My father would drive me crazy when I was a kid. He would tap the steering wheel with his finger on our 58 imperial and the radio would change stations . I couldn’t see his left foot pushing a scan button
How about just the great names for everything! Dyna-flow, Dyna-ride, Seat-O-Matic, etc.. the great Marketing! Turboglide, PowerFlite, Cruise-O-Matic, UltraMatic, Flash-o-Matic, Hydramatic, Jetaway, TorsionAire,...
.....ventiports, etc. You'll recognize the handiwork of the late VERGIL EXNER, in both the front fascia and lamp array for the CHRYSLER IMPERIAL models shown and the closing, and his opus, the revised STUTZ models of the 70s forward
I’m an old retired mechanic and I miss the time when a fancy car WAS a fancy car. These days you can barely tell the difference between a base model and the top of the line.(mind you the base model just about has everything anyway...just none of them have class like these)
All cars are shit today. They have no class no style , nothing you would want to collect. The engineers/ designers today suck. Like Russia lol everything they design looks military. Cookie cutter cars in the US.
a 57 chevy actually had as an option, a "smoke sucker" in the ash tray so it would suck the smoke out and down out of the ash tray. they also had the reflector on top of the dash board to reflect the overhead stop lights so you could see them without craning your neck.
Were stop lights hung at the near side of the intersection back then, instead of across the street? A friend visiting from England in the 80s told me he never knew where to look for the traffic lights when he rode with me, because back home they hung the lights on the near side (which I thought was nuts). Your description of the reflector makes it sound like this was once standard in America, too!
@@carmium actually in some cities, they had crosswires going across the intersection like a big X and the semaphore had 4 sides and hung in the middle. so there was ONE signal light in the middle with 4 sides. I'm guessing they quit that when they got blown down by strong winds. Who knows? Remember also, some cars had a steel sun visor on the outside of the windshield. (like a baseball cap visor).
I saw party tricks and remembered back in’76 in high school a friend filled his wiper fluid with jack daniels and ran the hose up under the dash. He’d go through a drive through order a coke and mix himself a drink.
1963 Studebaker Wagonaire had a sliding rear portion roof of the station wagon so you could carry tall thinks like a refrigerator. Cars were also used with a camera tri pod by news stations.
I remember that roof . Years later talking to a BMW salesman he pointed this option out on a late model Beemer . He was stunned when I told him this is nothing new . Young sales guys really don’t know much about auto. history .
Off topic but I gotta tell it. Though it's not American, my 1956 Jaguar MK VII had fluorescent white numbers on the instruments that were illuminated with a UV instrument light. It also had flip-down tool panels in each front door, a gas tank (one 10 gal, one 11gal) in each rear ¼panel with its own dedicated electric pump and locking filler door, tortion bar suspension, sun roof. When I was a kid my dad's MK VII had "Trafficators": lighted plastic arrows that jumped out of the left or right door pillars when the appropriate turn signal was used. The best feature was the one that made women's clothes disappear as soon as they stepped inside. I wasn't too thrilled about the Jaguar-specific Whitworth tools. The nuts and bolts they used had, for the most part, standard SAE threads, but were Whitworth sizes. For example, a two-ended combination wrench was marked ⅜-⁷/₁₆ at one end and ½-⅜ (or something like that) at the other. The bolt/nut size was in between the fractions stamped on the end you used. I replaced them with SAE every time I took one out. That was 1972 and I still have those useless wrenches. That car had some cool tricks, but I paid for them with time underneath it. A lot of time.
My parents 1962 Chrysler Newport had thatl Astradome electroluminescent dashboard. Sometimes called the floating dash because the way the guages were arranged. At night they looked like they were floating. I remember sitting in the backseat, you could see the reflection of the dash in the drivers window. It was the most beautiful green I'd ever seen. It had a golden tone AM radio tube, it took about a minute to warm up and I remember it sounding so good. Could just be remembering as a kid, because AM sounds pretty horrible. Our car did not have any seat belts either. Great car.
I had an early 60's VW Beetle. 6v Battery under the rear seat with a generator. Headlight dimmed at idle. Had to rev it up for the horn to work. Gas was added under the front hood, and the windshield washer tank was charged by the air from the spare tire, also under the hood. No fan for the heat or defrost, only hot air from the engine that eventually made it up front. I remember having to scrape the inside of the windshield to see. Nothing like these fancy land yachts. Nothing but utilitarian. But a great car. Very reliable, cheap to drive and easy to fix if it did break. Probably one of the best cars I have owned.
I had a '63 VW with the same characteristics. If you had a flat, you had better hope you hadn't operated the windshield washer too much. Turning on the "heat" with the knob on the passenger side in cold weather could result in a snow storm from the vets. Yeah 23censt for gas was okay, but remember, wages were also low. (I discovered my VW ran on avgas quite nicely. I flew night freight conveniently during the gas crunch, and never had to get in a gas line. Oddly enough, the airplanes we flew suffered a slight drop in their operating mileage.)
As a kid working at a gas station, I remember having to search for all the different hiding places to fuel them. It was fun trying to figure that out. Oh, I forget, to you young folks. Gas stations used to have people who came out and filled YOUR car and checked the oil.
And washed your windshield and checked the air pressure in your tires. Many of them actually had repair garages, but you couldn't buy a gallon of milk, bread or lottery tickets.
@@jhp2616 and they frequently had nickle or dime pay phones or would (sometimes) let you use their phone. Landlines of course! Some towns had three digit dialing! Coca Cola was the best in those days when found in the green glass bottles chilled to perfection in the chest-style "coke machines."
@@jhp2616 I was once in a tiny town in NE Oklahoma trying to contact the Methodist minister. I stopped in at the (only) service station and asked if they had a pay phone. Nope, but the laundry mat across the street had one. He told me to dial only the last three digits (so they knew that was unusual enough to warrant a heads-up). I inserted a nickle (yep, not the more common dime and definitely predating the less common full quarter). I dialed the number and reached a pleasant lady. When asked for the minister and she said I had the wrong number, they'd moved and were now at ### (without even hesitating). So, I spent another nickle, dialed the new number and asked the lady that answered for the minister. She hesitated for just a moment and asked me: "isn't he standing right behind you?" My turn to hesitate and ask what did he look like and how did she know. She described him and said he was doing the laundry. There he was! This was in the very early 1970's, so it is definitely attributable more to "small town USA" than the era, but it is, unquestionably, one of my all-time favorite _true_ stories!
Charles Rose My dad had a 1942 DeSoto (which eventually became mine) that had headlight covers that you mechanically retracted when you wanted the headlights on. That was when they made cars out of very heavy metal.
When the USA really did lead the world in innovation, it’s shocking how far down the table of car producers they’ve plummeted. Still, they’re happy with their ridiculous pickup trucks.
Thank the Oil crisis and multiple bailouts by the US government for that... Only Ford manages to stay relevant anywhere outside North America and mostly thanks to European division responsible for cars like Focus or Mondeo. Once the government has your back and even imposes tariffs to protect you, why improve anything? GM is the worst offender by far...
Innovation or just marketing bling? Same old tin filler cap hidden under yards of bodywork is hardly innovative but that said i do like these examples of American Excess, after all that's what America is about.
My folks had a “36 Ford with the same kind of “out the window”AC when we lived in New Mexico in the late 1940’s. Mom would fill it with ice cubes and it would hang out the passenger window.
@@isaacsrandomvideos667 I mean, they have. The decades that followed the '50s were filled with extraordinary automotive inventions, most of them far more useful than these entertaining party tricks. Modern cars don't fly and aren't driven by turbines, of course, but they still are massively different compared to the cars of the '50s in just about every way.
My 1956 Pontiac had a trunk light with a power cord on a small attached reel. This allowed you to take the light all around the car to change tires and even check under the hood at night. After you finished using the light you just wound the cord back up on the reel and placed the light back in the trunks bracket.
@@AnyBodyWannaPeanut pushbutton transmission, clever windows, hidden gas tanks fillers, automatic trunks, ceiling air vents, spotlights... Hardly any of the features in this video still exist. Cars were just downgraded.
@@pyroparagon8945 Pushbutton transmissions have actually made a comeback in recent years. These little automatic windows are still common with coupes and convertibles. Many modern electric cars hide their charge ports in interesting places, like behind the front "grill" or tail light. Automatic trunks, once a luxury feature, are now a common feature in affordable cars. Ceiling air vents totally exist in mini vans and family SUVs and spotlights are nothing but a dangerous safety hazard in an age of automatic cornering lights.
They used to make cars so awesome. Its a piece of joy that i wish would come back. That's why cars like that are treasured and preserved. And cars today, will be scrapped for the cars of tomorrow.
My 1987 Buick Regal Grand National (still!) has a fuel tank filler behind the license plate. It's a b*tch filling it - have to go very slow or it spits out all over the place. I always have a rag handy during fill ups in case I need to clean off the bumper and filler panel. Not the best design I would say...
Our 57 Olds 98 (w/J2) had the hidden fuel tank fill beneath a chrome (of course) trim panel under the drivers side rear tail light. A second headlight dimmer switch controlled the operation of the "Wonder Bar" , a signal seeking radio station finder. Thanks for the memories, now what did I have for breakfast? Narragansett Bay
So fun to see all of these unique designs and gadgets! Cars back then were so much more fun. The Edsel push buttons are fantastic. This actual Edsel Pacer convertible you show is in our car museum, recognized it from the slightly modified center steering wheel ring as it has the rivets in place of the typical padded "donut" around the push buttons. Great video!
Floor operated high beam switch was around a lot longer than the 50s and 60s. When I learned to drive in the early 80s it was still found on many vehicles.
My Dad had a 1949 Pontiac that had a factory sunshade above the windshield. Problem was, you couldn't see the traffic light if you were first in line! So they added a reflector that allowed you to see UP. It was pretty cool to hang out around Dallas' Love Field and watch the airplanes fly over Loop 12!
Ёлки - палки, вот это времена были!! Эти крышесносные четыре минуты видео заставили меня ещё сильнее сойти с ума от этих нереальных четырёхколесных творений!!!🔥❤️👍
Your video makes me very sad, today's cars are so dull by comparison and we will never see this type of amazing Americana again. Wonderful designs, just incredible 👍🍺
Such care and dedication to the cars back in the day. Can't believe we ever DEVOLVED. Besides safety, really nothing has gotten better. There are few modernized cars that deserve the legendary status any classic/antique cars hold.
I had a 1958 Impala with Level Air suspension (no springs) that was run by a compressor under the hood. Load up the trunk and start driving and the car returns to correct height all around. When I parked and got out of the car, it would automatically lower the car the correct height. It hissed when lowering, so people always told me I had a flat tire.
1. Cars could sure use the power window vents again. 2. My 57 Chrysler had an underdash fresh air vent that you could close with your foot and a footswitch to change radio stations.
if you need to get sick Just stand at the top of the block and look down every single car looks the same, and it is complete garbage ! ! ! those wraparound plastic headlights make me sick........
The gas tank port behind the taillight assembly is the best gag to pull when getting full service at a gas station. ... fill ur up ! The look is priceless when the attendant cannot find the fill Port
So much creativity and imagination went into the design in all these cars Now its like if you even dream of anything radically different about car design there's about 19 different government departments all yelling "What if you run over somebody with it?"
Bruh, how come we don’t get any of this cool shit? It’s 2022 and they can’t add a swerving driver seat, a automatic dimmer or hidden fuel caps? What the hell happened?
I had a 1960 Cadillac 4 door 60 Special that had a push button on the floor, next to the high beam light floor button, but this one advanced the radio station to the various pre-sets. That way the driver did not have to remove their hands from the steering wheel to change the radio station. The same car had cruise control, auto trunk release in the glove box, 6 position split power front seats, and the Autronic Eye (but it looked like a gun in the center of the dash).
I had a 62 RAMBLER Wagon, with push button transmission on the dash, and pump up seats. It was my 1st car and set me back $100.00 in 1971 LOL. gas was (0.19 )cents a gallon.
Wow. Is it possible to miss the good old days that I never even experienced? I just bought a base model fwd car for 4 grand, and that was considered a good deal. I spend over 100 bucks a month on gas, too.
@@Bhakti-rider Hold my NUTZ, I bought the car in 1969 and YES the gas was $0.19 to $0.21 GAS WARS!!! You don't even know what State that I live in? I'm guessing it was CHEAPER in different States? But have a nice day.
@@paulmonaco1148 Ah, I'd forgotten about the gas wars. My bad. But I do know that the normal price wasn't .19 in the late 60s; it hadn't been that since the mid 50s.
I owned a 1971 Cougar XR7. The horn "button" was a rubberized ring embedded into the inner side of the steering wheel. The theory was that if you wanted to blow the hor=n, just squeeze the wheel. It worked pretty goot on my car, but I understand that on some cars, the horn would blow if the steering wheen got too hot.
They couldn't make an automobile like these today! What skills and artwork was involved with the technology available in those times! Drive any old car down the road today heads will turn and some will smile or have memeories of the days gone era. Some of the vehicles would have cost you a pretty pennie back then for the high end vehicles only the rich well off crowd could afford! Cars are built more effcient today and require a computer to do most of the work from driver to mechanics but nothing beats the road feel and smell of these oldies..miss those days!!
The Cadillac automatic headlight dimmer was called an Autronic Eye. 1956 was first year for Chrysler products to have push button transmission. 1956 thru 1964. Very cool video.
I remember once seeing a Cadillac in an alley with a small garage, beneath the trunk came out a wheel that swivel, and you pushed the car to a 90 degree angle then drove it into the garage!
I do wonder if people found these cars as genuinely beautiful and joy bringing when they were new, as they do now that they are old. These cars really make people happy though, i don’t need to explain why.
Studebaker had an air conditioner that hung out the side of the car above the passenger window. I have a picture but cannot figure out how to post here.
I remember the radio selector foot pedal. My dad had a 1954 Oldsmobile 98 with a "Wonder Bar" radio that you could change channels by stepping on the foot pedal, which looked exactly like the headlight dimmer switch.
On the late 40's Buicks with the side opening hood, the hood opened from either side. That was the true genius of that hood. The first car I remember my Dad owning was a '47 Roadmaster with that very hood.
My father had a '53 Buick and even as a kid I thought the way you could open either side was brilliant. My dad was an engineer and did his own maintenance so he loved it.
I've got a 1988 toronado that has quite a few party tricks. Some of my favorites are the electric trunk pull-down, digital dashboard, factory graphic equalizer for the radio, and the hidden-door headlights! All fairly standard stuff for the time, but not seen on modern cars!
I’m old enough to remember almost all of these. I did notice the speedometer at about the three minute mark, instead of a needle it had something similar to what you would see in a floating compass. I remember as a little guy thinking that was about the coolest thing ever. This is from an era when cars had style. Most all cars nowadays look like jellybeans going down the road unfortunately.
@@no1DdC good point. Still, today's cars have a lot of amenities but I've yet to see such a thing as swivel seats on any current luxury model. It's such an elegant solution, and quite simple from a mechanical point of view.
Absolutely loved it, as well as Part 2. Fantastic cars with real chrome! I bought a '64 Olds Cutlass for $500 in L.A. in 1971 and sold it for $250 in 1978 in L.A. after buying my new Camaro. Wish I still had both of them!
I’m in Australia & my late father had a 68 Chevy Impala back in the early 70’s. I thought it was pretty bloody cool with its filler cap hidden behind the rear registration plate that flipped down.😎👍🏼🇦🇺
Seen most of these when I was a kid my dad pointed out every one I think some pretty slick advantageous ingenious ideas back then like the ford hard top convertible and the lincoln 4 door ragtop
Absolutely wonderful 30 to 40 years in front of every modern car manufacture, crazy electric open and close boot in 1957 2 years before I was even born.
Actually cup holders WERE an innovation. For years cars didn't have them and stores sold cup holders that hung on the inside of the door. I believe the first one came on the 1985 Dodge Lancer and Chrysler LeBaron GTS. In typical engineer terminology, the specs showed it as "Cup Holder, dual capacity".
A result of the changes in America. We went from a nation of smokers with cars with up to 6 ash trays. To a nation of diabetics with cup holders everywhere to hold our sugar water. Even as late as the early 90s, I have a '91 Grand Marquis, IIRC 5 ash trays, and not one cup holder. That said modern heated and cooled cup holders in nice looking hidden cubbies are pretty cool.
I KNEW THE ORIGINAL BOZO THE CLOWN I USED TO FIX HIS CAR WHEN I GREW UP HE HAD A 49 CADDY WITH THE GAS CAP IN THE LEFT REAR TAIL LIGHT HE WAS SUCH A GREAT GUY !!!!!!
1960 Oldsmobile dashboard gauges - they were actually viewed in a mirror that could be angled to accommodate drivers of different heights. And the speedometer was a revolving drum that gave the appearance of a moving multicolored bar graph.
My father would drive me crazy when I was a kid. He would tap the steering wheel with his finger on our 58 imperial and the radio would change stations . I couldn’t see his left foot pushing a scan button
That's ok. Now there's real touch controls on the wheel to drive you crazy.
@@tomokokuroki2506 they work great though
One of the things I love about my ‘60.
My future wife pranked me with a radio scan foot switch in a '63 Caddy Fleetwood!
@@howardduffy2353 now that's peak trolling, first she stole your attention and then your heart! Blessings to ya
How about just the great names for everything! Dyna-flow, Dyna-ride, Seat-O-Matic, etc.. the great Marketing!
Turboglide, PowerFlite, Cruise-O-Matic, UltraMatic, Flash-o-Matic, Hydramatic, Jetaway, TorsionAire,...
Agreed just on the names, forget the awesome cars themselves!
I know it wasn't the only model or make , but I owned a 1947 Cadillac where the Hood Ornament was the Hood Release .
.....ventiports, etc. You'll recognize the handiwork of the late VERGIL EXNER, in both the front fascia and lamp array for the CHRYSLER IMPERIAL models shown and the closing, and his opus, the revised STUTZ models of the 70s forward
Dink-Tickler 3000
4 matic was another
I’m an old retired mechanic and I miss the time when a fancy car WAS a fancy car. These days you can barely tell the difference between a base model and the top of the line.(mind you the base model just about has everything anyway...just none of them have class like these)
All cars today look like jelly beans on wheels.
All cars are shit today.
They have no class no style , nothing you would want to collect.
The engineers/ designers today suck. Like Russia lol everything they design looks military.
Cookie cutter cars in the US.
Lol
Maybe in American cars.
@@josephdeffendoll3056 you mean American cars, or any and all brands?
a 57 chevy actually had as an option, a "smoke sucker" in the ash tray so it would suck the smoke out and down out of the ash tray. they also had the reflector on top of the dash board to reflect the overhead stop lights so you could see them without craning your neck.
I was going to mention this one, Was in a museum once and the guide had no idea what it was,
Dont forget the gas cap was hidden behind a part of the driver side fin.
Were stop lights hung at the near side of the intersection back then, instead of across the street? A friend visiting from England in the 80s told me he never knew where to look for the traffic lights when he rode with me, because back home they hung the lights on the near side (which I thought was nuts). Your description of the reflector makes it sound like this was once standard in America, too!
@@carmium actually in some cities, they had crosswires going across the intersection like a big X and the semaphore had 4 sides and hung in the middle. so there was ONE signal light in the middle with 4 sides. I'm guessing they quit that when they got blown down by strong winds. Who knows? Remember also, some cars had a steel sun visor on the outside of the windshield. (like a baseball cap visor).
While the reflector sounds like a cool idea wouldn't that also blind you if the sun was at the right angle?
I saw party tricks and remembered back in’76 in high school a friend filled his wiper fluid with jack daniels and ran the hose up under the dash. He’d go through a drive through order a coke and mix himself a drink.
My dad was just telling me about doing something similar when he was younger. Somehow both stupid and brilliant.
And that day Einstein felt like a complete idiot
@Gappie Al Kebabi I am assuming (although I probably shouldn't) that he knew enough to flush the line with water first.
Good old American ingenuity.
1963 Studebaker Wagonaire had a sliding rear portion roof of the station wagon so you could carry tall thinks like a refrigerator. Cars were also used with a camera tri pod by news stations.
Yes, that was really cool. GMC tried that again in 2004 in the Envoy XUV, nobody bought them.
I remember that roof . Years later talking to a BMW salesman he pointed this option out on a late model Beemer . He was stunned when I told him this is nothing new . Young sales guys really don’t know much about auto. history .
@@richardcawalla1148 BMW did it? On what?
My 04 Envoy XUV SLT V8 has the opening rear roof, mid-gate with power window and dual function tailgate. So handy I'm never going to sell it.
@@tihspidtherekciltilc5469 Rare vehicle, not only an XUV but a V8 version. How's it holding up?
Chrysler's Electroluminescent Instrument Panel Lighting!
1962 New Yorker. IMO, it's the most beautiful instrument cluster ever designed.
Off topic but I gotta tell it.
Though it's not American, my 1956 Jaguar MK VII had fluorescent white numbers on the instruments that were illuminated with a UV instrument light. It also had flip-down tool panels in each front door, a gas tank (one 10 gal, one 11gal) in each rear ¼panel with its own dedicated electric pump and locking filler door, tortion bar suspension, sun roof. When I was a kid my dad's MK VII had "Trafficators": lighted plastic arrows that jumped out of the left or right door pillars when the appropriate turn signal was used. The best feature was the one that made women's clothes disappear as soon as they stepped inside. I wasn't too thrilled about the Jaguar-specific Whitworth tools. The nuts and bolts they used had, for the most part, standard SAE threads, but were Whitworth sizes. For example, a two-ended combination wrench was marked ⅜-⁷/₁₆ at one end and ½-⅜ (or something like that) at the other. The bolt/nut size was in between the fractions stamped on the end you used. I replaced them with SAE every time I took one out. That was 1972 and I still have those useless wrenches. That car had some cool tricks, but I paid for them with time underneath it. A lot of time.
@@cgschow197169 lllll
My parents 1962 Chrysler Newport had thatl Astradome electroluminescent dashboard. Sometimes called the floating dash because the way the guages were arranged. At night they looked like they were floating. I remember sitting in the backseat, you could see the reflection of the dash in the drivers window. It was the most beautiful green I'd ever seen. It had a golden tone AM radio tube, it took about a minute to warm up and I remember it sounding so good. Could just be remembering as a kid, because AM sounds pretty horrible. Our car did not have any seat belts either. Great car.
I had an early 60's VW Beetle. 6v Battery under the rear seat with a generator. Headlight dimmed at idle. Had to rev it up for the horn to work. Gas was added under the front hood, and the windshield washer tank was charged by the air from the spare tire, also under the hood. No fan for the heat or defrost, only hot air from the engine that eventually made it up front. I remember having to scrape the inside of the windshield to see. Nothing like these fancy land yachts. Nothing but utilitarian. But a great car. Very reliable, cheap to drive and easy to fix if it did break. Probably one of the best cars I have owned.
American car party tricks
Imaginge how many more miles to the gallon you could get in that beetle compared to such a land yacht
I had a '63 VW with the same characteristics. If you had a flat, you had better hope you hadn't operated the windshield washer too much. Turning on the "heat" with the knob on the passenger side in cold weather could result in a snow storm from the vets. Yeah 23censt for gas was okay, but remember, wages were also low. (I discovered my VW ran on avgas quite nicely. I flew night freight conveniently during the gas crunch, and never had to get in a gas line. Oddly enough, the airplanes we flew suffered a slight drop in their operating mileage.)
Imagine living in an era where almost every car on the street is a Work of art inside and out??
As a kid working at a gas station, I remember having to search for all the different hiding places to fuel them. It was fun trying to figure that out. Oh, I forget, to you young folks. Gas stations used to have people who came out and filled YOUR car and checked the oil.
And washed your windshield and checked the air pressure in your tires. Many of them actually had repair garages, but you couldn't buy a gallon of milk, bread or lottery tickets.
@@jhp2616 and they frequently had nickle or dime pay phones or would (sometimes) let you use their phone. Landlines of course! Some towns had three digit dialing!
Coca Cola was the best in those days when found in the green glass bottles chilled to perfection in the chest-style "coke machines."
yes - - - some pickups tank was BEHIND THE SEAT - - later the tube was to the side, others - - - UNDER A TAIL LIGHT - -or LICENSE PLATE
@@randy-9842 Sorry, I don't remember the 3 digit dialing. That predates even me. But I do remember rotary dialing.
@@jhp2616 I was once in a tiny town in NE Oklahoma trying to contact the Methodist minister. I stopped in at the (only) service station and asked if they had a pay phone. Nope, but the laundry mat across the street had one. He told me to dial only the last three digits (so they knew that was unusual enough to warrant a heads-up). I inserted a nickle (yep, not the more common dime and definitely predating the less common full quarter). I dialed the number and reached a pleasant lady. When asked for the minister and she said I had the wrong number, they'd moved and were now at ### (without even hesitating). So, I spent another nickle, dialed the new number and asked the lady that answered for the minister. She hesitated for just a moment and asked me: "isn't he standing right behind you?" My turn to hesitate and ask what did he look like and how did she know. She described him and said he was doing the laundry. There he was! This was in the very early 1970's, so it is definitely attributable more to "small town USA" than the era, but it is, unquestionably, one of my all-time favorite _true_ stories!
Charles Rose
My dad had a 1942 DeSoto (which eventually became mine) that had headlight covers that you mechanically retracted when you wanted the headlights on. That was when they made cars out of very heavy metal.
When the USA really did lead the world in innovation, it’s shocking how far down the table of car producers they’ve plummeted. Still, they’re happy with their ridiculous pickup trucks.
Thank the Oil crisis and multiple bailouts by the US government for that...
Only Ford manages to stay relevant anywhere outside North America and mostly thanks to European division responsible for cars like Focus or Mondeo.
Once the government has your back and even imposes tariffs to protect you, why improve anything? GM is the worst offender by far...
The world is just jealous they don't have trucks like ours.
I wish I had the land cruiser pickup.
What do you think of the Ford F-150 Lightning?
Innovation or just marketing bling? Same old tin filler cap hidden under yards of bodywork is hardly innovative but that said i do like these examples of American Excess, after all that's what America is about.
Packard torsion bar auto-leveling suspension like featured on my '55 400.
These cars were way ahead of their time
A factory 45 RPM record player in the 1959 - 1960 T-Bird
Yes Chrysler offered the Hiway HiFi in the late 50's early 60's. Required special records you could purchase through the Chrysler dealership.
Why I Loved Vintage cars About This and quality and soul
What a wonderful time! What a fantastically well-made video! Looking forward to more from you! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My folks had a “36 Ford with the same kind of “out the window”AC when we lived in New Mexico in the late 1940’s. Mom would fill it with ice cubes and it would hang out the passenger window.
And they were called "Swamp coolers".
I never knew about the Cadillac power trunk lid. Interesting.
Even more so with how old it is, imagine if they kept the 50s rise in technology up to now. We’d be having flying turbine Chrysler’s!
@@isaacsrandomvideos667 I mean, they have. The decades that followed the '50s were filled with extraordinary automotive inventions, most of them far more useful than these entertaining party tricks. Modern cars don't fly and aren't driven by turbines, of course, but they still are massively different compared to the cars of the '50s in just about every way.
My 1956 Pontiac had a trunk light with a power cord on a small attached reel. This allowed you to take the light all around the car to change tires and even check under the hood at night. After you finished using the light you just wound the cord back up on the reel and placed the light back in the trunks bracket.
wow - forgot about that feature on my dad's '56 Starchief.
Many Ford and GM had something similar under the hood up through the mid 90s.
Mechanical engineering was so advanced, some of these useful features are rarely found in many electronically engineered and advanced cars of today.
Like what?
I don't see anything these cars can do that modern cars can't or don't have improved versions of any of these features.
@@AnyBodyWannaPeanut automatic trunk and windows
@@TheCamoPowerKing look at any modern suv, crossover or hatchback and you got the power lift gate
@@AnyBodyWannaPeanut pushbutton transmission, clever windows, hidden gas tanks fillers, automatic trunks, ceiling air vents, spotlights...
Hardly any of the features in this video still exist. Cars were just downgraded.
@@pyroparagon8945 Pushbutton transmissions have actually made a comeback in recent years. These little automatic windows are still common with coupes and convertibles. Many modern electric cars hide their charge ports in interesting places, like behind the front "grill" or tail light. Automatic trunks, once a luxury feature, are now a common feature in affordable cars. Ceiling air vents totally exist in mini vans and family SUVs and spotlights are nothing but a dangerous safety hazard in an age of automatic cornering lights.
In the 1961 Buick Invicta the speedometer readout was an adjustable mirror reflecting backwards readout from just below. Crazy, man.
My 1967 Buick Wildcat has a special feature shared with all cars of that era. It has the ability to turn dinosaurs into noise/joy/excitement.
My second 'CAH' was a 1958 Olds 98 that had a removable radio which you could take down to the beach. "Greetings from Boston!"
Thats would be a pretty cool feature in a modern car
@@kennedy796 People steal radios from cars nowadays, that's why on newer cars the radio is difficult to remove
@@nemolevola well yes but it would still be neat
When cars were a work of art as well as a transportation device. Perfect music for this by the way.
Would anybody know the name of the song by any chance. Music is really perfect for this video.
And death traps. Beautiful, stunning death traps.
They used to make cars so awesome. Its a piece of joy that i wish would come back. That's why cars like that are treasured and preserved. And cars today, will be scrapped for the cars of tomorrow.
Working as a service station attendant in the '60s required learning where all the various hidden gas caps were located...
I had the same thought about the same memory, jimmbbo.
Lots of them behind the license plate. They were the easy ones to find.
My 1987 Buick Regal Grand National (still!) has a fuel tank filler behind the license plate. It's a b*tch filling it - have to go very slow or it spits out all over the place. I always have a rag handy during fill ups in case I need to clean off the bumper and filler panel. Not the best design I would say...
Our 57 Olds 98 (w/J2) had the hidden fuel tank fill beneath a chrome (of course) trim panel under the drivers side rear tail light. A second headlight dimmer switch controlled the operation of the "Wonder Bar" , a signal seeking radio station finder. Thanks for the memories, now what did I have for breakfast? Narragansett Bay
So fun to see all of these unique designs and gadgets! Cars back then were so much more fun. The Edsel push buttons are fantastic. This actual Edsel Pacer convertible you show is in our car museum, recognized it from the slightly modified center steering wheel ring as it has the rivets in place of the typical padded "donut" around the push buttons. Great video!
"actual"
Floor operated high beam switch was around a lot longer than the 50s and 60s. When I learned to drive in the early 80s it was still found on many vehicles.
'48 Tucker Torpedo swiveling center headlight (Cyclops Eye)
My Dad had a 1949 Pontiac that had a factory sunshade above the windshield. Problem was, you couldn't see the traffic light if you were first in line! So they added a reflector that allowed you to see UP. It was pretty cool to hang out around Dallas' Love Field and watch the airplanes fly over Loop 12!
Ёлки - палки, вот это времена были!! Эти крышесносные четыре минуты видео заставили меня ещё сильнее сойти с ума от этих нереальных четырёхколесных творений!!!🔥❤️👍
Your video makes me very sad, today's cars are so dull by comparison and we will never see this type of amazing Americana again. Wonderful designs, just incredible 👍🍺
I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANY OF THESE "PARTY TRICKS" THEY ALL WERE SUPERCOOL.
Cool dog picture 👍☺️
Such care and dedication to the cars back in the day. Can't believe we ever DEVOLVED. Besides safety, really nothing has gotten better. There are few modernized cars that deserve the legendary status any classic/antique cars hold.
I think the Ford Fairlane with the retractable hard top was called the Skyliner. My wife had a 1958 model when we started dating.
They were only produced 1957-1959. Idea was dropped by Ford in 1960 as unprofitable.
@@sunshinekid6922 they were pretty neat for top-down weather, but left no trunk room and had lots of mechanical and electrical things to go wrong.
She must have been loaded.
@@no1DdC No, she bought it used, maybe 4 model years old.
@@johnkennell2341 How long did the car last?
I worked at a gas station as a young man,15 years old and seen some of these beauties up close. Nice rides!!!
I had a 1958 Impala with Level Air suspension (no springs) that was run by a compressor under the hood. Load up the trunk and start driving and the car returns to correct height all around. When I parked and got out of the car, it would automatically lower the car the correct height. It hissed when lowering, so people always told me I had a flat tire.
Relicia
Baugh
Hdhuhudjf
Jeh7cjd
Hbdhb2fybr6cd6
1. Cars could sure use the power window vents again.
2. My 57 Chrysler had an underdash fresh air vent that you could close with your foot and a footswitch to change radio stations.
When cars were sexy, classy, fun and had personality!
"Kicks are for Trids"
if you need to get sick Just stand at the top of the block and look down every single car looks the same, and it is complete garbage ! ! !
those wraparound plastic headlights make me sick........
The gas tank port behind the taillight assembly is the best gag to pull when getting full service at a gas station. ... fill ur up ! The look is priceless when the attendant cannot find the fill Port
My Studebakers had HILL HOLDERS, allowing a foot off the brake on a hill when you needed the clutch & gas.
Nash also.
My ‘08 Patriot has a hill holder, too. It’s called controlling the clutch and gas pedals properly...
My dad bought a Studebaker 1951 Bullet Nose that had a Hillholder
@@MrJett1971 found the jeep guy, stop flexing that you drive a manual, not that hard average person can learn in a day or two.
So much creativity and imagination went into the design in all these cars
Now its like if you even dream of anything radically different about car design there's about 19 different government departments all yelling "What if you run over somebody with it?"
My 1960 Cadillac had a floor button (right along side the high beam button) which automatically changed the radio station.
the top of the line Oldsmobile also had that floor radio switch
@@bossmanmce5599 Yes, that was called a Wonder Bar Radio. I put one in my '56 Olds.
My '52 Cadillac Coupe de Ville has that feature ... took me a while to work out what it did 🤣
For Part Two, don't forget the 57 Chevy gas door/tail light. Working at a gas station in the 60s as a kid I had to learn them all. :)
A friend of mine shared this video with me and so happy they did. I am crazy about antique cars! Absolutely beautiful card you shared with us.
Such passion and creativity in car design! Now we get the same SUV year after year with very little changed. Where did it all go?
My 1953 Olds had a floor mounted seek button by the dimmer for the signal seeking radio.
A Cadillac option, too, right into the early 1970s.
The hidden tank filler is just genius. Beautiful symmetry with that
Could just put a cutout rectangle design on both sides of the car and it would be symmetrical again
This was fantastic! Made my day. Thank you!
Absolutely beautiful cars, and awesome tech. As a mechanical engineer, I appreciate these features on a deep level.
Bruh, how come we don’t get any of this cool shit? It’s 2022 and they can’t add a swerving driver seat, a automatic dimmer or hidden fuel caps? What the hell happened?
I had a 1960 Cadillac 4 door 60 Special that had a push button on the floor, next to the high beam light floor button, but this one advanced the radio station to the various pre-sets. That way the driver did not have to remove their hands from the steering wheel to change the radio station. The same car had cruise control, auto trunk release in the glove box, 6 position split power front seats, and the Autronic Eye (but it looked like a gun in the center of the dash).
I had a 62 RAMBLER Wagon, with push button transmission on the dash, and pump up seats. It was my 1st car and set me back $100.00 in 1971 LOL. gas was (0.19 )cents a gallon.
Wow. Is it possible to miss the good old days that I never even experienced? I just bought a base model fwd car for 4 grand, and that was considered a good deal. I spend over 100 bucks a month on gas, too.
@@thomasjohannesen1003 W O W !!! The good old days...
Gas wasn't .19/gallon in the U.S. in 1971!
@@Bhakti-rider Hold my NUTZ, I bought the car in 1969 and YES the gas was $0.19 to $0.21 GAS WARS!!! You don't even know what State that I live in? I'm guessing it was CHEAPER in different States? But have a nice day.
@@paulmonaco1148 Ah, I'd forgotten about the gas wars. My bad. But I do know that the normal price wasn't .19 in the late 60s; it hadn't been that since the mid 50s.
I remember some cars in the 60's that had a "reverb" button on the radio. It made it sound like you were in a concert hall.
My sister had a ‘65 Plymouth Satellite so fitted.
1956 Chrysler Corporation "Hyway Hi-Fi" 16 2/3 rpm record player.
My 65 tbird had the swing wheel. And really cool sequentials.
I've got a 64 Galaxie 500 with the swing away steering wheel.
The Mercury Breezeway had a cool rear window.
If only cars today had this kind of class, styling and trickery. Cars were rad as hell back in the day
I owned a 1971 Cougar XR7. The horn "button" was a rubberized ring embedded into the inner side of the steering wheel. The theory was that if you wanted to blow the hor=n, just squeeze the wheel. It worked pretty goot on my car, but I understand that on some cars, the horn would blow if the steering wheen got too hot.
..wasn't that called "Rim-blow"?!
@@trudygreer2491 yup, Chrysler products had them too.
They couldn't make an automobile like these today!
What skills and artwork was involved with the technology available in those times!
Drive any old car down the road today heads will turn and some will smile or have memeories of the days gone era. Some of the vehicles would have cost you a pretty pennie back then for the high end vehicles only the rich well off crowd could afford!
Cars are built more effcient today and require a computer to do most of the work from driver to mechanics but nothing beats the road feel and smell of these oldies..miss those days!!
COOL MAN !!! my father God rest his soul was a car salesman and I have either sat or ridden in every one of these cars.
The Cadillac automatic headlight dimmer was called an Autronic Eye. 1956 was first year for Chrysler products to have push button transmission. 1956 thru 1964. Very cool video.
I remember once seeing a Cadillac in an alley with a small garage, beneath the trunk came out a wheel that swivel, and you pushed the car to a 90 degree angle then drove it into the garage!
I do wonder if people found these cars as genuinely beautiful and joy bringing when they were new, as they do now that they are old.
These cars really make people happy though, i don’t need to explain why.
Studebaker had an air conditioner that hung out the side of the car above the passenger window. I have a picture but cannot figure out how to post here.
@3:49 the curves in the metal bodywork behind those headlights is some craftmanship
Agree!
@@jamesmcinnis208 Thank you
Very cool, how about manual shift on the steering column
Three on the tree.
@@bolafson Add overdrive and you have two more under the dash.
These cars were just designed so beautifully and with such care
floor button radio station selector...looked like a floor dimmer switch
I remember the radio selector foot pedal. My dad had a 1954 Oldsmobile 98 with a "Wonder Bar" radio that you could change channels by stepping on the foot pedal, which looked exactly like the headlight dimmer switch.
Had a 1960 Dodge Matador I bought in 1964. Great car! It had push-button transmission on the dashboard.
On the late 40's Buicks with the side opening hood, the hood opened from either side. That was the true genius of that hood. The first car I remember my Dad owning was a '47 Roadmaster with that very hood.
I like that gear selector in the middle of the steering wheel, makes you feel like speed racer.
....yeas, but none of the fancy things, like the spring jacks, electronic drone "bird", to feed back video of items of interest, et al
60s era Buick Wildcat with speeding alarm buzzer setting.
My father had a '53 Buick and even as a kid I thought the way you could open either side was brilliant. My dad was an engineer and did his own maintenance so he loved it.
The gas tank thing they should do on moderm cars, thats very sleek and cool.
Just not on the lights. It can cause sparks and fire.
Let me correct something i misspelled.
Modern*
My dad had a late '70's Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with the swivelling front seats back in the day. That was a cool car
The 50s, when the future was now (in both senses of the word).
I've got a 1988 toronado that has quite a few party tricks. Some of my favorites are the electric trunk pull-down, digital dashboard, factory graphic equalizer for the radio, and the hidden-door headlights! All fairly standard stuff for the time, but not seen on modern cars!
How about the 4 door pillarless hardtops? I had a 64 Buick LeSabre with that feature. Great car!
i had a 69 pontiac pillarless hardtop too
My father had a 64 Chrysler Newport Station wagon that was a 4 door hardtop(pillar less) it also had a kind of square steering wheel.
I’m old enough to remember almost all of these. I did notice the speedometer at about the three minute mark, instead of a needle it had something similar to what you would see in a floating compass. I remember as a little guy thinking that was about the coolest thing ever. This is from an era when cars had style. Most all cars nowadays look like jellybeans going down the road unfortunately.
Interesting how access to the vehicle interior was such an important factor even though people at that time were much less obese than today's.
To be fair, the kind of person who could afford a top of the line Cadillac was not unlikely to be a "fat cat".
@@no1DdC good point. Still, today's cars have a lot of amenities but I've yet to see such a thing as swivel seats on any current luxury model. It's such an elegant solution, and quite simple from a mechanical point of view.
Now Americans just use much bigger cars overall to compensate the lack of swivel seats
@@alessandropinto5204 For the trucks and SUVs you'd need a forklift. Or an escalator. Not so easy, mechanically. 😄
@@newerstillimproved indeed! Or you buy the optional air suspension kit, pretty sure it's gonna be a bargain
Man I bet they had lots of fun putting in all these hidden features
Nice video. IIRC, the Ford retractable hardtop was actually the Skyliner.
Absolutely loved it, as well as Part 2. Fantastic cars with real chrome! I bought a '64 Olds Cutlass for $500 in L.A. in 1971 and sold it for $250 in 1978 in L.A. after buying my new Camaro. Wish I still had both of them!
*2:12** is cool and all until you go to blow your horn and accidentally slam it into reverse*
The glove box martini bar on the '57 Caddy Eldo Brougham. Thought for sure I would see that one.
57 Chevy Vacuum Ashtray would be a cool one to show
And now you dont even get an ashtray in cars anymore. at least not here in Australia where I live.
I’m in Australia & my late father had a 68 Chevy Impala back in the early 70’s. I thought it was pretty bloody cool with its filler cap hidden behind the rear registration plate that flipped down.😎👍🏼🇦🇺
1962 pontiac tempest, transmission in the back
I had one with a slant four cylinder with a four barrel carburetor. It was no slouch in traffic, I can tell you that!
@@sunshinekid6922 That was an Engineering Party Trick~ just cut yer big V-8 in half and, voila!
That car was truly ahead of it's time.
The most beautiful innovative cars ever made
You missed the 57 Chevy. Fuel door was the drivers side fin.
So was the '56 Chevy.
Actually the 56 chevy had behind the driver side tail light
Seen most of these when I was a kid my dad pointed out every one I think some pretty slick advantageous ingenious ideas back then like the ford hard top convertible and the lincoln 4 door ragtop
Beautiful!
Absolutely wonderful 30 to 40 years in front of every modern car manufacture, crazy electric open and close boot in 1957 2 years before I was even born.
And they think adding more cup holders as being innovative.
Actually cup holders WERE an innovation. For years cars didn't have them and stores sold cup holders that hung on the inside of the door. I believe the first one came on the 1985 Dodge Lancer and Chrysler LeBaron GTS. In typical engineer terminology, the specs showed it as "Cup Holder, dual capacity".
@@bradkay I have been
A result of the changes in America. We went from a nation of smokers with cars with up to 6 ash trays. To a nation of diabetics with cup holders everywhere to hold our sugar water. Even as late as the early 90s, I have a '91 Grand Marquis, IIRC 5 ash trays, and not one cup holder.
That said modern heated and cooled cup holders in nice looking hidden cubbies are pretty cool.
I KNEW THE ORIGINAL BOZO THE CLOWN I USED TO FIX HIS CAR WHEN I GREW UP HE HAD A 49 CADDY WITH THE GAS CAP IN THE LEFT REAR TAIL LIGHT HE WAS SUCH A GREAT GUY !!!!!!
2 minutes silence for the Tesla owners who like to show off their "fuel lids" 😂
1960 Oldsmobile dashboard gauges - they were actually viewed in a mirror that could be angled to accommodate drivers of different heights. And the speedometer was a revolving drum that gave the appearance of a moving multicolored bar graph.