Just for fun, let's pretend it's 1949 and that we're shopping for a 4-door sedan in the luxury market sector. Also, that our main selection criterion is styling. Pictured below are examples of the cars competing for our money.
Cadillacs got redesigned bodies for the 1948 model year. The main styling change for '49 was a new, bolder grille design. Cadillac shared its basic body with Buick Supers and Roadmasters as well as Oldsmobile 98s. Under the hood was a totally new V-8 motor.
Redesigned Chryslers didn't appear in showrooms until partway into the 1949 model year. The basic body was shared by all four Chrysler divisions. New Yorkers featured a longer hood and front end than lesser brands such as Dodge and Plymouth.
The Cosmopolitans body was shared with no other Ford Motors Company cars -- not even a lower-priced Lincoln line (that used the same body as Mercurys). The design here is rather massive, influenced to some degree by prewar concepts of "streamlining."
I don't have good images of 1949 Packard Custom Eights, but the 1948 version looked essentially the same. Unlike the postwar designs pictured above, 1948-1950 Packards were heavily facelifted Packard Clippers whose styling first appeared in 1941. Aside from convertibles, 1949 Packards have tended to be little appreciated for their looks. The Custom Eight was the top of Packard's line -- other Packards being sub-luxury.
Ah, the famous Cadillac tail fins in their original form! From today's perspective, they don't seem like much. But in 1949-1950 they were marketing magic -- one could even buy aftermarket fins to attach to your Chevrolet.
Chrysler's design is often characterized as "boxy." Practical, in a number of ways including passenger comfort, but not graceful or exciting. Country Club parking lot valets would give New Yorkers a yawn while waiting for the next Cadillac to show up.
Not a bad design, but it had to wait until its 1951 facelift for it to reach its limited potential.
What ruined the facelift of 1947 Clippers was the new fenderline. It gave the car awkwardly massive sides that did not match well with the passenger compartment greenhouse.
Which car would I have bought, given its styling? Cadillac, of course. Not an exceptional design. But competently done, as Harley Earl's designs usually were in those days. The competing designs all had defects that tended to negate any positive styling features.
why the New Yorker, and not the Imperial which was the top Chrysler?
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I should have known. In my very feeble defense, let me plead that only 135 second-series 1949 Chrysler Imperials were made, the majority being 8-passenger limousines -- a category I purposely ignored for the post.
ReplyDeleteI mostly could only find photos of the '49 limo. The one I found of a sedan looked a lot like a NYer.
DeleteTo clarify: I really didn't get the '49 Chrysler Imperial on my radar while drafting the post. Shoulda.
ReplyDeleteThe Packard was obviously a prewar design with the front and rear fenders blended together. The Chrysler was a stretched Plymouth and the most prewar-like in design and construction of the Big 3. Both had prewar flathead straight 8s and two-flat-planes windshields. The Cadillac and Lincoln had curved windshields, and the Lincoln's was one piece. The overall Cadillac styling was the wave of the future but the Lincoln's as it turned out wasn't. At least the Lincoln had a V8, but not the new OHV type and no automatic until next year either.
ReplyDeleteNone of them had power steering so I think I'd get something smaller. But the one I love is the Lincoln Cosmo (with a modern powertrain and AT, PS, PB and AC!)