Love those cathedral/flatiron taillights. Dick Teague was a fine designer, and he worked that feature into at least three great facelifts. It was originally the result of Packard managements dissatisfaction with the '51-'54 senior models: "Dammit, Teague! You've gotta do something about those bulls nuts' taillights!" Easter morning '54 in church, he saw the shape of the windows, came home, and designed new rear-quarters for the existing Patrician and Four Hundreds, and when he presented the highly cost-effective proposal on Monday morning, he got a 50% raise on the spot. He came up with a related "slipper" design for the '56 Clippers to replace the "sore thumb" taillights of '54-'55, and those carried over into the "Packardbakers" of '57-'58. When he went to work for AMC, he found himself confronted with another facelift of a "bulls' nuts" design of the '58-'59 Ramblers, and again came up with cathedral lights for the '60 freshening of the rear end, and the flatiron design for Ramblers for '61, and a more elegant variation of the cathedral for the '61 Ambassador models.
My father bought a right hnnd drive Rambler 'Cross Country' wagon in the late sixties. I believe it was a 58 model, but not substantially different to this one. Eventually traded it on a 63 which was a mistake because it was the alloy block, cast head version and was no end of trouble. Eventually got a 72 Matador Wagon and later a Matador Sedan, which I inheried for some years. The 58 had the push button automatic transmission. Never missed a beat. Got rid of the 58 because the King Pin kept popping out (threads worn away) and it was too hard/expensibe to replace. Must have had 150,000 miles on it by then.
My dad's first new car was a 1961 Rambler Classic wagon. It had pushbuttons left of the steering wheel to start the engine and set the gear for the automatic transmission. Was that an option for my dad's car?
