Sometimes it’s hard to keep straight the comings and goings of the myriads of car series and models. Here you’ll find some graphic illustrations to help cement this in your brain. (Hey, I know that you have lots of crap to keep up there!)
NOTE: Print buttons are below each image if you care to make a hardcopy.
Chevrolet
This is the pattern you’re going to see for pretty much all automakers. What might not be so evident is the replacement of series with their successors. For example, the 150 series essentially became Biscayne. Also, some series gained weight and wheelbase and became almost unrecognizable from their predecessors, while bearing the same series names.
The format of this table is a bit different from the first two. It shows the relationships between the different series, such as between Biscayne, Bel Air, Impala and Caprice. They shared a 119″ wheelbase, which changed to 121″ for all in 1971.
Buick
Another factor that needs to be recognized is the matter of just what constitutes a series? Various muscle cars have started as options for existing series, been bestowed with series status themselves, and then later relegated once again to option status. But to many enthusiasts the distinction is understood but not assigned much importance.
The owner of a 1964 GTO certainly understands that their car is a Pontiac Tempest with the GTO option, but to them and everyone else in the business the car is simply a 1964 GTO. The series/option question is simply not important.
Here Buick follows the same trend as Chevrolet, though with a few less series.
Oldsmobile
Where Buick entered the post-war market with a few long-lived series, Olds did just the opposite. Series name change after every couple of years seemed to be the norm.
Pontiac
Pontiac seems to be a model of consistency with their series, especially in the 1970’s.
Oldsmobile
Lots of “88” and “98” in the Oldsmobile names. The “8” referenced the engine cylinder count. The extinct”66″ and “76” models were six cylinders.
Right or wrong, Oldsmobile simply did not do small cars. Their Omega wouldn’t arrive until 1973, and its Olds DNA woud be minimal.
Chrysler
Yeah, I know that Chrysler wasn’t really a participant in the muscle car wars, but here it is anyway.
Dodge
Series were pretty simple with Dodge until 1962 or 1963. The ere shown here is littered with short-lived series.
Dart, Polara, Coronet, Monaco and Charger were all successful and long-lived series for Dodge.
Plymouth
The Fury series were long-lived. There were some significant parallels between the Plymouth and Dodge series structuring.
Ford
Yeah, the post-war Ford series had less than inspiring names. They did make up for this with some seriously cool name later.
Fairlane and Galaxie were the torch bearers for Ford. Don’t miss the fact that the names of some of the upscale series included “500”; this was a very intentional reference to racing, such as in “Indianapolis 500”. Racing was good to Ford and Ford was good to racing.
In 1969 Galaxie, Galaxie 500, Galaxie 500XL, LTD, Custom and Custom 500 all picked up longer wheelbases. Fairlane and Fairlane 500 did so in 1970.
Mercury
Monterey was the only long-lived Mercury series in the 1950’s. 1946 through 1952 Mercury series were bizarre in their naming, and maybe it’s fair to consider the 69M through 2M to be a single series with a name change each year.
Mercury mirrored Ford’s ’69-’70 wheelbase lengthening with their Monterey, Marquis Montego and Cyclone models.
These images show the 1960 – 1972 market in a slightly different way. It allows you to see all of small cars at once, as well as the mid-size and large cars. The somewhat-arbitrarily defined sports and specialty cars are the last image.
Note that we mostly followed the manufacturer’s leads regarding series designations. For instance, Pontiac’s GTO was a Tempest/LeMans option for 1964 and 1965, becoming a series in 1966. The series status lasted through 1971, once again becoming an option in 1972. Some series were arguably not as significant as others. Was the Mercury Marauder X-100 different enough from the Marauder to merit being a separate series? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s not up to us to argue this point here.
