I can see a red Renault Florida, but I’d have expected to see at least one Mercedes Benz
or BMW. I thought there would be a lot more foreign cars. I love photos like this, I can spend ages poring over them.
I believe the first car on the right lane with is brakelights on might be a BMW 2000 sedan. Not sure, though, as the image is a bit blurry there.
About 3 lines before the Floride I can see a Karmann Ghia. I don’t know how common it was back then, though many other VWs can be seen, including one oval window which was at least 11 years old by then.
4 lanes each way, we simply could not comprehand such vast traffic flows in 1968 Europe. The Parisian Peripherique was the annual torture for non-Parisian drivers, for me as a kid entering Paris at Port de la Chapelle was a miracle, from the busy motorways tarmac directly on the cobblestones of Paris, like you plunged into the city.
Judging by the shadows I’d guess that this was a perfect weather day, only ruined by the smog. If this picture were taken today the sky would be clearer, most of the cars would be imports and the guy walking across the bridge would be talking on the phone. I’ll take the 59 Buick.
The emissions problem for gasoline powered cars has been solved for a long time – basically since fuel injection and 3-way catalysts were adopted. Modern cars are very clean and run just fine.
The only trouble now has to do with regulators who don’t understand the concept of “diminishing returns”, thus forcing ever-more complex tech to wring the last tiny amount out of an already tiny amount, and putting CO2 in the category of pollution, which it is not.
Auto styling moved quickly back then. Compare the 1959 Buick, followed by the 1962 Chevy. Separated by only three model years, but an eternity in terms of style and design.
Yeah, I spotted that Mustang too Matt, but if it’s the fall of 1968, I suppose you could have a few 1969 MY cars in the photo.
As popular as Impalas (or big Chevys in general) were in those days, I would think you’d see a ‘68 or ‘69, but the latest model Impala I see in the photo is the white ‘67 that’s next to the ‘62 that’s behind the ‘59 Buick.
Perhaps full-size Chevrolet sales started sliding in the Los Angeles area before they did in the rest of the country? I recall a 1969 Motor Trend article that said the VW Beetle was the best-selling car in southern California.
The share of imports of the whole US market shot from 5.8% in ’65 to 24.3% in ’70. In CA, it was very much higher yet. Those were the years that marked the second great (but lasting) import boom. Toyota and Datsun sales were exploding in those years. Opel Kadett was #2 in 1968.
MCT
Posted August 22, 2020 at 8:15 PM
“The share of imports of the whole US market shot from 5.8% in ’65 to 24.3% in ’70.”
While import sales definitely shot us sharply in the U.S. during that period – Toyota and Datsun went from a West Coast toehold to being significant players in the national market; VW was at its all-time U.S. peak in the late ’60s and early ’70s – I was very surprised to see that import share in 1970 was 24.3%. I would have guessed it about half that.
So I checked a source that’s been referenced on here before, a series of old reports from the U.S. International Trade Commission. It turns out that’s where Paul got these figures from, and the figures are absolutely correct.
There’s a catch, though. These figures include cars imported from Canada, which at the time was the largest source of cars imported to the U.S. (Japan didn’t pass Canada until 1976). At the risk of sounding like I’m disparaging Canada’s status as a separate country from the U.S., I think it’s misleading to include Canadian cars in this type of discussion. American carbuyers would not have thought of those cars as imports; they were literally indistinguishable from American cars (people buying them were hardly thumbing their noses at Detroit by buying something “different”); these cars were imported into the U.S. as part of larger scheme to rationalize production supply across both the U.S. and Canada, and likely partially offset by cars moving in the opposite direction.
If you take Canada out of the equation, import market share increased from 5.4% to 15.9%. Still impressive, and actually a little higher than I would have guessed from my East Coast perspective.
I don’t think non-Canada import market share reached 24.3% until the early 1980s.
…”It will be quite a challenge to take a picture of a busy road in Europe without any Transporter in it”…
A sentence I read this very afternoon in a car magazine article, featuring a 1967 T1 (its last year of production) and a 2020 T6.1 Bulli (rather ironically, the Transporter’s top trim level these days); 44 gasoline-hp vs 199 diesel-hp.
The LA area RTD was running lots of old school buses until about 1980 or so!
The last of them were made in about 1958-1959, so they certainly wouldn’t have been replaced by 1969. They were only barely half way though their expected life cycle.
Yes, last of the large 45 series ‘Old Looks’ were built in 1959, but the smaller 31 and 35 series were produced until 1968. The bus in the photo appears to be a large one in ‘Metropolitan Coach Lines’ livery (though it was the R.T.D. by then). Many of the smaller cities in the L.A. area were still buying the small ‘Old Looks’ up into the 60’s.
You are right about the R.T.D. ‘Old Looks’ remaining in service until about 1980. I think the R.T.D. replaced them with GM RTS II’s that summer.
Interesting how few pre-1960 vehicles are represented here. Even in the benign salt-free climate of Southern California where rust isn’t an issue, vehicles were just shorter-lived back then.
And I just love that ’59 Buick. It looks like the perfect thing to drive during rush hour. Who wouldn’t make an effort to get out of the way if he saw that in the rear view?
This was undoubtedly rush hour, clogged with commuters. Folks who commuted on the freeways generally avoided driving anything more than about 7-10 years old. But having lived out there in the ’70s, I can assure that the driveways and curbs had gobs of older cars still. Having moved out from the Rust belt, it was remarkable at how many 50s and even ’40s cars could be seen, without any rust of course.
I wondered that, too. Kinda hard to tell, but my guess is that it might be the Hollywood Freeway heading east into the big downtown interchange, with the Pasadena/Harbor Freeway exits coming up in a mile. I traversed all these L.A. freeways a lot when I was going to school at USC in the mid to late ’60’s and living at my parents’ home on the westside. Traffic was a mess even back then.
I think this is the spot, the sloped overpass is Rosemont Ave, the area seems significantly different but the signs match, that curve looks straightened too
I actually recognize it as it’s about two miles from my house! This is U.S 101 in the Echo Park area, the oncoming traffic is northbound, the picture was taken southbound somewhere past the Alvarado St. exit. I believe those are the same signs there today. For some reason that stretch of the 101 south always bogs down and inexplicably clears up at the interchange with the Pasadena (SR 110) Freeway.
The clearly visible microbuses are drab commercial colors. You wouldn’t have seen that outside of California in ’68. Elsewhere, commercial vans were mostly Econolines. Microbuses were strictly for hippies. I only see one Econoline here.
Do you not realize that the reason that GM and Ford built the Corvan and Econoline is because VW Transporters (and pickups) were selling very briskly in the ’50s, and not just in CA. There was no other vehicle like them. They were a big deal. The whole chicken tax thing was done purely in retaliation of the success of the VW pickup and Transporter.
The hippies obviously didn’t buy microbuses new; they bought cheap old ones. And the VW hippie bus phenomena was just barely getting started at the time this picture was taken, and they certainly wouldn’t have been commuting to work in one.
The 1963 Oldsmobile F-85 behind the 1967 Chevrolet Impala in the lane coming towards us is a station wagon, which would have been fairly rare even then.
I think the fact that there’s only one bus, and it’s an old look at that, speaks volumes about LA’s attitude to mass transit in those days. By the way, I’ll be the guy to point out that the Renault coupe several of you referred to as a Florida, was sold here as a Caravelle. I think the rest-of-the-world naming would have sounded too much like a controversial chemical added to public water supplies.
I don’t agree. The expected and normal lifespan of a GM transit us back then was 20-25 years. This bus was likely only about half way through that. Transit systems all over the country were still using lots of old school buses, and commonly up to 1980 or even later.
There was no real difference in terms of the passengers, except for bigger windows. They and the new looks both had air suspension. Some old looks had a/c; quite a few new looks didn’t.
The biggest difference was for the driver. Drastically better visibility! 🙂
Floride (with an “e”) and Caravelle were, around here, trim versions of the Ondine/ Gordini two passenger convertible. It’s likely only one of the brands might have been used
I’ll take the Chrysler 6 cars back in the middle lane. Notice that the Chevrolet 3 cars back has 3 people seated abreast in the front row? Sticks out because most other cars have just one person.
This look very typical for that time. In June 1966 my father was transferred from Catonsville MD to Los Angeles and we drove cross country to our new home in the far west end of the San Fernando Valley. Not until late August that year did I realize we were in a valley surrounded by mountains only miles away. A new to me, Santa Ana winds, blew the valley clear and for the first time I could see east, north and south. The smog was horrendous and many a PE class was cancelled forcing us to stay in the gym. Taking a deep breath was very painful.
Those cars pictured is what I remember. Between my years of 66-68 the only foreign car that stuck out was the VW Bug. Recall never seeing other makes enough to even make a impression on me. On my street in Canoga Park, Community Street, there were many wagons as most everyone were families with 2-4 kids. Lots of Ford wagons maybe one Chrysler wagon. My father drove a 67 Fury III 4dr, hardtop. Neighbor next door drove a 56 Pontiac. Next door to them a family of six with a current Ford Country Squire but not a foreign car on the block beyond a Bug. I was 13-15 these years and already collecting Motor Trend’s new car magazine that came out every new car year summarizing what was available.
Wow…five years earlier my father did the opposite (I’ll admit he was going against the trend) when he moved back from Covina/Gendora CA and eventually ended up in Catonsville (by way of Monroeville/Plum Boro PA). By 1966 we were up in Burlington Vt. (back then my father moved quite often, though he ended up living almost 40 years in his last home).
In 1968…he was driving a new Renault R10 bought at Almartin motors in South Burlington Vt…my mother was driving a 1965 Oldsmobile F85 wagon for another year, until they bought a ’69 Country Squire wagon at Luzurne motors.
Anybody notice the ’67 Riviera in the #3 ln. near the green and white bus? I’m very familiar with this stretch of freeway but almost fifteen years later.
I can see a red Renault Florida, but I’d have expected to see at least one Mercedes Benz
or BMW. I thought there would be a lot more foreign cars. I love photos like this, I can spend ages poring over them.
I believe the first car on the right lane with is brakelights on might be a BMW 2000 sedan. Not sure, though, as the image is a bit blurry there.
About 3 lines before the Floride I can see a Karmann Ghia. I don’t know how common it was back then, though many other VWs can be seen, including one oval window which was at least 11 years old by then.
Car in the right lane with brake lights on looks like Toyota Corona to me.
And to me
4 lanes each way, we simply could not comprehand such vast traffic flows in 1968 Europe. The Parisian Peripherique was the annual torture for non-Parisian drivers, for me as a kid entering Paris at Port de la Chapelle was a miracle, from the busy motorways tarmac directly on the cobblestones of Paris, like you plunged into the city.
Judging by the shadows I’d guess that this was a perfect weather day, only ruined by the smog. If this picture were taken today the sky would be clearer, most of the cars would be imports and the guy walking across the bridge would be talking on the phone. I’ll take the 59 Buick.
For all those that bemoan emission controls, pan up to the image of the sky.
The emissions problem for gasoline powered cars has been solved for a long time – basically since fuel injection and 3-way catalysts were adopted. Modern cars are very clean and run just fine.
The only trouble now has to do with regulators who don’t understand the concept of “diminishing returns”, thus forcing ever-more complex tech to wring the last tiny amount out of an already tiny amount, and putting CO2 in the category of pollution, which it is not.
Only 8 lanes. What were they thinking?
You can tell it’s LA as traffic is backed up in both directions.
Is it a 1969 Cadillac by the Renault Floride?
Yes.
Auto styling moved quickly back then. Compare the 1959 Buick, followed by the 1962 Chevy. Separated by only three model years, but an eternity in terms of style and design.
1969 Mustang behind the Karmann Ghia
Yeah, I spotted that Mustang too Matt, but if it’s the fall of 1968, I suppose you could have a few 1969 MY cars in the photo.
As popular as Impalas (or big Chevys in general) were in those days, I would think you’d see a ‘68 or ‘69, but the latest model Impala I see in the photo is the white ‘67 that’s next to the ‘62 that’s behind the ‘59 Buick.
Perhaps full-size Chevrolet sales started sliding in the Los Angeles area before they did in the rest of the country? I recall a 1969 Motor Trend article that said the VW Beetle was the best-selling car in southern California.
The share of imports of the whole US market shot from 5.8% in ’65 to 24.3% in ’70. In CA, it was very much higher yet. Those were the years that marked the second great (but lasting) import boom. Toyota and Datsun sales were exploding in those years. Opel Kadett was #2 in 1968.
“The share of imports of the whole US market shot from 5.8% in ’65 to 24.3% in ’70.”
While import sales definitely shot us sharply in the U.S. during that period – Toyota and Datsun went from a West Coast toehold to being significant players in the national market; VW was at its all-time U.S. peak in the late ’60s and early ’70s – I was very surprised to see that import share in 1970 was 24.3%. I would have guessed it about half that.
So I checked a source that’s been referenced on here before, a series of old reports from the U.S. International Trade Commission. It turns out that’s where Paul got these figures from, and the figures are absolutely correct.
There’s a catch, though. These figures include cars imported from Canada, which at the time was the largest source of cars imported to the U.S. (Japan didn’t pass Canada until 1976). At the risk of sounding like I’m disparaging Canada’s status as a separate country from the U.S., I think it’s misleading to include Canadian cars in this type of discussion. American carbuyers would not have thought of those cars as imports; they were literally indistinguishable from American cars (people buying them were hardly thumbing their noses at Detroit by buying something “different”); these cars were imported into the U.S. as part of larger scheme to rationalize production supply across both the U.S. and Canada, and likely partially offset by cars moving in the opposite direction.
If you take Canada out of the equation, import market share increased from 5.4% to 15.9%. Still impressive, and actually a little higher than I would have guessed from my East Coast perspective.
I don’t think non-Canada import market share reached 24.3% until the early 1980s.
And at least 6 Beetles!
Make that 7
Looks like a 1969 Camaro just barely visible in front of (behind as traffic flows) the Cougar and Wagoneer on the far right.
Of course, given that model years start the previous calendar year, this picture could still be from 1968.
There is a white 1969 Cadillac in the lane heading towards us.
The Buick heading towards the camera, between the Dodge truck and 1963 Cadillac, also appears to be a 1968 or 1969 model.
Definitely a 1968-69 Buick Skylark or Special.
That’s a Firebird, definitely a 69 though
Between the Dodge pickup and the Caddy in the center of the picture? I think it’s a Buick.
Opposite direction far right where Tom described. It’s just barely in the picture, but you can see the split taillights
Got it. Definitely a Firebird.
It may well be from 1969; I didn’t look that closely at it. That’s why I said “ca. (circa) 1968.
Maybe Firebird instead of Camaro?
What a cool picture! More, please. 🙂
…”It will be quite a challenge to take a picture of a busy road in Europe without any Transporter in it”…
A sentence I read this very afternoon in a car magazine article, featuring a 1967 T1 (its last year of production) and a 2020 T6.1 Bulli (rather ironically, the Transporter’s top trim level these days); 44 gasoline-hp vs 199 diesel-hp.
Must be some sort of CC-effect.
Oh, here they are (photo courtesy of Autoweek.nl).
What’s in front of the baby-blue Bug heading away from us in the left lane? I’m thinking either a Ford Cortina or some sort of Opel.
And aside from what appears to be a Corona, I’m surprised by the lack of Japanese cars. LA was the forefront of the invasion.
It looks like a 1961-63 Rambler American.
Wow! It’s hardly possible that I could have been further off-base! 🙂
And a canvas sunroof oval window Beetle.
As cool as that is, my preferred vehicle for highway travel in this shot would be the 1964 Pontiac wagon.
An “Old Look” GM Bus? I thought we were up to the “New Look” by 1968.
I’ll have to go back and review the Jim Brophy and Paul Niedermeyer articles. 😉
The LA area RTD was running lots of old school buses until about 1980 or so!
The last of them were made in about 1958-1959, so they certainly wouldn’t have been replaced by 1969. They were only barely half way though their expected life cycle.
Yes, last of the large 45 series ‘Old Looks’ were built in 1959, but the smaller 31 and 35 series were produced until 1968. The bus in the photo appears to be a large one in ‘Metropolitan Coach Lines’ livery (though it was the R.T.D. by then). Many of the smaller cities in the L.A. area were still buying the small ‘Old Looks’ up into the 60’s.
You are right about the R.T.D. ‘Old Looks’ remaining in service until about 1980. I think the R.T.D. replaced them with GM RTS II’s that summer.
Interesting how few pre-1960 vehicles are represented here. Even in the benign salt-free climate of Southern California where rust isn’t an issue, vehicles were just shorter-lived back then.
And I just love that ’59 Buick. It looks like the perfect thing to drive during rush hour. Who wouldn’t make an effort to get out of the way if he saw that in the rear view?
This was undoubtedly rush hour, clogged with commuters. Folks who commuted on the freeways generally avoided driving anything more than about 7-10 years old. But having lived out there in the ’70s, I can assure that the driveways and curbs had gobs of older cars still. Having moved out from the Rust belt, it was remarkable at how many 50s and even ’40s cars could be seen, without any rust of course.
Tangent: I remember someone (not here) mentioning the “half-life” or “middle age” of a typical American passenger vehicle c. 1960 vs. c.2000.
Not sure what metaphor is better suited, but it’s a neat thought.
Anyone know where this was shot? I see signs for Pasadena Fwy and Harbor Fwy, Burbank? and maybe Glendale/Bel Air at the right?
Or was this scene obliterated when the highway was widened at some point.
I wondered that, too. Kinda hard to tell, but my guess is that it might be the Hollywood Freeway heading east into the big downtown interchange, with the Pasadena/Harbor Freeway exits coming up in a mile. I traversed all these L.A. freeways a lot when I was going to school at USC in the mid to late ’60’s and living at my parents’ home on the westside. Traffic was a mess even back then.
I think this is the spot, the sloped overpass is Rosemont Ave, the area seems significantly different but the signs match, that curve looks straightened too
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https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0732499,-118.2696863,19z/data=!3m1!1e3
I actually recognize it as it’s about two miles from my house! This is U.S 101 in the Echo Park area, the oncoming traffic is northbound, the picture was taken southbound somewhere past the Alvarado St. exit. I believe those are the same signs there today. For some reason that stretch of the 101 south always bogs down and inexplicably clears up at the interchange with the Pasadena (SR 110) Freeway.
Four Mustangs coming towards us. And way at the back a relatively new Oldsmobile to go with the newer Buick at the front.
As to someone else’s comment, the cars that have prominent fins look out of place in 1968.
The clearly visible microbuses are drab commercial colors. You wouldn’t have seen that outside of California in ’68. Elsewhere, commercial vans were mostly Econolines. Microbuses were strictly for hippies. I only see one Econoline here.
Microbuses were strictly for hippies.
Do you not realize that the reason that GM and Ford built the Corvan and Econoline is because VW Transporters (and pickups) were selling very briskly in the ’50s, and not just in CA. There was no other vehicle like them. They were a big deal. The whole chicken tax thing was done purely in retaliation of the success of the VW pickup and Transporter.
The hippies obviously didn’t buy microbuses new; they bought cheap old ones. And the VW hippie bus phenomena was just barely getting started at the time this picture was taken, and they certainly wouldn’t have been commuting to work in one.
The 1963 Oldsmobile F-85 behind the 1967 Chevrolet Impala in the lane coming towards us is a station wagon, which would have been fairly rare even then.
I think the fact that there’s only one bus, and it’s an old look at that, speaks volumes about LA’s attitude to mass transit in those days. By the way, I’ll be the guy to point out that the Renault coupe several of you referred to as a Florida, was sold here as a Caravelle. I think the rest-of-the-world naming would have sounded too much like a controversial chemical added to public water supplies.
I don’t agree. The expected and normal lifespan of a GM transit us back then was 20-25 years. This bus was likely only about half way through that. Transit systems all over the country were still using lots of old school buses, and commonly up to 1980 or even later.
There was no real difference in terms of the passengers, except for bigger windows. They and the new looks both had air suspension. Some old looks had a/c; quite a few new looks didn’t.
The biggest difference was for the driver. Drastically better visibility! 🙂
Floride (with an “e”) and Caravelle were, around here, trim versions of the Ondine/ Gordini two passenger convertible. It’s likely only one of the brands might have been used
That yellow tint is L.A. smog©
If you liked that, you’ll like this:
1964, Detroit. I see just one foreign car (a Beetle!)
Yeah back then even in California American cars ruled the road.
This must be Southfield Freeway or Northwestern Hwy! It looks so alike to what it is now
I’ll take the Chrysler 6 cars back in the middle lane. Notice that the Chevrolet 3 cars back has 3 people seated abreast in the front row? Sticks out because most other cars have just one person.
It’s even better with a little color correction
Cool pic. I see a 67 Chevy and a 67 Chrysler that I like. Man traffic looks pretty bad for this being way back in 1968.
This look very typical for that time. In June 1966 my father was transferred from Catonsville MD to Los Angeles and we drove cross country to our new home in the far west end of the San Fernando Valley. Not until late August that year did I realize we were in a valley surrounded by mountains only miles away. A new to me, Santa Ana winds, blew the valley clear and for the first time I could see east, north and south. The smog was horrendous and many a PE class was cancelled forcing us to stay in the gym. Taking a deep breath was very painful.
Those cars pictured is what I remember. Between my years of 66-68 the only foreign car that stuck out was the VW Bug. Recall never seeing other makes enough to even make a impression on me. On my street in Canoga Park, Community Street, there were many wagons as most everyone were families with 2-4 kids. Lots of Ford wagons maybe one Chrysler wagon. My father drove a 67 Fury III 4dr, hardtop. Neighbor next door drove a 56 Pontiac. Next door to them a family of six with a current Ford Country Squire but not a foreign car on the block beyond a Bug. I was 13-15 these years and already collecting Motor Trend’s new car magazine that came out every new car year summarizing what was available.
Wow…five years earlier my father did the opposite (I’ll admit he was going against the trend) when he moved back from Covina/Gendora CA and eventually ended up in Catonsville (by way of Monroeville/Plum Boro PA). By 1966 we were up in Burlington Vt. (back then my father moved quite often, though he ended up living almost 40 years in his last home).
In 1968…he was driving a new Renault R10 bought at Almartin motors in South Burlington Vt…my mother was driving a 1965 Oldsmobile F85 wagon for another year, until they bought a ’69 Country Squire wagon at Luzurne motors.
No fewer than three…
Anybody notice the ’67 Riviera in the #3 ln. near the green and white bus? I’m very familiar with this stretch of freeway but almost fifteen years later.