Automobile Enthusiasts
Related: About this forumThe Most Popular Car the Year You Were Born
1951: Studebaker Starlight Coupe
Despite not surviving long enough to see out the decade, Studebaker, in name alone, screams "1950s!" loud and clear. The 1951 Starlight Coupe featured an innovative wraparound greenhouse rear window that, nearly 60 years on, looks sharp, futuristic, and just plain cool. No one would ever call the Starlight a weird vehicle, then or now, but the same cannot be said of these truly wacky cars.
1954 to 1955: Chevrolet Bel-Air
Come 1954, cars in the United States were more affordable and being made safer and easier to drive. Power steering and automatic transmission were in more than 50 percent of new models. GM also introduced a new invention called the "Autotronic-Eye" which would automatically dim the high beams when a car would approach and then turn them back up when the oncoming car passed (something not even standard in all new cars today!). By 1954 and 1955, one of the most iconic rides of this era was now being offered with power brakes, power 2-way front seat, and power front windows. It was also available in stunning seafoam green. Interior carpet, a Ferrari-inspired grille, V8 engine, and 2-speed automatic transmission also helped to make Chevy's "Hot One" a popular car in the mid-1950s. Find out what your favorite car color says about you.
1964: Ford Mustang
Zero to 60 Times says it best when it comes to the Mustang: "Probably the single most iconic '60s car in America, the 1964 Mustang started a revolution. Good looking and cheap, the original Mustang wasn't fast, but offered a V8 option that showed the capability of the design."
1972: VW Beetle
Sadly gone today, the Beetle was unlike any other vehicle for much of its 65 years. No car aside from the Model T is more instantly recognizable. It was with the 1972 model that the VW Beetle overtook Ford's famous Model T as the world's all-time most-produced automobile.
Much more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/the-most-popular-car-the-year-you-were-born/ss-AAJjFl3?ocid=spartanntp
sop
(11,102 posts)Rhiannon12866
(221,384 posts)And that Beetle does look pretty new. But I just used the photos they had in the article.
ZZenith
(4,314 posts)bucolic_frolic
(46,825 posts)My dad had one, I think it was a '63. $1875 brand new. Amazing storage capacity for its size. Had a handle in front of the passenger seat, mounted on the dashboard above the glove compartment, to hold onto. I remember standing up in the front and holding it.
tecelote
(5,141 posts)The old beetles could float across a flooded road. My Dad did it once proving my Mom right that he really was a bit crazy.
3Hotdogs
(13,363 posts)ChazInAz
(2,772 posts)Had to play submarine a couple of times when I misjudged the depths of those Central Illinois puddles, but that was in the Sixties.
The most "popular" (Read "available".) car when and where I was born was a Trabant, and it was roundly hated!
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)BumRushDaShow
(141,657 posts)I remember while working as a counselor there for new students over a summer, one of our fellow counselors had one and on July 4th, we fit 9 of us in one and drove from Amherst, MA to Brewster, MA on the Cape (a bit more than 90 miles). On the trip back, we only 7 in there (the other 2 hopped a ride in another car).
It's unbelievable how "small" they look on the outside but with the bench seats front and back, they were roomy as hell inside.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Everyone rode dinosaurs 🦕 .
keithbvadu2
(39,955 posts)3Hotdogs
(13,363 posts)Jeep.
TNNurse
(7,105 posts)Rhiannon12866
(221,384 posts)My Dad was born in January 1928 and my grandmother said that my grandfather kept driving their car around the block so it didn't freeze while she was in the small town hospital giving birth. I never thought to ask her what kind of car that was...
Dem2theMax
(10,257 posts)To this day, I am so mad at myself for selling it.
bluedigger
(17,145 posts)Two friggin' months earlier, and I could of had a Cadillac!
Eugene
(62,627 posts)1963, according to the article. The Chevy Impala is prominent in other searches.
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marble falls
(62,014 posts)Response to Rhiannon12866 (Original post)
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