Hello, We grew up in the General Motors era of cars. The styling was pretty cool looking, but if one notices, the “look” ran the similar design, with a few changes to each model or version of the make. The Pontiacs looked like Chevys, the Buicks looked like the Oldsmobile line, etc. The Cadillac stood out, but for most, they were out of reach. It had to do with tooling and good designs from the designers and stylists. Each following group of car buyers liked a specific model, so a Pontiac was purchased despite the so similar look as we can see these days. The owners were name brand specific and did not care just as they were driving the model/brand of choice, even from General Motors. Our dad like Buicks from 1941 onwards. Every 4 years, he saved enough to get a new model as he traded in his old family sedan. To him, it did not matter that some Buicks looked like Oldsmobiles. He was driving a Buick! My brother and I tried to get him to buy a fancy Volvo or a Mercedes sedan, but his penchant for American made cars was in line with the “goods” made in the USA. The best design he purchased was his first Buick Riviera in 1963. He liked it so much that he sold his Buick Wildcat sedan after owning it for several months when the new Riviera design hit the market. This time he kept the sleek Buick for 6 years, not his standard 4 year run. Nothing wrong with that idea, as for us, they (USA factories) were the only ones who made nice looking cars that had the options of going fast with a few additional items from the factory shelves. But, there certainly were no qualms about cruising around in a nice Mercedes convertible with leather seats and A/C when the top was up. They were the “magnet” cars for cruising, but not for the majority of us that drove fast USA made hot rods. Jnaki Individuality was a key in growing up during the 50s and certainly during the 60’s. But in car design, it started to move in the different directions due to government restrictions and implications. So, the designs were now taking a back seat to different looks for the buying public. Larger is not better, but that was a fading aspect of the general car buying public. By the time we got to the 30s in age and styling, the GM factories were now hard pressed to compete with the influx of accepted foreign cars with a little pizazz in styling and design. It has been that way for a long time and seems to have a following again. YRMV
that is an incredible job willys36, the detail is great. what are the ( cant spell the other word that starts with a d so Im saying) measurements?
I would expect as someone has already said it has a lot to do with manufacturing techniques. A lot of early cars had flat glass. There was a change to curved glass. This could have been driven by the glass suppliers. Once they perfected the technique to produce curved windscreens they would have there company rep going to each company to show the new style. This would be extended across just about every component. The loss of running boards would increase interior space.
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