American Cars Party Tricks (1963-1972) 

A pad of paper a pen and a calculator.

A Drive-in meal for 5, or a double date. That was the purpose and only purpose. Yayh! Work was 9-5 and didn't intrude on joy.

@@STho205 still doesn't if you're efficient and clear with your work life boundaries. But meh, gotta buy 100s of made in China bs that break after a week.

@@michaelhollon5332 Honestly I doubt they even thought of Calculators

@@STho205 it was a luxury car, i'm sure they envisioned executives working from their car on the way to meetings and whatnot

Just think if GM brought it back on a newer wagon. I wish one of the Big Three would bring back full size wagons, it's a shame the US is all SUVs and no longer Large full size sedans or Wagons. Hell our whole car market now is trucks, hybrids or some form of crossover/minivan/SUV

@@trevorstein4603 because people can't park 18 foot long cars anywhere

@@rexjolles my '97 Suburban begs to differ

I was just going to comment about those lights. Very cool indeed.

My family had a Blue ‘73 Impala SW trailer pgk 400ci engine. It was a great vehicle. We put abt 250k miles on it. Transmission failed but that was it.

Actually, through the years they were on different Ford and Mercurys.

They just (within the last few years) made a return to the Mustang. They were also offered in Cougars in the sixties (and early 70s, I think?) and were also fitted to Shelby Mustangs.

What's old is new to some people 🤔

@John Barber Yes, but the Thunderbird was the first.

@@davidfrania8990 yup 65 the best body style of thunderbird there is. 66 is the best year

Stealing your comment for FB...

LoL....im sorry for what I am about to say, but kids like you that are working all the time (including weekends) works for guys like me that we still have some of these cars that we enjoy during the weekend....in the name of all the people like me over 50 that can enjoy this cars during the weekend and makes us feel as young as you...I say thank you! :)

@@tobyauthor least you admitted it 😂

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@@Maximus20778 ok tide pod.

Use to be very innovative

That's exactly what I thought. Times were so good they were producing stupid shit like this to put in their cars.

Cars, everything.

@BigDoinks NoKizzy Yeah you got me lol I think for me it's more the age

Britain and France were like this too, Germany was a bit more sensible but every they had some interesting quarks. Modern cars are so safe that it's just boring

In this age of booming public transportation, you can always take the bus or tram while your sweet ride is being serviced. Don't get me wrong, I greatly value reliability and see it as a badge of honor and sign of good engineering but sometimes we need gimmicks like these to make us smile.

And modern cars are even worse to fix. Always at least a grand for a control unit, then couple of hundreds for coding it to the car. Still broken part wouldn't work. And another grand for searching and another grand for fixing wiring. Old cars, does it have power? Yes. Does it have vacuum? No. Problem found.

@@poowaffle That is true. At least with the complicated mechanisms in old cars it could be fixed in a garage if you just studied the mechanism a bit. In new cars you practically need degrees in computer science and electrical engineering to fix it, and that's if you even could fix it since so many systems are dependent on proprietary computers that only the dealer has in order to make repairs.

I'll take a modern windshield washer motor and pump over the vacuum operated crap of the old cars. I modernized my 56 Tbird because the foot pump washer squirter and vacuum wiper motor got old real quick. It's not a concours resto and I drive it so things have to work. The worst are the older Lincolns with vacuum pwr. locks, absolute nightmare to get operational. With that in mind and modifications done with ease I'll take pre 89 over newer any day of the week, no multiplexed electrical can bus BS with 10 sensors that all have to agree if the cars gonna move an inch.

@@thepibbster1130 I believe cars are still easy to fix especially with RU-vid these days. I service my own vehicles and anytime I have an issue it's pretty easy to figure out with the help of the internet. There are many advantages to the electronics, they make the cars last much longer than they used to. You could buy a little Toyota Corolla and easily get 200,000 out of it or more, but back in the 60's 100,000 was the end of the road for it.

putting laptops to standby will do that

She took it out just to type. It was still a black screen -_- obviously

Nowdays laptops ain't what they used to be in the 60s.

Welcome to the world of M.2 SSD. Having your OS installed on a solid state drive makes boot up time insane

Plot.twist.. they just paused the recording

The closes thing we have today is the new challenger as it’s a modern interpretation of the old one however it misses continuity of my ‘79 firebird as it has a lot more personality than most new cars today

The Japanese came in with boring cars and people bought them, because without fancy features and frequent updates, there's less to break.

@@straightpipediesel not true for all of them also Japanese just make “boring” cars then what about the 2000gt, 270z, rx7 all we’re made in the 60s and 70s and we’re not boring and the rx7 wasn’t even that reliable

@@straightpipediesel Well we had really fancy exquisite features, you now all have a screen, and they call it a day and easier chance of death when your car ends up in a river.

@@artdecotimes2942 Auto parking, auto external unparking, automatic anti-collision braking, auto lane steering with auto lane change, 3D surround cameras, transparent trailer view, lane change radar, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go driving, matrix headlights, heated and cooled seats, 36 speaker sound, rear-to-front conversation enhancer, electric folding seats, kick to open tailgates, automatic interior fragrances, heated and cooled cupholders, IR night vision, augmented reality street view, drowsy driver detection, keyless entry and start, remote 3D external car view... No fancy features?

When they drive and when you don't pay for gas at least 😅

Cadillac introduced the fiber-optic lamp monitor system as optional equipment for the 1971 model year. It somehow became standard in '72, then optional, then standard again. In 1971 and 1972, the rear lamp monitor, made of hard plastic, was mounted to the rear package shelf. Customer complaints about the rear monitor's visibility led to a mid-year change in 1971, adding a 1-inch base to raise it up some. Beginning with the 1973 model year, the rear lamp monitor was relocated to the ceiling, in a vinyl housing, just above the rear window.

Then the 80's hit and car design went to crap.

@@exocetzx3651 That's all old cars, my British 72 Rover P6 gets about 20mpg if you're careful but more like 14/15 if you actually drive it like you wanna be somewhere. Even my 91 MR2 gets 25mpg at best, it's not even a turbo model

@@mrcaboosevg6089 Shit you think that's bad, a Chevy C10 short bed single cab, cheapo model about as light you can get struggles to get 10 MPG if you're careful, my dad's crew cab top of the line Luxury GMC from 2015 gets at least 17 MPG

Well said.

"At least i died in style"

@@ComfortableFetus and that's just the point. It should be up to the individual to know what they are buying and the risks associated. Not government deciding that for you and pointing a gun at manufacturers.

I remember all the dead kids from power windows.

Pedestrian injury tests prohibit doing a front end in a car that isn't rounded, so you can't design a cool front end in a car like these do, or use pop up headlights. It is not up to the individual to not be run over unfortunatelly, so these regulations are needed, specially with all the distractions drivers have nowadays.

@Maverick Miller Did you notice during the shot of the T-Birds taillights, that it said 1963? That was actually a '66 I believe.

@@oldiesgeek454 that was a 66 t-bird but it was introduced in 65 not sure where they got 63 from. They had round taillights that yeat

@@sinclaircupcake4954 That's what I thought too. I don't believe the '64 and '65 models had the sequential taillights either.

@@oldiesgeek454 65 was the first year for them

someone mutters anything about a car and my grandma starts talking about her Thunderbird she used to have that was her favourite car and how much she misses it

attorneys pretty much killed all of these features.

@@c.j.1089 attorneys, government, and the baby boomer kids (the race ones who made all the dragsters and decided that cars can get worse and they can keep making their own creations in the mean time to satiate that.). At 82, I have seen too much gone wrong in the world, more in automobiles and how they have been killed off by our industries. My father used to say a lot that "regulation ruins aspiration, creativity is ones path to a smarter world".

@@artdecotimes2942 Boomers wrecked the economy to prevent anything new and interesting and make everything hyperfocused more and more on efficiency. Nixon destroyed this country when he decoupled the USD from gold, enabled banks to print fiat money and then opened up trade to China. Any one of those moves would have been disastrous on their own and he did all three at the same time. That happened in 1971. All the monopoly money flowed into China and built manufacturing there which destroyed the middle class in the US by destroying manufacturing here. No middle class, no fun stuff. Boomers destroyed this country. You guys all get to check out with your comfy retirement pension funds whilst leaving the rubble of society infected with identity politics and absolute lunacy from both political parties to distract everyone from this destroyed economy.

@@johnnycab8986 you think I'm retired, no son we are far smarter and more literate being born before the middle 1940s. Had a motive in speech, I would sit on the steps in Southern college of Lakeland and talk amongst my peers for a week everyday, intelligent people who never once made sexist, racist jokes, simply informed and resourcefully insued the art of beautiful connection. Smart men and women, smartly dressed, I made out with a lot of them after because damn they were attractive. I didn't see those connections with early Baby boomers as late teenagers, with generation X, and millenials most definitely. Generation Z resorts to a rule book of saying the same thing to avoid conversation. can't not wait for the next era generation. All said and done, Baby boomers are just as much human as the rest of us, just because hitler enforced revolting acts of slavery on jewish didn't mean hos entire generation did as well. Its only the big people that made it that way along with the government. Life wasn't easier back then with prices, a sandwich for 20¢ was a hourly earn at work. go buy a box of cereal for that hourly earn. We simply had more value which people forget so these dopey kids try to think they get somewhere showing the "true 1950s" by saying that a $7000 home is actually $40,000 from inflation but price staying the same idea. No, it is a regional issue, a apartment in Manhattan was $25 a month for me, a month tied rent in a suburban lot would be $9 a month. that adds to $800 a month for Manhattan, and $120 in the suburban neighborhood. It was far more respectful in price care, but not literally $1 for 6 small items...more so $6.50 is what that felt like.

@@artdecotimes2942 here's an advice. type in paragraphs, this ain't a typewriter. And I am sure your age was the grandest golden age to have ever existed, you have enjoyed it while you can and please bear with us for your last few years.

Took a real MAN to drive a 65 Caddy with 500cuin motor and four barrel carb.... Or my mother.

@Josh Deason the 1965 Caddy with these lights self cancelled. It also had auto dimmer. We didn't have a 64 so i can't testify. The 65 Olds 88 my friend drove in 1979- had self cancelling signals. All my cars did too, including a 68 Mustang

@Josh Deason my daughters 2006 HHR doesn't have them....... They broke last Christmas

@@STho205 Cadillac did not get a 500 cubic inch engine until 1970.

@Josh Deason self-cancelling turn signals came out in the late 1940s and virtually all cars that had turn signals from then on were self-canceling.

The old cars brought back some pleasant memories

Make no mistake most of these work because the owners have gone through an incredible amount of effort to keep them working.

US quality? Hahahahahahha

When’s the best day to come to Woodward dream cruise

@@joeschmo5988 Saturday and Sunday is when everyone is out but you can go anytime during the week and see some cool cars. www.woodwarddreamcruise.com/visitor-guide/events-route-map/ This site shows where and when all the car shows are,

@@mattolson7146 thanks!

I would! The ideas shown are great! The Riviera 'armoured' headlights are awesome!

Me I would..

@@cottard7698 modern cars need hidden headlights, since they are made out of plastic and fog over, covering them would make em last way longer

I absolutely would.

Just make more.

Chrysler products had that as of 1961, I never knew any GM products had Lucite steering wheels.....huh.

And colored transparent floor mats with glitter in them too. I had them in my 1965 ambassador.

@@danielulz1640 Really? I never knew AMC products offered that, thanks.

@Frank De Ruiter I have a spare for a 1961 Plymouth. The clear & speckles wheel itself is expensive, as is the center chrome horn trim section. They yellow a bit in the sun if you're not careful. At your next car show or cruise night, look for any late 50s through mid-60s Mopar products, you may see one of those steering wheels!

Because today, it will.

@@xavierlagore5569 true, no longer built not to break, but rather built just to be there

Ummm... that was also true back then. Everything is going to fail sooner or later. That's why I love crappy, undesirable cars. Nobody cares when I go Rick Sanchez on the wiring harness! :3

because it will. at the very least, back then it was all overbuilt so you'd get SOME life out of it before it breaks. now its designed to break at warranties end.

@@sprolyborn2554 and it was designed to be fixed. Nowadays, repair simply isn't part of the design. Q^Q

I drive1 everyday

I'm sure she was a lovely lady.

Do u know what the computers do?

You say that, but look at other vehicles, like the Citroen DS, with automatic height-adjustable self-levelling suspension, headlights that would turn into the corner so you could see around the corner as you drove, power assisted disc brakes (driven from the rear suspension, so the entire car hunched down when you stopped, rather than having the nose dive into the ground) and self-centering power steering. Oh, and the ability to drive on 3 wheels in an emergency.

@@Anaerin yes, amd all that is useful. The US crap is just gimmicks

The title of the video says (1963-1972) so, 1957 is surely not in that range.

🤦‍♂️

Yup, forced into it by excessive regulations. Also, they don't have to worry about competition because, again, regulations prevent new car companies from existing.

The Big Three were all selling the same big transportation box, so all these gee-whiz gizmos were tacked on so consumers would buy their box instead of another.

@@masato3981 How do regulations prevent new companies from existing? If it's not legal to start a car company, how did Tesla happen?

@@user2C47 an unique idea and an absurd amount of money. if someone wanted to make a company for a car regulation would force them into making cars the same as the other guys. god i miss flip up headlights.

@John Barber The motors didn't last and long back then, but the bodies were built with great quality for the most part. And they looked so damn good too!

@@FordHoard they weren't great back then newer cars are better

We had a '63 "Breezeway" sedan as a loaner once when our '69 Colony Park was at the dealer's for service. I was so impressed by that window that I wanted us to keep it. But alas, my folks wouldn't go for it..

Did the coupes have the breezeway? That and the dash were so cool.

@@scooterdover2771 Breezeway was as much a bodystyle as it was a retractable window. When Ford brought out the "faster" roofline for '63, Mercury called it "Marauder", and it didn't have a retractable window. So yes, any Merc "Breezeway" model, 2- or 4-door, post or hardtop, had the famous window. I think the 4 doors looked better in brzwy than the 2s. Google yourself up some pix and adverts!

Very Angry Citizen I think the big Mercurys of the late 50s and early 60s were some of the most beautiful cars available at the time. Alongside a '61 Ford Starliner and a '60 Olds. My wife thinks I'm nuts.

@@trudygreer2491 When I was a kid my aunt had a 63 Monterey 4 dr, white ext, turquoise interior. It had the add on air, and it was so beautiful. I can't say I've ever seen a 2 door.

Yer old

Yer old

Yer old

Yer old

Yer not old

Fun fact: In Germany driving an classic American car, the authorities make you disable those sequential turning lights, but for Audi its suddenly fine... Hate that government-automaker protectionistic marriage here.

No wonder why you attacked me in the comments pff. "Muh I'm gonna call you ignorant cuz I roasted your dream cars" 😂

Ah yes...the only advancement in automotive technology since the 60s....cupholders.

@@Suileron Heated and cooled cup holders, and there's a bit more then that.

@@Suileron I remember when you could open the glove box and use it as a table to eat off of and there were a couple of indents there for drinks.. I think I miss that the most when the wife and I go out to eat at a drive through and we have nowhere to put anything. Plus, all the dashes are slanted forward not so things just slide off. Pain in the bottom.

...and, potentially dangerous!

They were intended for smaller children. There was no way adults could sit in those things.

I would use the table to read more books on these amazing automobiles, and a beer, or wine accompaniament! I don’t think that’s a word..🤔

@@mikejones-go8vz Good idea, but I always got headaches when facing backwards in a moving car....hopefully you don't when you start your reading!

@@mikejones-go8vz TV dinners.

maybe it was made for a type writer anyone remember one of those

@@67marlins81 never read and drive at the same time 🤔

Buicks had that. Maybe some others, but I'm not sure. My '66 Buick WildCat had a "Speed Minder", set the speed and if you went over, it made a loud buzzer sound! Kept me on my toes on road trips!!!!

Old Toyotas had those

My 2004 Lancia Lybra has this

Don't have a fancy car, is the set speed of today like a governor, or does it just play a "ding" sound from a tiny speaker?

@@user2C47 In my Buick it was an annoying buzzer. I mean, REALLY annoying! But you could go faster if you wanted to.

^this

Don’t forget 70’s American Pickup Trucks

Correct. 1958 Edsel had push-button transmission controls in the center of steering wheel hub, also. They were more reliable than some armchair automotive 'experts' pretend.

Valiant came out in 1960 and Lancer in 1961. Chrysler introduced push button transmissions in 1956.

@@danielulz1640 Chrysler's were a little more rugged than Edsel's. I know Chrysler used cables, then vacuum-activated switches. Edsel's pushbuttons easily electrically energized a shift motor. Edsel's setup was more reliable than people think ( I never had a moment's trouble with my 1958 ), but as usual Chrysler's engineering was best.

@@danielulz1640 1960 is 'since the 50s' I did not say 'in the 50s' My father had both, Valiant and Lancer with push button. Also had a '56 Plymouth with the shift lever on the dash.

@John Barber From the mid to late 1930's Chrysler passenger cars had a nifty little lever at the vent wing, when you flipped it the vent wing rolled down into the door with the window . I find very few old Mopar owners who are aware of this, they're always well pleased when I show them . -Nate

You talking bullshit lol

One day it will return...

Or the actually unique Wagonair sliding roof station wagon.

Hahaha, the Thunderbird really does look like a challenger from the back

I had two Rivieras (66, 67), and they had the handle. The doors were HEAVY, and I believe it was GM that had a spring assist to help opening the door.

No, but those features made it easier for that driver to use her laptop today.

@@DTD110865 True! True!

Nonetheless, it was touted as a sort of 'mobile office'.

@@xaenon With the advent of self-driving vehicles the 'mobile office' may well be a thing now-a-days.

Sure they did! Only it was the kind with paper pages that you wrote on.

The title of the video says cars made from 1963-1972.

Though you are correct, I feel like brands will add more interior character due to electric cars losing the gas engine character.

@@ojsimpson9516 time will tell I guess but with that I could quickly imagine that the interior designs will very quickly become dated as technology rapidly advances....

Because they all broke easily and are pointless gimmicks

Almost all new vehicles only come in silver, white, blue , and grey paint color options it makes them all look the same

The Japanese came in and showed that people would buy cars without features, because they sold reliability and there was less to break.

@@straightpipediesel what really got people to buy Japanese cars was the 1967 Toyota Corona two-door hardtop with two speed Toyo Glide automatic transmission. Both of these features were introduced by General Motors. As a matter of fact Toyota bought engineering and tooling for the two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission from General Motors.

Cars today do more amazing stuff than any of this.

@@fenderstratguy your problably right, in every era there is a car that is ahead of its time for example tesla ,i love all cars.

@@fenderstratguy Nope.

fucking GLOBALIZATION !! that's what it is !!!

@@67marlins81 he's not wrong boomer

Nope its useless and it will break and would be a pain to fix

Doug demuro would pay top dollar

@@ojsimpson9516 he would get a stroke

"Features", not quirks!

I think that goes back into the late 40's. There is an episode of MASH where Margaret Houlihan is being investigated for being a communist and the sleazy investigator says she and a guy named Wally were known to have gone to motels. Margaret responds that was crazy, "Wally had a Nash".

@@JeffDeWitt Sounds about right.

Actually, Nash's "Bed-in-a-Car" came out in 1936. But you had to sleep with your legs and feet in the trunk. It was updated in 1949 with reclining front seats so the bed was entirely inside the cabin. I recall reading somewhere that it came about because a Nash engineer (I think), while on a business trip in his car, balked at the cost of a motel, which he said made it challenging for some families while travelling. But I guess if you can't afford a motel you'd have to settle for a used Nash..

@@trudygreer2491 Thanks for history. Heck ,I've been on the road so many times and trying to get comfortable and catch a couple hours sleep is nearly impossible without being able to actually get horizontal. Would really liked to have had a car with bed inside. I remember my dad would put boxes in the rear foot wells to hold a board at seat level so three of us kids could have a bed while traveling in the backseat.

@@johnmichaelkarma Reclining seat backs just don't quite cut it, do they! That's one thing station wagons are/were good for!

That power-operated Oldsmobile clamshell was the best innovation in this video to me.

The clamshell gate was GM's response to Ford's 2- and 3-way Magic Doorgate. When I was a kid our neighbors had a '74 Pontiac Grand Safari. It was brown and beautiful, and their parking spot was right next to ours. I was jealous because our '69 Merc wagon was older and shorter...

Who needs them?

@@Berchol Well you put 'em on the front !

@@Berchol NHTSA and IIHS studies have shown that rear amber turn signals are more effective at preventing rear-end collisions than the third brake light.

in the old continent we use them from before ww2

@@morrisjvan We put them in the front because a blinking headlight while you're driving probably isn't great at night. Personally i like amber turn signal. I think they look cooler, but really it is redundant