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Automotive News & Views Inside Line Article Comments Edmunds turns 40 - guess the most significant car from each year!
349 messages, Last post on Feb 27, 2007 at 5:26 AM
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Edmunds Most Significant Vehicles, 1966-2006
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Replying to: bumpy (Jul 20, 2006 5:40 am) 1997 - C5 Corvette 2005 - My $ would be on either the Chrysler 300C, or the Mustang GT. |
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No way! I'd pick the Oldsmobile Toronado. It was the first modern American front-wheel drive car, a portent of things to come. I know that the transverse engine layout, which would dominate, came from the original Mini, and the Toronado used a longitudinal layout. But GM deserves some credit for putting fwd in a large, V8-powered car. Besides, the Toronado had stunning styling, one of the pinnacles of the Bill Mitchell era. It started the long-running trend of having the C-pillars flow directly into the quarter panels of the car, with no break at the beltline. The prominent wheelwell bulges were great as well.
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Replying to: 210delray (Jul 20, 2006 8:38 am) Plus, the first-generation Charger isn't even the best one - the 1968-70 generation is far better looking, and drives just as well. If "significant" means "important," but not necessarily "great," then I'll go out on a limb and pick the Chevrolet Vega for 1971 (while ducking the rhetorical stones that will inevitably be thrown my way). Like it or not, the Vega was an important car, as it seemed as though everything started to go wrong for Detroit in general, and GM in particular, when it debuted. The Vega's problems symbolized what was wrong with Detroit (and GM). Initially the car did more for Toyota, Nissan and Honda than they did for themselves. |
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and made a few additions. 1968- 510 1970- 240Z 1973- Civic 1979- RX7 1980- Citation 1981- K-cars 1986- runner-up: Excel 1987- GNX 1988- Civic 1989- 240SX 1990- LS400 (Miata is a close second) 1991- Explorer 1992- Camry 1994- Mustang 1999- Escalade 1966 should have been the Bronco.
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Replying to: bumpy (Jul 20, 2006 1:53 pm)  james |
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1967: Pontiac Catalina convertible? 1968: Dodge Dart 270 hardtop? 1976: Pontiac Grand LeMans coupe? 1979: Chrysler New Yorker 5th Ave? Am I close? Anywhere near?
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 20, 2006 6:55 pm) I think it's a pretty safe bet that none of your other cars will make the "greatest hits" list. 
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1966 - Ford Galaxie 500 sedan 1968 - Buick Special Deluxe 6-passenger wagon 1969 - Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham 1975 - Cadillac Sedan DeVille 1979 - Buick Park Avenue 1985 - Chrysler Fifth Avenue 1988 - Buick Park Avenue 1989 - Cadillac Brougham 1994 - Cadillac Sedan DeVille 2001 - Chevrolet Impala 2002 - Cadillac Seville STS 2005 - Buick LaCrosse CXL |
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That was the year of my debut, though since I'm not a car, it's not so significant here. I do think it's strange that the Mustang won for that year--I mean, there were some muscular new versions (Mach 1, Boss), but it's thought of as kind of the beginning of the more, uh, porcine Mustangs, isn't it? Then again, I can't think of any really 'significant' new cars from 1969--I mean, everything was pretty much a hold-over from years past. The only 'all-new' car I can think of that debuted that year was the Maverick, but since it was a 1970 model, it doesn't qualify. |
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is the year I was conceived. There were a lot of great cars that year, but I don't know if I could pinpoint which one I'd consider most significant. The only car I can think of that was really new was the 1969 full-size Plymouth/Dodge/Chrysler/Imperial line. The Maverick came out in April 1969, but as you said Ghulet, it was a 1970 model. GM did a heavy restyle of their full-sized cars for 1969, but it could still be traced back to the 1965 design. Instead of making an all-new design every three years, it seems like GM made that design run for 6 years, just with very heavy restyles after two years (1967 and 1969, respectively) It was one of the last glory years for truly high-performance cars, where you could get muscle in just about anything. 1970 was still a great year for performance, but I think some things got toned down just a bit. For example, Chevy's 427, which had up to 425 gross hp, was replaced by the slightly more smogged 454, which had up to 390. As for Mustangs and porking up, my car only lists base weights, where they took the average of the 6-cyl/smallblock weights and listed that number. A 289/302 doesn't weigh much more than a 6-cyl, but I'm sure a big-block car was much heavier, especially since they would've had to beef everything else up, too. Anyway, my book lists a base '68 hardtop at 2635 lb, compared to 2798 lb for the '69. So that's a jump of about 160 pounds, or maybe 6%. As for power, the 429 in '69 looks like it put out 360/375 hp, compared to 335 for the 428. There was a 427 offered in late '68 that had 390 hp, though. I think if I were to have my pick of any 1969 car it would probably be an intermediate Mopar musclecar, like a Coronet R/T, Charger, Superbee, GTX, etc. Or maybe an Imperial or Caddy. I really wouldn't consider any of them to be truly significant, when it comes to advancing the evolution of the automobile, though, or being really stand-out for that year. And I do like the '69 Dodge Dart. However, after having had a '69 and a '68, and having driven about 110,000 miles between them, I'm kinda Darted out.
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Automotive News & Views Inside Line Article Comments Edmunds turns 40 - guess the most significant car from each year!
