Golden Age of automobile design...?

The 50's?  Something else?

My senior year project in college was a paper on 100 years of American automotive styling. You could ask 10 stylists, designers, artists, etc and you'd get eleven differing answers. And I asked them as well as instructors and journalists. I will repeat what Strother MacMinn wrote me. "It costs no more money to make a good looking car than a bad looking one so why make a bad looking one?"

My conclusion would be that every generation or era has some standouts as well as a few warts. But one era better than another? Nope. That's purely an aesthetic argument and related to the influences you are biased with. 

Give me most any Bill Mitchell era car. 50s Pininfarina, or the coach builders of the twenties.

For me- 60's. So many iconic cars. 

So the vote is for cars drawn on drafting boards to "look right" rather than a wind tunnel and computer and crash ratings.  

I get it - those '67 Corvettes looked like jets. That dash was out of a plane. 
 

I would say 1960s as well. Cars were getting a little sleeker due to rudimentary understanding of aerodynamics and right before safety bumpers ruined front ends.

Better question I think would be which decade had the fewest duds?

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

... I will repeat what Strother MacMinn wrote me. "It costs no more money to make a good looking car than a bad looking one so why make a bad looking one?"...

I said the same thing to my wife the first time we saw a Toyota Echo. I said, "They had $$$ of steel and had the choice of bending it into a pretty shape, or an ugly shape. They chose wrong."

In my opinion it was 1959-1969 for GM, peaking in 1965 (just look at the Buick Riviera or Pontiac Grand Prix for that year), but it may have been different for other makes.   For instance, the golden era of design for Ford could be argued as 1932-1940.

While the 50s cars were art on wheels, I think the cleanest designs came in the 1960s. Once the fins finally went away things got really good. GM probably was the leader in styling overall, and I say this as a Ford guy.

Counterpoint - late 80s and early 90s and a bunch of pretty iconic shapes as well.  Especially out of Japan.

I don't know if there is a Golden Age, but the Crap Age has been from about 2005-2020.  We're still struggling our way out of it  

I would say 1965-1972 was a high point of the classic era.  1985-1990 was pretty good.  1995-2005 was a really good period, too. Hardly any duds at all.

In general, when the economy is good, we get cooler cars. When it's bad, we get plain, boring duds.

Harley Earl.

Calling out a whole decade is too non-specific.  Try 1963 specifically--so much amazing style in one year that was impactful in a number of ways.

STM317 said:

In general, when the economy is good, we get cooler cars. When it's bad, we get plain, boring duds.

Remember the crapbombs during the uptick to the 08-09 meltdown?  Just GM had a ton of turds.

• Cobalt- all of them.  Why build a turbo and a supercharged version of the same car?
• Quadrasteer full size trucks and burbans
• Avalanches
• H2 and H3 Hummers.  H3 Alpha and H3T get a pass because they are kind of cool
• Colorados and Canyons
• The Pontiac version of the Cobalt with that weird whale tail spoiler
• G6 Retractable Hardtop
• Envoy XUV
• HHR
• Solstice/Sky

And make sure to paint them all copper/burnt orange.  

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

And in typical GM form, quite a few of the things on that list were "almost good, except not". 

93gsxturbo said:

STM317 said:

In general, when the economy is good, we get cooler cars. When it's bad, we get plain, boring duds.

Remember the crapbombs during the uptick to the 08-09 meltdown?  Just GM had a ton of turds.

• Cobalt- all of them.  Why build a turbo and a supercharged version of the same car?
• Quadrasteer full size trucks and burbans
• Avalanches
• H2 and H3 Hummers.  H3 Alpha and H3T get a pass because they are kind of cool
• Colorados and Canyons
• The Pontiac version of the Cobalt with that weird whale tail spoiler
• G6 Retractable Hardtop
• Envoy XUV
• HHR
• Solstice/Sky

And make sure to paint them all copper/burnt orange.  

Me looking around in 2022 and we have a new $100k EV Hummer that's 10k lbs, has an Avalanche style midgate, and 4 wheel steering.

The 1964 Buick Riviera is the pinnacle of American automotive design. Period.

This feels like another of those with no right or wrong answer, with a supersized side order of whatever someone imprints on.

I think 1964 might have been Ford's best year, but BMW was crushing it from the late '60s to, IMHO, about '90. Yada yada and so on.

And then prewar stuff is growing on me. But it's tinged with knowing I'd find virtually all of it horrible to drive. Which isn't "design," but cars aren't static and I don't have much use for one I don't want to use.

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

My senior year project in college was a paper on 100 years of American automotive styling. You could ask 10 stylists, designers, artists, etc and you'd get eleven differing answers. And I asked them as well as instructors and journalists. I will repeat what Strother MacMinn wrote me. "It costs no more money to make a good looking car than a bad looking one so why make a bad looking one?"

My conclusion would be that every generation or era has some standouts as well as a few warts. But one era better than another? Nope. That's purely an aesthetic argument and related to the influences you are biased with. 

Give me most any Bill Mitchell era car. 50s Pininfarina, or the coach builders of the twenties.

 

The Gold standard of car design has to be Sir  William Lyons.  Even Enzo Ferrari said the XKE was the most beautiful car he'd ever seen.  The early 1970's XJ 6/ 12 influenced  cars for the next several decades.  
  His SS100  and XK120 turned  a small volume shop into a manufacturer.  Henry Ford was willing to pay many times it's actual value to own the Jaguar  name tag. 

stuart in mn said:

In my opinion it was 1959-1969 for GM, peaking in 1965 (just look at the Buick Riviera or Pontiac Grand Prix for that year), but it may have been different for other makes.   For instance, the golden era of design for Ford could be argued as 1932-1940.

That period cars were primarily designed by Edsel Ford. And brought Ford back from a has been manufacturer to competitive and in some aspects superior to GM and Chrysler. 
 As far as GM goes  while I agree that 1959-1969 was good. That's ignoring the 1955-57 Chevy / 57 Corvette and later 1972 Corvette along with the boat tail Buick Rivera 

Gee...  what a surprise that yet another thread devolves into a 'bash GM' thread...

In reply to racerfink :

I'll be the first to say GM has had some iconic designs but I'll also admit I'm not fond of thier approach. I like small cars and that doesn't seem to be their strong suit.

I have really come to appreciate early 70s Caddies.

For me I think great design eras are the 30s, the 60s and the 90s.

The current crop of cars all have that slab sided fender lip that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the styling.

In reply to Tom1200 :

By that pattern we're due another good round this decade, no?

914Driver said:

 

Harley Earl.

 

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