(EXPANDED FROM 12/19/2023)
The November 1959 issue of Road & Track made bold predictions about what would come next after a wave of new compact cars. “Detroit Beat” writer Don Mac Donald stated that “Detroit, stung by lessons from abroad, finally is doing some product planning worthy of adults” (1959, p. 31).
Although a traditional Cadillac will always be offered — “probably with fins” — the standard-sized car will be “injected with new engineering life,” Mac Donald predicted. For example, by 1963 Ford “will go to front-wheel drive in all of its lines” (1959, p. 31).
Over at General Motors, “the big Chevrolet plans to move its engine back to the trunk in that year. Other makes will by then have followed the transaxle route to eliminate the tunnel. This will permit an immediate 4-in. drop in over-all height without affecting road clearance or interior room” (1959, p. 31).
Meanwhile, the Thunderbird’s success would lead to more personalized cars. Ford was “feverishly planning a line of T-Bird-like cars, ranging from an austere runabout to a super luxurious version destined to replace the misplaced Continental” (1959, p. 31).
On another front, a new Edsel would be introduced in 1961 that was “somewhere between the Falcon and the regular Ford in size, but its insides will be more akin to the Mercedes 220” (1959, p. 31).
New sizes scrambled traditional brand hierarchies
Not to be outdone, General Motors planned to unveil a handful of compact cars. They would be offered by the Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac brands. Mac Donald predicted that one of the models would have an aluminum V8 engine and it “will be a quality car, selling for upwards of $3000” (1959, p. 31). Even Chrysler was reportedly planning a DeSoto entry in this new class.
“Design activity in this area has actually snowballed to where auto men are incautiously talking of two medium-priced fields — one occupied by the Impalas, Fairlanes and Furys of today, and the other by the plush, compact newcomers. What will happen to Buicks, Mercurys and DeSotos as we know them is anybody’s guess” (1959, p. 31).
Mac Donald concluded by stating that while the “roster of makes is more likely to diminish than to increase, the variety available will shortly be infinitely greater” (1959, p. 31).
That proved to be one of his most accurate predictions. DeSoto and Edsel would soon be discontinued, but remaining U.S. brands — particularly in lower-priced fields — would see their lineups grow. The era when a Big Three automaker could base its entire lineup on one platform size was over.
How real was Detroit’s agonizing reappraisal?
Road & Track’s story could be interpreted in a number of ways. One scenario is that Mac Donald was fooled into believing that the Big Three planned more radical changes than they were seriously considering.
Another scenario — as Indie Auto commentator Michael Koresh noted below — is that this article was written when Detroit was at the peak of panicking over a recession that resulted in soaring import sales. Once U.S. compacts mostly beat back the imports, the Big Three reverted to their old ways. That mostly meant making their cars bigger, glitzier and more powerful.
In addition, some key staffing changes may have influenced the direction of U.S. automakers. For example, if Robert McNamara’s tenure as Ford president had lasted longer, might the automaker have been more inclined to switch to front-wheel drive? After all, he championed the FWD Cardinal, which his successors killed before it was slated for introduction in the fall of 1962 (go here for further discussion).
A boomlet in out-of-the-box thinking could also help explain why Chrysler shrank its full-sized Plymouth and Dodge for 1962. In retrospect that may have looked like a radical move, but it was a much more modest idea than switching to FWD or rear-mounted engines.
NOTES:
This story was originally posted on Dec. 19, 2023 and expanded on Jan. 5, 2026. Production figures are from the auto editors of Consumer Guide (1993, 2006) and Gunnell (2004).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 1993, 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, IL.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised 4th Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Mac Donald, Don; 1959. “Detroit Beat.” Road & Track. November issue: p. 31. Posted at Internet Archive.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- fordheritagevault.com: Ford (1963)
- oldcaradvertising.com: Dodge (1961)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Comet (1961)
I am going to surmise that Don Mac Donald got the message that the 1961 full-size Chevrolet would have its “engine in the trunk” from Ed Cole in mid-1959, which was well before the monthly sales reports started rolling in showing the lowly Falcon outselling the Corvair at just under two-to-one. I also suspect that the costs of engineering G.M.’s full-size cars into front-wheel-drive cars on a 119-to-126-inch wheelbase with totally different architecture had the kibosh boom lowered at the 14th-floor level for two big reasons: The after-effects of the need for G.M. to re-engineer the entire U.S. car line in 1959-1960 and the trailing impact of the late 1957-1958 U.S. recession. With nearly 50 % domestic vehicle production, why would Frederic Donner and his board undertake a total makeover of G.M.’s cars for 1961-1962? We do know that Oldsmobile was testing engineering front-wheel-drive mules at the Tech Center and in Milford. One other factor was that Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Buick engineering staffs were already working on new big-block V-8s to replace their vintage 1949 and 1953 designs, which would lend themselves to front-wheel-drive for 1966-1967. The 1959 British Motor Company Minis were ground-breaking cars, but I cannot believe that Donner and his hand-picked president, John Gordon, would have allowed Ed Cole to venture beyond Tech Center mules at the start of the 1960 model year.
The late 1950s recession provoked an unusual amount of self-analysis and exploration of different directions.
Ed Cole was involved in a rear-engine study at Cadillac in the late 1940s that found that layout impractical in a large, heavy car. I wonder what changed. Maybe the development of the aluminum block V8?
It is interesting that talk turned to the FF and RR drivetrain layouts at this point, since just two months earlier Road & Track was forecasting the combination of a front engine with a rear transaxle–and IRS. Look at “Off Beat Detroit,” 9/59.