It’s clear that General Motors cars in the early 1950s had a definite family face. A wide “smile” of a grille capped off by two endearing “eyes” of headlamps and a proud “forehead” of a domed hood. In the face of a lowly Chevrolet you can see the aspirations to become a Cadillac someday. And the subtle implication to buyers that they should aspire to climb the Sloan ladder with the Chevrolet’s aspirations.
All of the faces of the 1948/49-54 General Motors cars projected a powerful confidence that matched growing post war confidence. Although the cars started to break off with their own unique design details the basic formula wasn’t deviated from.
The Oldsmobile wanted you to think of international, or even intergalactic travel with the dressing of jet scoops, rocket emblems and that beautiful globe emblem telling you the world was your oyster, and all you needed was a Rand McNally Map.
Pontiac, in the midst of a perpetual identity crisis during the 1950s says so much, yet so little in its face. This school of thought for the brand, like many an Indian Chief, was about to be history with the new for 1955 V8.
Buick, however had a reason to be flashing a million dollar smile. A tide of increasing sales that were about to swamp Plymouth, and a new V8 behind this toothy smile would make any car feel like a million bucks. It’s perhaps the best reflection of a smug General Motors that we will never see the likes of again.
This is another example of why when we are talking GM I prefer the Buick. The Olds just looks sad, the Poncho looks like a customized Chev and the Cad is just to darn close to the Chev and a little to plain for being the top of the rung.
I think I am with you. I really like those early 50s Buicks. They just look really serious. However, I kind of like the Olds. I always liked the planet logo.
I guess this also shows Harley Earl’s influence over every division’s designs. I think that few would argue that GM was the established style leader in those years. Top to bottom, the cars were never worse than decent looking, and often were great looking.
To clarify, by sad, I mean unhappy. Like the middle child who’s older (more expensive) brothers stole his ice cream and got away with it. When he tired to do the same to his younger (cheaper) siblings he got busted by Mom and is now pouting in the corner.
For the brand that arguably projected the most conservative image, I always found the toothy grille of the 1950 model Buicks rather odd.
I think it sort of looks like the pipes of an organ, like you’d see in the well-to-do churches the well-to-do drivers of Buicks would have attended. I love the Buicks of this era. (I had a ’55 for a brief time.)
Now DeSoto–that was a toothy grille.
I once told an ex he had a face like a 1953 Buick, and meant it as a compliment. I don’t remember if he took at as a compliment though….
When I had braces I had a smile like a 58 Buick…
Interesting to think that that generation of GM cars was far less badge-engineered than in subsequent years, yet appeared more harmonious from top to bottom than in most years since.
There’s a ’48 Cadillac that I pass every day (it appears to run, as it does move from time to time), and it’s still a great-looking car, although it is more conservative than the Buick of the same era. The resemblance to Chevy is striking–almost as if the Chevy can’t afford to be flashy and the Cadillac would rather not, thank you.
In those days, GM as a whole only had five different cars to style. By the mid-1970s, each division, except for Cadillac, had at least five different cars within its lineup.
At that point, stylists were more concerned with maintaining brand identity among, say, the Omega, Cutlass, Delta 88, Ninety-Eight and Toronado than they were about making sure there was a link or a logical progression between a Pontiac and an Oldsmobile.
Couldn’t agree with you more…it was model proliferation that killed the beast.
Even 25 years ago – when I was a plucky young B-school student – I could see the problem, and did a project that proposed having GM as the make, and the various marques as the models. The same basic system had worked worked for GM prior to 1960, and it was working at the time for Toyota, so why not?
Unfortunately, no one clued the young BuzzDog into the harsh realities of dealer contracts…but I still wonder what would have happened to GM if that change had been made.
Actually, I think the ford mercury brands were better looking in the 49-54 era. GM got the jump on them with engines in 49. One of my classmates stuck a 50 olds engine in an old 49-51 ford. Another stuck a 283 chevy(57) in a 53 merc. Those were the cars everyone wanted. Good looking, fast, and reliable. There was a point to be made for mopar running gear also but never having been a big fan I can’t make it. All I remember there is flathead sixes and I neither know nor much care when they came out with ohv v8s. The only thing that came close on the envy scale was the kid with an old chevy with a warmed over gmc truck six. Lots of stuff came down the pike later(chev/olds engines particularly) but in my little home town in a long gone time those things came at the top of the gotta have list. About 1960 lots of things got more affordable and changed the scenario.
I think it’s a mixed bag. The 1949-51 Mercury (and the similar junior Lincolns) make it onto almost everyone’s list of the top American car designs of all time. I have always thought the Cosmopolitan was under-appreciated. The 1949 Ford was definitely more “modern” than the ’49 Chevy, but like many clean sheet of paper designs (e.g. ’57 Plymouth), it had a lot of teething problems the first year. To me, the 1952-54 Fords are just boring, and the 1952-54 Lincolns didn’t even really try to compete with Cadillac, but it’s not like they stood up any better against a Buick or Olds. Ford was also behind GM and Chrysler in wagons, with no four door or steel bodied wagons till ’52 (although, once Ford got serious about building wagons, they caught up very fast).
Agreed about the Cosmopolitan, the ’50 especially is an absolutely gorgeous car. Also about the ’52-’54 Fords being relatively boring. Plus frankly, the flathead 8 is not the engine I want to live with.
The ’49-54 GM cars were awesome — the Olds with the Rocket OHV V8, the Buick and Pontiac had those wonderful straight 8s, the good old Chevy 235 straight 6… Hard to choose a favorite, any of them would be most welcome here.
@Lawrence:
Very nice writeup and photos, enjoyed it immensely!
I have to disagree about the Buick face. They look sad-eyed and catfish-mouthed in this era, which is unfortunate because the sides were quite handsome.
I agree with you on the Buick. The above example resembles a 50 something executive of the era, a little too fat and happy after a 3 Martini lunch and probably chomping a cigar.
His doctor probably admonishing him to live a healthier lifestyle…cottage cheese and Tab.
That face made it to Holden too, like the FJ Holden, built from 1953 to 1957.
That car looks like it has a mustache!
Ha ha ha! You’re right!
Ah yes the other end of GMs corporate structure the range in NZ began with Holden stepping up to Vauxhall Velox/Cresta but with the gutless 4 banger Wyvern selling for less than a Holden, then into the US/Canadian range. NZ was the first export market for Holden and they were well recieved but rusted nearly as fast as Vauxhalls so that corporate disease came too.
Ford out this way had a similar ladder not seen in the US it began with the 30s tech sidevalve Popular, Alglia, Prefect range still with rod brakes& transverse springs moving on to the 3 graces Consul4 Zephyr/Zodiac6s the into Canadian V8 Customlines Mercurys etc.
Buying an actual American car in NZ was next to impossible though no remittance imports could be arranged if you had US funds, overseas fund were required to buy any new car back then and the ritual was well practised and those brand new cars could be resold at a huge premium. But reselling put you back in the queue again The procedure went like this, My father bought BHP shares on the Sydney stock exchange then sold them on the London exchange and paid in England for a new Vauxhall Velox which once eventually assembled in New Zealand was delivered in1954 in stoneleigh grey and by the time I was born it was metallic green looked great but had the factory fitted rust cut out.
Just buying a car didnt happen here it was quite an achievment for anyone other than a wealthy farmer with a wool cheque to get a new car of any make. My father told of counting 1 pound notes out from a kerosene tin that a farmer brought in to pay for a new Chevrolet over 2k in oncers, our cars were double the price of US and this was when a kiwi pound was more valuable than the aussie one, but it was preferred that we bought British cars to help pay for their war.
I wouldn’t kick any of ’em out of the garage for leaking motor oil but… my heart will always yearn for Oldsmobile and Ponitac.
“Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requiescant in pace.” – May his soul and the souls of all the departed faithful by God’s mercy rest in peace.
These are the faces of my childhood, and taken from the child’s eye level too. Old friends.
“the Poncho looks like a customized Chev”…
And fortunately Bunkie Knudsen and John DeLorean arrived on the scene to fix that…so well that the brand was able to coast (with the occasional flash of greatness) from the early ’70’s until the end. Otherwise Pontiac probably would have gone away by 1960 like DeSoto and Edsel.
Don’t forget Pete Estes, who ran the division between Knudson and DeLorean. Those three guys ran the best-run division in GM from the late 50s through the late 60s.
When DeLorean came over from Packard in about 1956, Knudson was the division head and Estes was pencilled in to replace a soon-to-retire chief engineer. DeLorean was reluctant to move to a bigger company, but the vision and energy of Knudson and Estes convinced him to come aboard. Estes became division head in ’61 and DeLorean became chief engineer at that time, then Delorean took over for Estes a few years later. I think all three of them stayed with pretty much the same script, and Pontiac was extremely successful in those years.