(first posted 10/4/2012) Got a growing family on a budget? Are twins on the way, but you don’t want to pulverize the piggy bank? If so, you had a plethora of choices in 1962! The compact-wagon market was booming, and virtually everyone but luxury stalwarts Chrysler, Cadillac and Lincoln offered tantalizing tailgate options in a reduced-size package. Which one would you have chosen in ’62?
Near-Cutlass level class was available with the F-85 wagons. Using the same basic body as the Tempest, the F-85s upped the ante with our roundup’s first standard-equipment V8 and first optional automatic with more than two gears. Incidentally, that automatic was the Series Five edition of the ever-controversial Roto-Hydramatic. Also, it might even have been mentioned in Curbside Classic (if I remember correctly, JPCavanaugh’s mother had a love/hate relationship with her ’61) that there were concerns about GM’s using buyers as guinea pigs for their new aluminum V8’s casting and cooling issues.
One of our Mid-Century Modern Miniature Mobility Masterpieces, the Buick Special, was actually named “Car of The Year” for 1962, an honor that seems to have been based solely on its new Fireball V6. Still, with 135 standard horsepower on tap, and Buick prestige written on its flanks, how could you go wrong?
It’s time we got to the “Mopar Madness” part of our comparison. While the Valiant/Lancer fraternal twins didn’t share as much DNA as the Falcon/Comet wagons, it was mostly sheet metal and appointments that set apart these family haulers, perhaps inspired by Virgil Exner’s repeated playing of “Fly Me To The Moon” after too many Manhattans.
But underneath the outré styling lived all the typical Mopar goodies: Torsion-aire ride, Torqueflite automatic, and a tough Slant Six. Incredibly, these weren’t even the most mutant looking wagons offered by Highland Park: Despite that reverse slant C-pillar, they still project a jaunty sportiness that’s absent from the competition, the Corvair excepted.
Now, let’s move out of Detroit Metro to our independent choices. First up, from South Bend, is the Lark. From the windshield back, the Lark wagons featured 1959-vintage bodies (which themselves displayed 1953-vintage roots) while all the other Larks tried to hide their age with a little more make-up and some empire-waisted gowns, including squared-off roof lines and starchier rear fenders. But here we see such big-car amenities as the tough-old-bird Studebaker V8. Growing only 2.5″ in the front clip, the Larks had the tidiest dimensions of any V8-equipped wagon for 1962.
But tidiest of all was the thriftmaster from Kenosha, with its Praying Mantis face and basic structural innards from the dawn of the 1950s. Also found here, in base models, is the only flathead I-6 available in the class (although OHV engines were available for higher-grade models). Yet with all that old-fashioned technology also came old-fashioned build quality, with solidity that some competitors rather lacked. Although the world had changed since its debut as a “bathtub on wheels”, plenty of buyers loved the car’s stubborn adherence to its “American Virtues.”
So here we are. Where will our small-wagon fantasy money go? Given the plethora of choices, I find this comparison the hardest from which to make a firm decision–even without factoring in the imports. But have at it.
I’ll take the Studebaker with the V-8 and overdrive even though for ’62, I’d have to settle for a 4-door. One of the service stations I worked for as a kid had a ’62 Jeep Wagon with the optional overhead cam six and 3 on the floor. This was just before the Wagoneer came out. Of course, I got to drive it – only a couple of times though since the boss’s wife usually used it. Had two tone paint. Remember that I got the job to polish it.
Well, my Father actually had 2 different Rambler Wagons back then…a 1960 (which he still owned in 1962) and a 1963. Also, he bought the larger “non-American” model, so I guess it depends on what you consider a compact (I don’t think the larger “Classic” was intermediate size either though).
He bought the 1960 Wagon in Compton CA, trading in his 1956 Plymouth Plaza (base car, with the flathead 6 and manual transmission). He got married after buying the Plymouth, and my Mother to this day prefers Automatic transmission, so the 1960 was the first Automatic and first Wagon in our family….otherwise it was a base car, though probably did have AM radio. We drove it back east probably in 1961, having flown to California in 1959…..we have pictures of going through the Grand Canyon (probably travelling on Rt 66)…we tried to visit relative near Amarillo TX but never connected.
We were “reverse migrating” from California to Pennsylvania in the early 60’s (talk about bucking the trend).
I know less about the purchase of the ’63, never asked my Father about it and he’s gone now (my Mother wouldn’t know)…not sure why we bought it so soon after the ’60 but my Father did buy cars fairly frequently.. He would have bought it somewhere around Pittsburgh PA. It was similarly equipped to the ’60, even down to the color…..all our wagons were green, up through the ’69 Country Squire. He didn’t own the ’63 that long, as in June 1965 we were moving yet again from Catonsville MD to Burlington, Vt and my Father was in an auto accident outside our motel in Catonsville. which totalled the car…..that ended our AMC period, as he ended up buying a 1965 Oldsmobile F85 Wagon at Val Preda’s in South Burlington…I think that ended up being our first “intermediate” wagon….it also was our first V8, as it had the 330.
So as for me, I’d be just like Dad and buy AMC…even going for the larger Classic rather than the American. The straight 6 and automatic would be OK, but I’d want to get the electric rather than vacuum wipers on it if possible…and if I could stretch it out to buy a ’63 rather than a ’62, (to get the Pac Man Grill)….that would be great….I know I’m cheating by going with a ’63 instead of a ’62, and also by choosing the Classic instead of the American (but my Dad previously owned a ’60 which is similar to the ’62). One of my favorite pictures of my Mother is outside out house in Murrysville PA with snow on the ground, with her getting out of the ’63 Rambler, which was probably brand new at the time….but could have been taken in 1962, as I’m not sure exactly when my Dad bought the ’63.
Well, if I make the same income, adjusted of course, I wouldn’t want my wife to be seen in a Chevy, Ford, Rambler, Plymouth or Studebaker. The Dodge, like it Plymouth is too ugly for the “little women” and the “rope drive” Pontiac is too strange sounding to me. So, the choices are narrowed down to the underpowered Comet, the Oldsmobile or the Buick. I’d pick the Olds, upscale enough, but a good solid choice.
Just the choice my parents made in 1961. Unfortunately their choice proved neither good nor solid as the aluminum V8 caused them no end of problems. With a decent engine these would have been real winners. My mother remembered ours fondly – except for the hours spent along roadsides waiting for the overheated engine to cool back down.
I don’t ever recall seeing the Comet wagon with bucket seats, in spite of it’s turgid performance that might have been nice .
I’m still kicking myself for not buying that Corvair Lakewood wagon for $150 .
God knows I love me some early 1st generation Chevy II’s but time has shown how incredibly cheaply made they were . no regrets for the several I owned including Super Sport models .
Reading all the well considered thoughts here makes me realize I’d have a tough time figuring out which to buy .
” I can picture Rocky the Raccoon driving one with Bullwinkle passed out in the back, dead drunk. ” thanx for a mind picture I’ll never be rid of now =8-) .
-Nate
I am too young to remember these cars new. I remember the 64 intermediates much better. I was one of those kids who knew every car before I could even read and write. There was a Chevy dealer down the street and my brothers and I would sneak into their storage lot and peek under the tarps at the new models each September, before they made it to the showroom for sale. I also made my father follow cars on the highway until I could identify them. As a child, the independents were not very plentiful and you saw one every once in a while. I don’t remember thier being many of these B-O-P cars. The Corvair was a fun little coupe, but wagons with a rear engine just never made sense to me. It’s like comparing a VW Microbus to a Ford Van. The engine belonged in the front so that you had a big empty box at the back. So the Chevy II was far more practical than the Corvair. The Chrysler cars were just too ugly to me. So the choice is between Ford and Chevy. My father was a die hard Chevy guy. (52 sedan, 56 Sedan, 63 BelAir Wagon, 72 Kingwood wagon). The 63 was my childhood car. But my father sold it just before I got my drivers license. I was so mad at him. I wanted him to get his new car and give the 63 to my brothers and I. Instead he sold it for almost nothing. So with these 62’s, the choice would have to be the Chevy II. I always wondered what a 65 Corvair would have looked like. Or a 68 Nova wagon.
No one considered all the wagons like this. You got what you can afford and fix. You bought the brand you knew from the dealer you trusted. You bought depending on the size and ages in your family.
Mine was a Ford family. My dad and uncle worked at Ford. They got employee pricing.
So, my choice? Falcon or Comet.
We actually had the Falcon – although it was 4 years old when my dad brought it home. Unfortunately, the Falcon was only around for a few months. It was totaled by a snowplow while parked on the street during an unusually early season snowstorm. Small towns could be lacking in choices. My dad needed to find a replacement quickly. Enter a low mileage one-owner ’59 Rambler American 2-door sedan. I ‘d have taken any of these over that car – with the exception of the butt ugly ’62 Rambler American. It was the only car that made our ’59 look good by comparison – and that is really saying something.
The Valiant or Lancer in a walk. Torsion bars, the /6, and the offbeat styling doesn’t bother me.
I’ll guess that the family’s decision boiled down to price. Which probably means one of the big 3. Valiant and Lancer styling was probably a little too, too much despite their advanced engineering. So that’s Chevy II or Falcon, depending on who had the best financing deal or the biggest trade-in allowance on the old, dependable ’54 sedan.
If I’d been 31 y.o. in 1962, it might just have been the Dodge, as I did have a family and a Dodge (Aries sedan) at age 31 in 1992!