Good suggestions in the article! I Found that upgrading wheels and tires to be dramatic to appearance. In my case I tossed the ugly black radial tires and black wheels with trim rings and installed on my 1955 Plymouth original Coker 2.75" wide whitewall tires and original full wheel covers. Now i find people taking selfies in front of my car. In the engine compartment I found Eastwood (coatings and aftermarket company) has a wide range of application specific paints and coatings to restore and improve all types of surfaces and they seem to take the heat under the hood. Engine detailing gets kudos and gives owner satisfaction. ... View more

Twas a lovely sophisticated upscale design for 1951. Rear resembles a Rolls Royce or a Bentley. Grill slightly suggests Studebaker Hawk of 1957+. Front also suggests Front of Dodge 1953-54. Love the skinny stainless trimmed window pillars. It is a European touring sedan/saloon. Metallic paint is premium finish for its day. This car comes up repeatedly in Chrysler auto history but I never saw this design influence any production Mopar's of the 1950s. Lovely little limo! ... View more

My dad loved and was "over the moon" over his 1960 Chrysler Windsor in baby blue. Great futuristic dash board and chrome controls. Mom couldn't stop herself from speeding because of that 383 Golden Lion V8. Fast! Dad traded a 55 Plymouth for the Chrysler. Now I drive a 55 Plymouth to car shows because acquiring a 60 Chrysler is too pricey these days for my budget. ... View more

Surprised that Hagerty feels it is valuable and relevant to do "new car reviews." Here in the south the classic car shows and cruise-ins are loaded with these new and late model cars. So I guess Hagerty "drivers" are really "daily drivers." Myself, i don't see the hobby aspect in fawning over late model bread and butter cars. The high price of new cars now makes them special maybe. For me all these bland black and gray trucks, SUVs and crossover vehicles with blacked out wheels and blackwell tires are boring but they ARE the current fad. Just one opinion. ... View more

Cars are lovely except the insane and dangerous wheels. Owners don't look practically happy but to each his own. They got old cars in their life and that helps save that luxury era of automotive history for another generation. ... View more

Two more chemicals I use regularly over 50 years as owner/driver of antique and classic cars that are irregularly driven are: 1) Marvel mystery oil - added to oil- to quiet and clean the hydraulic valve lifters and hollow push-rods (It saves lifter replacement), 2) fuel system cleaner to clean carb jets, passages, fuel injectors, intake valves, spark plugs, and carbon build-up in combustion chambers. (Hint: Berrymans is the oldest and best in my tested experience). These chemicals work and save a lot of remedy-effort. ... View more

As I grew older i learned to buy less of a project car ... that comes with a shorter to do list. Life is busy and short and ya can't spend all your time working in the "man cave garage"... in my opinion. Big project cars are for younger men and women with time money and patience. Just an old guy's experience after 50 years of "car-toys". ... View more

Well this article arroused a nice discussion and that's great. There are plenty of choices and differing tastes in life ...and in collector cars. A Lincoln, Cadillac, or a British sports car calls for the look and smell of leather in most cases. Daily driver late model cars and trucks just need comfy, durable fabric to last 200+ thousand miles. If cow hides are discarded then let's use them to suit differing tastes and wallets! Just common sense! Fake leather "pleather" ) can satisfy too. Variety makes life interesting...just like a variety of opinions does. ... View more

I am child of the fifties and sixties and saw photos of the car in used magazines and thought it was ugly and still do. Parents bought me a plastic model of it (about 1:18 scale) it was in light medium blue. Why did they ever outsource a potentially important design! PT Cruiser was their last attempt at a sports car. I own and show a pristine 55 Plymouth semi-hemi V8 and i am sympathetic to the Plymouth lost cause. This car looks best in hot red, any way. ... View more

Boys and their toys! Great fun building stuff that's "over the top!" LOL. This is great stuff. ... View more

Ford's General Sales Manager in the early 1960s, Lee Iococa, commented a couple times to historians that the 1953 Studebaker Starlight hardtop with its close coupled seating, long hood, short deck, and the pressed-in contour on the sides of the 53 were design elements that he brought to the attention of the 64 Mustang design team. A 53-55 Studebaker coupe or hardtop parked beside a 64-65 mustang at shows, always incites endless verbal comparison. ... View more

The Turin (Torino) automotive museum had one on temporary display a couple decades ago and as I recall , and signage mentioned the Italian, German, and Exner connection. Good article. ... View more

Our family's Chevy Volt was and is the perfect hybrid. 60 miles on a charge is perfect for local commuting and the on board generator gives it unlimited range at 42 mpg. We plug in at home and in the office car park. Overall average MpG is 800 mpg . GM failed market and position it well against Prius and any other economy minded offering. ... View more

Great story of youthful enthusiasm for antique autos. I relate to the story because at 16 years old I purchased my 1953 Studebaker starlite hardtop. Great styling. Inspired Ford' 64 Mustang. More stories like this about youth carrying the hobby forward please. The 63-64 Hawk was best update to that first performance pony car. ... View more

Besides the iconic 63 Corvette split window, I admired the 1950-51 Studebaker 2 door coupe's wrap around side/rear window, and the 65 Plymouth Barracuda amazing rear glass, plus all the GM "bubble top" glass in the 1959-61 Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Buick 2-door hardtops. That gang was just so modern, open, optimistic, and elegant. These are a marvel for the eyes when at classic car shows! ... View more

My neighbor bought that rotary engine wonder, took good care of it through the dealer, but the engine failed at 73,000 miles and out of warranty. Too expensive to fix so a disassembler hauled it away on a rollback and paid the neighbor $500. "Some cars can't go the distance", my neighbor said. ... View more

My wife's first cousin's around Cheltenham, England all drove Mini's as primary family or work vehicles in the 60s, 70's, and 80's. They were lower middle class working families. Economy was important. They loved their easy upkeep cars.. They added fog lights and fancy seat covers but they would have loved to afford one one these - except that ugly camper. ... View more

There are prototype shops in outdoor power equipment manufacturers (ie: lawn care, ATVs, utility vehicles) that would perhaps be interested in this inventor's ingenuity. He thinks out of the box. Outstanding problem solving and mechanical skills! ... View more

Louis DeJoy needs to go. He set outside over 2000 well-maintained and operational mail sorting machines to rust and sell as scrap... in order to advance the agenda of slowed mail delivery at the request of the former president. It takes 3 weeks to deliver mail up and down the east coast now. DeJoy is unqualified to continue. USPS mail delivery is our constitutional right. The new trucks look great! The old GM chassis just somehow kept running 24+ years. ... View more

In 1978 my wife and I bought a 76 Vega estate wagon in bright yellow with wood grain trim and roof rack. The car was virtually new with 5000 miles on it. We hauled two small children and small dog around for 150,000+ miles in that underpowered little economy car. Changed the timing belt every 20,000 miles after the first one gave out at 18,000 miles. Cute but slow. We had to get a "runny" to make it up steep Pennsylvania hills . We still laugh about that car. ... View more

As a retired automotive marketing and product manager I have watched and experienced the "merger/acquisition trend" for decades and I say that at least the consolidated operations remain in USA, and the remaining jobs too. ... View more

I purchased a 1999 Chevy cavalier on eBay in 2012 with only 4800 miles on odometer from the estate of an elderly Florida lady who kept it in garage. Twas a "Time capsule" except the base model gray plastic bumpers covers that had a pasty aging plastic appearance. I purchased and carefully applied on coat of that application-specific matching vinyl paint. Holy cow! Brand new car! Ran like a top and friends marveled at what a can of paint could do! ... View more

Yes indeed those repetitive maintenance chores can bring satisfaction and buoy confidence in your car's reliabilty and performance. Makes the upkeep chore less like work. My examples were changing the timing belt before the mileage limit, rebuilding the four barrel carb every 20,000 miles, changing the auto trans fluid and filter. My Chevys and Cutlasses just ran flawlessly from those routine little repetitive chores yet give me great work satisfaction. Always better to do in a garage on a rainy day after you finished your "honey do list" of chores (smile). ... View more

I relate to your story, having bought Studebaker as daily drivers when I was 16 years old. My friends laughed until they rode along in either of my 2 sleek 53 Starliner Hardtops. My Lark convertible would launch quickly and overdrive transmission made great economy. Now my garage queen is a turquoise and creme color 55 Plymouth with the 270ci semi-hemi and surprisingly quick on straight aways. Daily drivers in our family are two red orphaned sports sedan-like Chevy Cruze turbos and our second Chevy Volt. 36 mpg avg for Cruze and 800 mpg avg Volt. Can't believe GM is giving up on sedans! I love sedans with style. ... View more

Growing up in the 60s our young church paster returned from his tour of duty (as a military chaplain) in Germany,  accompanied by his yyoung beautiful German wife, along with their imported Isetta  car. He always squeezed it into a half space in front of the church.  Young vibrant couple with an attention getting vehicle. Cream and pastel green colors. When they had a baby they traded in the Isetta for a VW bug! Perfect sense! ... View more

More pop-up headlight Pontiac Fieros, Chrysler Lebaron convertibles and Japanese Miatas were sold than those mentioned. They had a bunch of mass appeal. ... View more

I vote for the elegant 1960 Chrysler dash. Beautiful and ergonomic.  ... View more

Lee Iacocca always admired the fifirst long-hood,short-term, four-seater, V8, low-profile, performance car, the award winning 1953-55 Studebaker Starlight hardtop Commander and 6-cylinder Champion. Iococca directed development of mustang with several examples in the design department during early styling. Camaro far exceeded mustang in aesthics. Camero was the third of three "pony cars". ... View more