Car Thread

[HONDO74]

During that era just a glace was all that was needed to identify a car, usually.
IMHO the that period also had some of the ugliest ever made. My top spot
ugly car was/is the 1963 DeSoto, Everything about it was in excess.

What, exactly, was in excess, Roger? Specifically. I'm asking, because there was no 1963 DeSoto! The last DeSotos made were 1961 model year.

Maybe Roger meant 1961 ?

[rex desilets]

Pure, blatant Uhmurican!

[rogruth]

Then it must have been a 61. I'm too old to worry about something I care so little about.

[Mitch]

Beautiful car, that DeSoto. The Chryslers looked similar in the front end with the tilted headlights. I loved the instrument clusters in them; a big bubble with a floating type liquid speedometer! Couldn't get any cooler.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Beautiful car, that DeSoto. The Chryslers looked similar in the front end with the tilted headlights. I loved the instrument clusters in them; a big bubble with a floating type liquid speedometer! Couldn't get any cooler.

If I recall correctly, though I'm unsure of the precise year, didn't those DeSoto's and/or the Chryslers have push-buttons in the center of the steering-wheel for the shifting of gears, instead of the usual stick attached to the column? Or were the buttons on the dash? At any rate, I remember the buttons, square-ish, but I'm only going to approximate the year by mentioning the the 60's (or was it the later 50's?) so I don't get screamed at and mocked for not recalling the year precisely.
Eh

[HONDO74]

There were different years in the 50s into the 60s that Chrysler cars had push button gear shifts. Here are some to look at.

https://www.google.com/search?q=chrysle ... 10&bih=606

[Mitch]

I think 1957 was the first Chrysler push button transmissions with the advent of the "torqueflite" 3 speed. The "powerflite" transmission was a 2 speed tranny like GMs powerglide. The Chrysler push buttons were on the left hand side of the dash, near the vent window. I remember them well, as I grew up Chrysler, and I took my driver's test in 1967 in a '57 New Yorker.
Murph, the car you're thinkin' of with the push buttons in the center of the steering wheel was the Edsel.

[rogruth]

AMC Ramblers in the late 1950s also had push-button shifts on the left side of the dash.
I think it was, the transmission, a Chrysler product.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

There were different years in the 50s into the 60s that Chrysler cars had push button gear shifts. Here are some to look at.

https://www.google.com/search?q=chrysle ... 10&bih=606

Thanks for the clarification, HONDO. My memory of that feature was merely that of a boy getting in and out of my friend's father's cars.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I think 1957 was the first Chrysler push button transmissions with the advent of the "torqueflite" 3 speed. The "powerflite" transmission was a 2 speed tranny like GMs powerglide. The Chrysler push buttons were on the left hand side of the dash, near the vent window. I remember them well, as I grew up Chrysler, and I took my driver's test in 1967 in a '57 New Yorker.
Murph, the car you're thinkin' of with the push buttons in the center of the steering wheel was the Edsel.

Thanks, Mitch. Now that you describe it, I do recall the buttons being on the dash near that vent window. How an Edsel got into my memory of that remains a mystery.

[Roy]

How an Edsel got into my memory of that remains a mystery.

You did describe how you and your mom checked out the Edsel at the dealership, until a customer had a sudden tail light failure.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

How an Edsel got into my memory of that remains a mystery.

You did describe how you and your mom checked out the Edsel at the dealership, until a customer had a sudden tail light failure.

That event seems to have been indelibly inscribed in Murph's engrams

[MurphOnMillerAve]

How an Edsel got into my memory of that remains a mystery.

You did describe how you and your mom checked out the Edsel at the dealership, until a customer had a sudden tail light failure.

That event seems to have been indelibly inscribed in Murph's engrams

You are both correct, of course.
You have a good memory for such details of our postings, Roy. Nice. Real nice.
I was going to mention that Edsel dealership visit but was hesitant, thinking somebody would complain that I had already mentioned it previously, so I left it out of my musings reply. Yet, I can see that cluster of transmission buttons more intimately than just that short time at the Edsel showroom. I can see in my memory somebody's father pushing those buttons when we got in and out of his car, more than once. Oh well, whatthehay.. It's all gone. I've taken up enough of your time and space here with my memory shenanigans.

Life is complicated.
daMurph

[HONDO74]

Oh well, whatthehay.. It's all gone. I've taken up enough of your time and space here with my memory shenanigans.

Life is complicated.
daMurph

You are not taking up our time. We enjoy reading what others have to say.

But I might take exception to (Life is complicated.) It's just my opinion but I think humans make it more complicated than it needs to be

[Roy]

The irony of the Edsel, with it's toilet seat grille, is that Edsel Ford had unusually good taste. He tended to drive beautiful cars. I've heard people say that the problem with the Edsel was that it was ahead of it's time. Perhaps, but it was not beautiful. It was like the 1963 DeSoto. Or, '61 DeSoto. Whatever.

I agree with Roger about some of the cars of the late '50's and early '60's being really ugly. All you have to do is watch Perry Mason reruns, and you'll see plenty of them. But, some of my favorite cars come from then, too. Like the first Buick Riviera: