1950s Cars Beauty Skin Deep By Greg Zyla

Q: Greg, when it comes to designers, weren’t the cars of the Fifties, compared to those form other decades, ahead of the curve? These cars from the Fifties really changed their looks year to year, while today, a model might not change for three or more years. Clint, an Auto Roundup “old timer” from Washington.

A: Clint, taking everything into consideration, you are correct in your assumption. Additionally, I would also add the decade of the Sixties to the list, too, when Detroit would do quick facelifts and/or complete body re-designs without too much trouble.

However, those cars were as close to “beauty is only skin deep” as one gets, because when it came to the actual design updating, the word “mechanical” wasn’t in the formula by any means.

As an example, and taking 1957-1958-1959 as case in point years, Chrysler led the way with its "forward look" cars (which they still promote to this day), and all three years resulted in the manufacturers producing cars that looked nothing like the prior years. Chevy, too, is a good example in 57-58-59, as is Buick in those identical years. I really love the 1958 and 1959 Buicks, and the 1960 model, too.

Chrysler made huge design changes from 1954 through 1957, while over at Ford, the big change years came in 1957 to 1959 years, in my opinion.

Independents like Studebaker is as great an example of re-skinned success than any, as its poor selling 1958 model was re-skinned with a Lark body for 1959, and it saved the company! There was no major mechanical difference between the 1958 Studebaker and the 1959 Lark other than the new body. Other cars I really liked from that era were the 1951 to 1954 Hudson Hornets and Wasps, 1953 Kaiser Manhattan, 1953 to 1956 Packards, 1956 tri-colored Dodges, and the 1955 and 1956 Mercurys. Of them all, the 1956 Mercury two-tone is one of my favorites, as are several of the Chrysler 300 models.

The Sixties were similar, too. But always remember that these changes were mostly skin deep, and nothing like today's high tech, computerized wonders.

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