrysler 65
First, an example of 1920s square styling.

1937 Chrysler Royal
And the 1930s rounded style.

1965 Chrysler New Yorker - Mecum auction photo
Chryslers were redesigned for 1965 in an angular form.

1965 Chrysler New Yorker
This is especially evident in his side view of the same car.

1965 Chrysler New Yorker
The general feeling, enhanced by the chrome strip atop the fender, is Elwood Engel's carryover theme from his classic 1961 Lincoln Continental design.

1969 Chrysler New Yorker Newport Coupe
Then the pendulum swung towards roundedness in the form of Chrysler Corporation's "fuselage" styling.

1969 Chrysler New Yorker Newport Coupe
Retained was the large front and rear overhang.

1969 Chrysler New Yorker Newport Coupe
The fuselage look was due to curved sides and strong passenger compartment greenhouse tumblehome.

1974 Chrysler Newport 4-door hardtop - Mecum
The next redesign moved away from a rounded look.

1979 Chrysler New Yorker
And the one after that was quite angular.

1983 Chrysler Fifth Avenue
Extreme angularity is seen on the brand's K-car derived line.

1993 Chrysler Concorde
Then the pendulum moved back towards curves in the form of the "cabover" format.

1994 Chrysler New Yorker
A variation was the Jaguar-style tucked-down shaping the the aft end of the passenger greenhouse.

1998 Chrysler Concorde
Redesigned Concordes for 1998 and derivatives were quite rounded.

2005 Chrysler 300C
Then an abrupt return to angularity with the new 300C design that remains in production in facelifted form.

2005 Chrysler 300C
Rear quarter view.  The German license plate is due to Chrysler being owned by Daimler-Benz at the time.

2005 Chrysler 300C
Side view.  Much less overhang than in the late '60s and early 1970s.

1934 Studebaker Land Cruiser

Studebaker redesigned its line for the 1934 model year.  Perhaps the most interesting example was its Land Cruiser four-door sedan with a four-segment back window.

The Land Cruiser name was used later for top-of-the-line Studebakers and has been used since 1951 for a four-wheel drive Toyota line.  Some background regarding the Studebaker Land Cruiser is here.

The design essentially was a different aft-end (starting at the B-pillar) based on standard four-door sedans.  It had the newly fashionable streamlined appearance and featured a large, for the times, enclosed trunk.  Land Cruisers were offered on all three Studebaker lines for the 1934 and 1935 model years.

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1934 Studebaker Commander Land Cruiser
"Streamlining" took the form of the double-curved rear profile with rounded edges.  The four-piece back window ensemble was necessary due to its width and use of flat glass panes -- curved automobile glass was an expensive rarity in 1934.

1934 Studebaker Commander Land Cruiser
This photo might have been taken at a large Studebaker dealership.

1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow - Blackhawk photo
Studebaker owned Pierce-Arrow in the early 1930s, so it has been speculated that Phil Wright's sensational Silver Arrow design might have influenced Land Cruiser styling to some degree.

Rear quarter view showing the integral trunk and a two-segment back window using flat glass panes.

1934 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow - RM Auctions photo
Pierce-Arrow became independent of Studebaker in 1933, but the production two-door Silver Arrow model for 1934 was related to Studebaker's four-door 1934 Land Cruisers.  Compare the shaping of the rears of the two cars.

1934 Studebaker Commander Land Cruiser
Now for some photos I took of a Land Cruiser several years ago at the LeMay museum in Tacoma.  The front end is 1934 Studebaker featuring a mild "shovel-nose" grille.

The hood contains an in-line eight cylinder motor, so it's commendably long.  The passenger compartment seems rather small and perhaps cramped.

The back window design is interestingly awkward, but the rest of the rear styling is pleasant and advanced for its time.  Land Cruisers had spatted rear wheel openings that furthered the visual streamlining theme.

1934 Studebaker President Land Cruiser - Image via Hemmings
One way to distinguish top-of-the-line President Land Cruisers from Commanders is the decoration on the rear wheel spats.  Entry-level Dictators had six-cylinder motors, shorter hoods, and closely-spaced vertical-cut hood louvres.  I could not find a useful image on the Internet, though some might exist.

Chrysler Corporation's 1969 "Fuselage" Style

Chrysler Corporation redesigned the bodies of its largest cars for the 1969 model year.  The previous bodies for that class were rather boxy, but the new design was sleeker, softer looking.  A term used to describe that style was "fuselage," implying the look of an aircraft.  So far as I can tell, that term was not officially used by Chrysler.

Below is a set of images showing how the basic design was interpreted by the various Chrysler Corporation divisions.  Examples are two-door hardtop coupes, four-door hardtop sedans, and a non-hardtop four-door sedan.  Not shown are convertibles.  The images are mostly of cars listed for sale.  One image is indeterminate, and the others are via Chrysler.

Gallery

1969 Imperial
The Imperial was Chrysler's luxury brand, and this is the four-door hardtop sedan model that lacks a full-height B-pillar.

1969 Imperial
Passenger compartment greenhouses featured tumblehome (upwardly-curved sides), and this enhanced the fuselage effect.

1969 Chrysler New Yorker
Now for comparative side views of hardtop sedans.  The Chrysler's wheelbase was 124 inches (3150 mm).

1969 Dodge Monaco
Dodge wheelbases were 122 inches (3099 mm), and the difference can be seen at the aft edge of the rear door which is shaped differently from the Chrysler's.  Also, the rear side window's profile is rounded, not angular.

1969 Plymouth Fury
The wheelbase for Plymouths was 120 inches (3048 mm).  The rear door shape is the same as the Dodge's, but the gap between it and the rear wheel opening is about two inches (50 mm) less.

1969 Chrysler New Yorker
Front quarter views of hardtop coupes.  The main differences are in the grille-bumper ensembles.

1969 Dodge Polara
A more plain-looking grille than Chrysler's.

1969 Plymouth Fury
Plymouths lacked the large chrome grille surround and the chrome element at the fender fronts.  The grille itself is rather plain.  However, the overall effect is pleasant aside from the two tacked-on bumper guards.

1969 Chrysler New Yorker
Rear quarter view showing Chrysler's wide taillight assembly that's surrounded by chrome  echoing the front end design.

1969 Dodge Polara
Dodges got more self-contained taillight assemblies.

1969 Plymouth Fury
Plymouth rear ends were more Spartan with simple bumpers.

1969 Chrysler 300
The original 1955 300s were sporty hardtop coupes.  But model-creep set in and here we find a tame hardtop sedan marketed as a 300.

1969 Chrysler 300
The 300's grille is a "gunsight" theme later used by Dodge for many years until recently.

1935 Chrysler Airstream and Its Cousins

Chrysler's 1934 Airflow is famous (among car buffs, at least) for being a bold production design with features ahead of its time.  While now given much respect, in its day it was a derided sales failure.

Chrysler Corporation quickly decided to augment and promote for the 1935 model year an alternative, conventional (for the time) model that was given the name Airstream.  That was because, for 1934, only about 11,000 Chrysler Airflows were built and the conventional CA and CB models reached a production total of around 25,000.  That proved to be a good decision because for 1935 only about 8,000 Airflows were built, compared to around 41,000 Airstreams.

Chrysler and DeSoto Airstreams used a new body design originally intended for use mostly by the corporation's Dodge and Plymouth brands.

Below is a set of comparative images.  Unless noted, their sources are Chrysler and cars-for-sale Web sites.

Gallery

1934 Chrysler CU Airflow
The original Airflow design.  Perhaps its most controversial feature was its stubby, rounded front end at a time when tall, long hoods were the norm.

1935 Chrysler Airstream - Hyman consignment photo
A four-door sedan Chrysler Airstream -- conventional circa-1935 styling.

1935 Dodge four-door sedan
The Dodge on the same body has a good deal less flashy chrome than the Chrysler.

1935 Plymouth four-door sedan - Mecum auction photo
The entry-level Plymouth is also plain compared to the Chrysler.

1935 DeSoto Airstream
Yet another variation of the same basic body.  DeSoto Airflows and Airstreams had similar grille design elements.

1935 Chrysler Airflow
For the record, a 1935 Chrysler Airflow.  Like DeSoto, its grille elements are similar to those used on Airstreams as a matter of preserving brand identity.  Note that the front end is not quite so flatly rounded as in 1934.

Front view of the '34 Airstream shown above.

And a rear quarter view.

Packard Station Sedan: An Ur- Crossover SUV

Today's post is a follow-on to this 2014 post about the Packard Station Sedan.

I consider typical SUVs (Sport-Utility Vehicles) a form of station wagon (or "break").  That's because of the basic shape of their exteriors, internal layouts, and rear access.  Early SUVs were body-on-chassis, the chassis being from a manufacturer's truck line.  Later came the "crossover" SUVs whose bodies were sedan-like, in that they were unitary -- chassis-less.

Packard's Station Sedan, introduced for the 1948 model year was based on the short (120-inch) wheelbase Eight four-door sedan.  The station wagon feature was minimal, compared to pre-1949 station wagons from other American carmakers.  Those had bodies abaft of the cowling that were largely wood-framed and wood-clad.

Station Sedans therefore were far more automobile-like than station wagons of their era and even of most more modern wagons.  That's why Packard's coined-term "Station Sedan" seems appropriate.

Gallery

1948 22nd Series Packard Deluxe Eight Sedan - Mecum auction photo
This was the basis for Station Sedans.

1948 Packard Station Sedan - Bonhams auction photo
Compare this profile view with the one above.  The passenger compartment greenhouses as far aft as the C-pillar are the same.  So are the aft fender areas and adjacent side metal.

1948 Packard Station Sedan - Mecum
Wood items framing the front and rear door windows along with the other wood on the doors are strictly ornamental, giving the car a late-1940s station wagon "feel."

1948 Packard Station Sedan - Mecum
This view shows the station wagon area.  The body sides taper slightly towards the rear, making the cargo area significantly smaller than those of contemporary station wagons.  Note the large, painted hinges below the tailgate.

1948 Packard Station Sedan - Mecum
Interior of the cargo area, back seat folded down.  This is the most station wagon- like aspect of the car.

1950 Packard Station Sedan - car-for-sale photo
The other Internet images I found of what were said to be 23rd Series 1950 Station Sedans (Packard might have termed them Station Wagons by then) are of cars with the wood trim shown in previous images.  This car has 23rd Series chrome side trim, and might well have been a rare "production" job -- perhaps a special order by a customer.  Total Station Sedan production was low and few were sold during the 1950 model year.  Interestingly, a Packard model-line poster for dealers I found on the Web did not include a Station Sedan with models shown as available for sale.