When new cars were exciting

[ocnblu]

Spy shots just aren't the same...

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[Intrepidation]

Yeah, now we only get spyshots of cars in places like the Nürburgring doing more than sitting on a train. Truly these are the end of times!

We don't really get videos narrated by a guy who is about to pass out from excitement though.

[ocnblu]

Well, ya know, back in the day with year-to-year styling changes, there WAS a heightened sense of excitement every fall, when showroom windows would be whitewashed to keep the new model year cars hidden until introduction day. There were no 4-year previews then. Nowadays, we get sick of seeing the Next Big Thing before it even hits the road.

[balthazar]

^ ocnblu said it.

Another point to consider: if you look at the degree of change from -say- 1950 to 1960 in cars, and look at the degree of change from -say- 1990 to 2010 in cars..... you can understand the tepid response today.

[hyperv6]

The cost of major year to year redesigns were done by the early 70's.

I could remember my Great Uncle who was a retired GM engineer would order two new cars every spring and have them come in late Aug. The dealer then would have to hide them at the dealer because they could not let the public see them. I always thought it was cool when I was a kid to go and get to see the cars a couple weeks before anyone else.

The pain part was we often had to wait far a couple weeks till GM would release the paperwork so he could pick them up.

The 1968 Chevelle was the sweet one for me. My dad ended up with my Great Uncles Chevelle Concouse. Later on I owned a 1968 Chevelle SS myself. The original owner told me it was the first 1968 Chevelle Jack Sommer Chevy sold and he gave me the paperwork from when he bought the car. Well I went home and pulled the file my Great Uncle kept on ever car he had since the 20's and found that my Chevelle was sold two days after my Dads. Odds are they came to the dealer on the same truck. What are the odds of that 25 years appart?

I have noted many of the automakers are getting better camao now and GM is talking new cars much less ahead. Maybe we can get back to some more suprises in the future again.

GM has had some good camao like the Vette under the Camaro Body and the new ATS under the CTS body.

The old days were fun!

Edited November 13, 2010 by hyperv6

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

I remember back in the in the 1970's and 1980's and up to a point in the 1990's when GM cars were spotted and you got photos in the magazines or on Motorweek . I remember when I saw a host of GM cars on the proving grounds taped up or undisguised and had no wheel covers and you had an idea what it was. The lowest point was when the downsized era cars were spied. Man, they looked so bad and so small compared to what was out there, it was a rough time. I remember when they could not tell them apart too. I remember when GM started upsizing and the prototypes were on the proving grounds. They would always refer to it being longer and wider and more. I remember the year to year model changes and I always looked forward to September and October for the new models, new catalogs, and new tv commercials.

Some I remember in my mind:

1986 Riviera and Toronado on the proving grounds

1987 Pontiac Bonneville pulling a u-haul

1989 Cadillac Deville in a parking lot

1986 Eldorado parked

1991 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight on the proving grounds

1992 Buick Roadmaster - in a parking lot

1991 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser- behind a fence

1988 Cutlass Supreme on the proving grounds

1988 Buick Regal on the test rack

1991 Chevrolet Caprice - with a lot of tape. It is on this website

[Robert Hall]

^ ocnblu said it.

Another point to consider: if you look at the degree of change from -say- 1950 to 1960 in cars, and look at the degree of change from -say- 1990 to 2010 in cars..... you can understand the tepid response today.

Yeah..cars from 1950 today look so ancient compared to 1960 cars...(I wonder if it seemed that way to observers in 1960?).

1960 cars don't look today quite as dated when compared to 1970 cars, likewise lesser for 1970 compared to 1980, or 1980 to 1990, etc..much more gradual evolution of styling in subsequent decades, with a couple big shifts--downsizing and squaring starting in the late '70s, followed by roundness replacing square in the late '80s.

I can remember excitedly waiting w/ anticipation for the September issue of Car & Driver (and later, Automobile magazine)...the 'Charting the Changes' section was always chock full of new and interesting changes for the coming model year, lots of surprises usually.

Nowdays, with everything on the internet months or years in advance, new car announcements are ho-hum and old news by the time they get to the print rags...not to mention that many new cars aren't introduced in the fall, but at random times during the year..

Edited November 15, 2010 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[hyperv6]

I just saw a 15 min GM promotional film on one of the Classic Movie Channels on the Corvair.

It showed the rebodied Prototype. It had been a while since I had seen a photo of these first Corvairs and forgot how East German they looked.

They really made the 1960 look really nice and modern.

It was fun to see how they showed the Corvair off road and even claimed how it was driven 20 mile in a stream with no ill effects on the car.

In a way it kind of reminded me on how Chevy is presenting the Volt as not just a new car but a new kind of car. this must have been a fairly shocking car just coming out of the finned 50's.

Edited November 16, 2010 by hyperv6

[NeonLX]

I'm an old-school gearhead to the max. Grew up in a family of serious gearheads. We spent most evenings and weekends building up cars or at least tuning them up. My dad, brother and uncles were all avid car fanatics. Even the women in our family were auto afficianados.

Just like my gearhead relatives, I could tell any vehicle's make, model and year up through about the mid-1970s. Heck, I could even tell a '51 DeSoto from a '52 within a split-second of viewing one. But as I drive down the roads today, I see vehicles coming & going that I don't even recognize. Couldn't even tell you what brand they are. Sadly, I don't even care in most cases.

I saw my first Cruze from the rear 3/4. Honestly, I thought it was a Corolla, though the roof looked more like a Chrysler Sebring's. Of course, the Chevy grille set me straight.