There is a ton of interesting information about the different automotive eras that is hiding in plain sight, there, but invisible to the casual observer. We all know that car models got larger and more expensive over time, right? Well, not necessarily. Read on.
Prices
We all know that prices of everything have always risen over time, which is primarily due to inflation, which makes our money worth less as time passes. To really get an accurate picture we need to remove the effects of changing dollar values by using a single year as a value reference. The following graphs are relative to dollars from the year 2019.
In looking at the GM graph we need to keep in mind a couple of things. First, the low-price of a company has ‘L’ appended to the legend text and has a dashed line, and the high price has ‘H’ and a solid line. For example, ‘PontiacL’ is the graph of the lowest price Pontiac series and ‘PontiacH’ is the highest.
The first thing to notice is the price positioning of Chevrolet and BOP. From lowest to highest, the trend is Chevy, Pontiac, Olds and Buick. Second, the curves have a humped shape, with a broad peak centered around the early ’60’s, approximately.
Chrysler pricing shows the same stratification. Overlap is minimal, and the Chrysler (yellow) line is remarkably peaked. Also, Dodge and Plymouth pricing are much closer to one another than Dodge is to Chrysler.
The FoMoCo graph is a little different, in that Thunderbird was a pricey model that obfuscates the general trends, so we graphed ‘Ford H’ both with (yellow) and without (tan) Thunderbird. With Thunderbird removed, we see the expected placing of Mercury above Ford.
Summary
Always keep in mind that these are ‘fixed’ or ‘constant’ dollars, referenced to the value of the dollar in 2019. This allows us to remove the effect of inflation, which will hide the true trends if not accounted for.
To summarize what we’ve seen we can say that prices did rise to a broad plateau centered on about 1960 and then broadly decline to final values that were marginally higher than at the start of the era. However, many of the low-priced series ended the era at lower prices than at the beginning.
Vehicle Weights
GM Companies
Looking at vehicle weights will show an increase over time, right? Nothing more to be said. Well, let’s take a look.
With Chevy we see substantial weight increases in the 1958 through 1961 timeframe, with a sharp decline in 1962 through 1964. The somewhat lower weights after 1961 reflect the effects of Chevy II and Corvair. We’ll see a similar trend with Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile.
The early ’70’s saw increasing weights. Don’t overlook the fact that these graphs each have different vertical axis ranges.
Corvette is remarkably simple; it started at 2,700lbs. and increased to 3,500lbs. over the next two decades, with few deviations. Of course, this is just one model, and you wouldn’t expect to see the variations you see when graphing multiple models from a company, such as Buick, below.
Buick weight looks a lot like Chevrolet, with a less pronounced rise in the early ’70’s. Note that the vertical axis for Chevy goes up to 3,800lbs, but it’s 5,000lbs. for Buick.
Olds, perhaps not unexpectedly, looks very similar to Buick, doesn’t it?
Again here, we see a Pontiac graph that looks rather as expected, having taken a look at the Chevy, Buick and Olds graphs. Again, note the axis change.
Chrysler Companies
Chrysler showed a moderate and fairly consistent weight increase.
Dodge shows the late ’50’s bulge that BOP showed, but not Chrysler. The following three graphs also show some of this effect.
The ’62 – ’64 Plymouth weights are approximately equal to the 1946.
FoMoCo
Ford weights didn’t seem to drop off after 1958-59 as much as other makes did.
Mercury weights did fall off substantially after 1959, much the same as most of of the other makes. The weight axis goes to 5,000 lbs. compared to the 4,000 lbs. of the Ford graph.
Here’s all the weight data in one graph. It fairly clearly shows the ’55 – ’60 growth in in weights and the subsequent drop-off starting in about 1960. Weights stabilize in the early ’60’s and then the rate of increase rises to the end of the graph.
Summary
Car weights did indeed tend to gently rise throughout the era, with a bulge centered on about 1958 – ’59. This reflects two things. First, the accelerating rate of vehicle growth in the mid to late fifties, followed by the introduction of smaller models that had previously been the domain of the import cars. From the early sixties lows, weights rose aggressively to the end of the era.
Selected Model Trends
Let’s look at some of our favorite makes and models and see how they changed in cost, weight and sales over time. Some are no-brainers, like the weight of Thunderbird, but others are a bit less predictable. The Percent of Total is the percentage of sales the model accounted for relative to their company.
Chevy Camaro
Camaro started out like a house on fire, with fairly consistent sales in 1967 – 1969. The 1970 model was introduced late, as you will recall, but I’m sure this didn’t account for all of the enormous decline. What’s kind of interesting is the surge in sales in 1973 and 1974. I’d have to think that lessened competition accounts for much of this. Camaro was, after all, a survivor.
Pricing remained fairly flat relative to adjusted dollars (yellow), actually declining through 1972.
Camaro weight was relatively consistent prior to the 1973 model year. I wonder how much of this weight the new bumpers accounted for.
Chevy II
Chevy II sales started at record levels before dropping sharply in ’64 – ’67. Sales then climbed sharply to 1970, dropping in ’71 (who didn’t?) and rebounded strongly in ’72, with sales increasing through the end of the graph. Now known as Nova, the model would see a lot of success throughout the 1970’s.
The price of Chevy II looks a lot like the Camaro pricing graph, just shifted a bit lower.
The Chevy II weight started low, reflecting the small car that it initially was, and increased linearly throughout the era.
Chevy Corvair
Corvair sales show the sad story of initial market success, followed by ever declining sales. The 1965 peak reflects the stunning new redesign of that year.
Similar to Camaro and Chevy II.
Corvair weight was reasonably well controlled throughout its run.
Chevy Corvette
If you kind of smooth out the 1969 peak and 1970 dip, the sales graph is reasonably linear. I think the 1974 increase is partially explained by the mass exodus from the market of Corvette competition.
As with many other models, price of Corvette remained fairly flat in fixed dollars. That’s a bit of a surprise considering that early models had no standard options.
The Corvette weight graph shouldn’t surprise you much. Weight increases were linear from 1957 to 1972.
Buick GS 400/455
The one question I would have in looking at the GS graph is why the 1969 sales dropped like they did. I don’t have a good answer to that. Had the ’69 sales been about 12,000 or so, the graph would have been much more linear. Both GTO and 4-4-2 experienced substantial declines in 1969 and maybe GS just follows this trend but to a greater degree. The 1970 restyling was fantastic, and sales seem to reflect this.
Like many other models, GS price actually reduced over time in fixed dollars.
GS weight was surprisingly constant over the era.
Buick Riviera
The 1966 – 1969 sales stayed right at 8% of Buick sales, dropping sharply for 1970 and, with the exception of 1971, a downward trend continued through 1974.
As with Buick GS, Riviera declined slightly in fixed year price almost every year of the era.
You pig! Oh, sorry. There wasn’t a single year that Riviera didn’t pick up some weight. What did they think they were, Thunderbird?
Oldsmobile 4-4-2
It’s certainly true that 4-4-2 sales started low. In looking at the ’64’ advertising, it was almost like Olds was trying to hide the fact that 4-4-2 was intended to fit into the same market as GTO. The ’68 model was what I’ve always considered as the first ‘classic 4-4-2’, and its sales reflected the appeal of the new body style.
Nothing much surprising here.
The weight dip in 1972 can be explained by the fact that the weight value is for Cutlass S, since 4-4-2 was returned to an option on this model. I’d guess that the average weight of 4-4-2 was close to 3,700lb. in ’72.
Oldsmobile Toronado
Toronado sales for its initial year,1966, weren’t seen again until 1972. I’m not sure why 1972 and 1973 sales were as high as they were.
Yep, same price trend here that we’ve been seeing.
Toronado started out as a heavy car. Maybe it’s surprising that it only picked up some 300lbs. over nine model years.
Pontiac GTO
The GTO sales peaked in 1966 but didn’t drop terribly until 1970. The low ’71 – ’74 sales spelled the end of GTO.
More of the same.
First, the 1972 weight was lower than expected because GTO was now just an option, and the weight figure is for LeMans. 1973 was the new, heavier platform, and ’74 was based on the Ventura as an option.
Pontiac Firebird
The peak sales year for Firebird was 1968, with the following years seeing declines through 1973. 1974 saw sales increase markedly, which was the beginning of a trend as Firebird (and Trans Am) would see incredible sales figures for the rest of the decade.
Ditto.
Firebird weight followed a familiar pattern.
Dodge Charger
This an interesting graph. It clearly shows the immense appeal of the 1968 redesign, and the 1970 drop was perhaps not unexpected, given the intense competition. What’s particularly interesting is the rebound in sales in ’71 through ’73. This reflects the successful market repositioning of Charger by Dodge, as they transitioned the image to one of a sporty car that was very affordable.
The price graph reflects the comments above. Charger was repositioned to a lower price tier.
Yeah, Charger’s weight was relatively constant, not following the general trend of increasing weight.
Dodge Challenger
Another interesting graph. First year sales were great, but then the bottom dropped out. 1971 through 1974 sales were consistent, and low. The sales didn’t rebound like Charger did, which begs the question “why?”. Was Dodge not as effective in repositioning Challenger to a lower-price, sporty car?
Challenger did indeed follow the same pricing trend as Charger did.
Challenger weight was always lesser than Charger’s, and the weight trend was about the same.
Plymouth Barracuda
Barracuda sales were on the decline until the ’70 models came out, particularly the wonderful ‘Cuda. Sales in 1972 through 1974 mirrored those of Challenger.
Ditto. Again.
The weight graph clearly shows the first ‘small’ Barracuda and the new body that was introduced in 1970.
Ford Mustang
Mustang sales were fantastic from the onset, especially considering that 1964 and 1965 were kind of the same model year. Sales peaked in 1966, with declines through the end of the model. More than anything, this shows how incredibly successful Mustang was initially and then the effect of intense competition in the market.
Mustang pricing was incredibly flat, until taking a dip in 1972.
Mustang started as a compact car, and then moved toward midsize territory. Can you believe it gained 600lb.?
Ford Thunderbird
What roller coaster ride Thunderbird sales were! The market success of the 1958 and later 4-passenger models is evident. Sales were on a declining trend through 1971, with an interesting peak in 1964. This peak reflects the new 1964 styling and its appeal in the market. I’m not sure why sales picked up so much in ’71 and ’72.
This is a bit different from what we’ve been seeing. A slow climb to a peak in 1961, then a slower decline until 1972.
Wow! How many models put on weight to the tune of 50%? Thunderbird sure did, as Ford struggled with the question of just what Thunderbird should be. 1964 was the gorgeous redesign, and weight stayed constant through 1972. 1973 saw Thunderbird become a Continental wannabe. The jump in 1958 reflected the new, heavier 4-passenger bodies.
I hope you’ve enjoyed and learned something from this section. Frankly, it dispelled several preconceptions I had. This is particularly true about vehicle prices!
