IML: Finned cars and the end of an era...

["Greg and Russell" <65luxuryliner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I distinctly remember my family's Forward Look finned transportation 
> looking way out of place on the roadways around 1967 -68.
>
> I would imagine that the owner of a 1961 and older finned Imperial would 
> have started to feel conspicuous in the wrong sort of way after the 1964 
> cars were introduced.
> Oh to have been cruising the used car lots back then with a pocket full of 
> money!

For most of '64, I was nine years old and even at that young of an age, was 
very conscious of automotive styling.  As most kids of that era who were car 
oriented, I bought and assembled the plastic 1/25 scale models of the 
current models from the Big Three. (wish I still had that collection!).  The 
finned cars (model kits) even disappeared off the model shelves at the local 
5 and 10 cent stores where the models were sold!

I clearly remember my dad buying a new '65 model (Ford LTD) and our family 
going out for a drive in the new family car.  It was so clean and 
streamlined as compared to the finned cars that were still on the road. 
They almost looked like cartoon caricatures of automobiles instead of the 
real thing!  Once that styling fell out of favor with the buying public, it 
was DEAD.  You probably couldn't have gotten much for your trade-in (finned 
car) once they 'were out of style' and nobody wanted one.   It amazes me 
that any of the cars from the finned era survived.

Of course, we have come full circle regarding the popularity of the finned 
cars (as collector cars, that is).  They are the ones that are commanding 
huge prices at vintage car auctions.  How ironic!    Now pristine examples 
are fetching megadollars.  Bet very few if any finned car owners could have 
predicted that back in the early sixties!

Greg McDonnell
'65 Crown convertible 



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