Your intro said it all: the dashboard (and interior) is what we look at the most. I have often been disappointed by lackluster instrument panels in otherwise handsome cars. This was an excellent episode, full of visual treats and wondrous gizmos that make my clockwork heart go pitter-patter. Thanks for all the hours you've spent in squinting at your monitor while navigating the endlessly complex and distracting automotive rabbit holes on the web inorder to bring us these treasures! Awesome work, HCG!
The red interior of that 1957 Bel Air @8:02 looks fantastic. Designers back then were artists. I also like the electroluminescent instrument cluster from a 1966 Dodge Charger. Jay Leno once commented on his 1955 Buick Roadmaster's all steel dash: "When you have a head on they just wash your face off the dash and resell the car".
Having worked as an auto trimmer I have sat in front of many a dashboard. Some of my favorites were the Triumph TR 4 with its wooden dash, and the 1951 Buick with it's massive chrome trim in the middle of the dash. One of the things I like about my 2012 Mustang is the retro dash.
Call me old fashioned, but I still think that the 60s era was when dashboard design peaked. I believe the 66 T- bird is still my favorite, and the Chrysler electroluminescent, the Buick wildcat,and the Starfire rolling glass speedometer were still on my favorites list. There has been nothing since that I have ever considered attractive or innovative enough for me not to mourn the passing of that era.
You may be the only internet channel to address this important topic to car folks. The research, editing, study and time you put into this video is awesome. Cannot thank you enough. Absolutely am subscribing. Pay attention, You Tube. The hopeless Car Guy is coming on strong.
The touchscreen in today’s cars is dangerously distracting, mandating that the driver CONSTANTLY glance OFF the road in order to utilize the large screens that are “heads-up” displays. And the lack of tactile buttons means you cannot feel for the proper control. I don’t understand why these screens are legal. They can be just a dangerous as texting while you’re driving.
I highly agree. As these devices become more common, I will assume that a driver of a newer car will be a distracted driver and I will drive accordingly.
Dashboards are my favorite. Thanks for the tour. Best Dashboard of all time is the HAL9000 Computer Iron Mike Ship command in the 2001 movie Discovery Spaceship.
Interesting and informative and quite good.. I liked all the images and the the many things shared. This took time and research I am sure. It is quite obvious. Thank you so much. The push button transmission is back. It is interesting how things come full circle. Pontiac had adjustable pedals in the late 1970's. You covered a lot in great detail. Thank you again.
I don't know if anybody noticed, but your view of the Ford Model A showed a steering wheel knob that was better known as a "suicide knob" for its propensity to fail in a hard turn.
The 1955-1956 FORD and Mercury dash was quite attractive. To me one of the most beautiful dashboards ever was the 1959 PONTIAC BONNEVILLE. Great design and function. What was another stunning design of a dashboard and function in a luxury car was the 2015 MERCEDES S-550 . A real piece of art !
Actually, All the big Pontiac dashboards from the late 1950s to the early 1960s were pretty amazing looking. They continued using real wood in the Grand Prix through 1973. (1966 was the last year for real wood on Cadillac interiors).
The coolest instrument panel of all time was on the 1962 Chrysler newport convertible that I owned as a teenager. It had what was referred to as an "Astrodome" panel. It had a plexiglass dome that extended out to the steering wheel with blue electroluminescent lighting.
Thanks for the episode on my favorite part all cars and trucks, including big trucks know you can't include them all, it would take a lot more videos to cover.
Dashs are my favorite and there have been great ones through time, like Auburns and Facel Vegas. The best are the simplest, straightforward, sensible designs. The worst are like our 2018 Camry, so complicated, messy and ill-thought that one is sure to have an accident trying to figure it out.
Pushbutton transmission controls first appeared on Chrysler products in 1956, not 1954. 1955 Chrysler products broke the ice with the transmission selector being a small lever sprouting from the right side of the instruments. The photo is of a 1956 Plymouth.
Thank you! I really enjoyed this post. Ever since I was a kid I would rate cars based on how detailed and stylish the dashboard was. I've often wondered why the dashboards of the early cars were so bleek and plain, especially when the level of detail of the exteriors was so well finished. I would say in the 20s and 30s, Packard had very nicely done dashboards. Overall, it wasn't until the 40s that dashboards became more detailed and interesting. As usual it was Chrysler in the 50s that really helped bring well designed dashes. GM and Ford didn't get on board until the late 50s. Chrysler's 61 and 62 Astrodome with Panelesent lighting that wins first prize with me. Next it was the Ford Thunderbird dashs starting in the early 60s through the early 70s that all had beautiful dashs. Mustangs had nice ones but my 69 Mach I was fantastic. To this day I never get tired of looking at the 69 Mach I dashboard. From 1970 to 1978 Lincoln Town Cars had great detailed dashboards with full gauges, even the Town Cars of the 90s were very nice and State of the art. Yeah, it's all about the dashboards. This was fun. We should do this again!
As a kid, in the early-to-mid-'60s, I used to go to my grandfather's auto shop, with the lights off, and go into the cars and turn on the "parking lights" so I could admire the various dashboards. I thought the Chrysler products had the neatest dashes. Blue or purple lighting, lots of glowey things, and nice typesetting.
11:53 GM's "crotch coolers", politely referred-to as "lap coolers" in the owner's manual, offered relief from the effects of clammy vinyl upholstery without the expense of cooled or ventilated seats.
Manual transmissions were standard equipment on many cars until the mid 70s. One of my must-buy cars would be a 73 Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a 3 speed on the column. The 74 was automatic only.
@@thehopelesscarguy 1954 PowerFlite was column shift. 1955 PowerFlite was a lever on the dash to the right of the steering column. 1956-64 PowerFlite/TorqueFlight were pushbutton.
Seems like all we do these days is stare at screens. I personally prefer the classic look and function of analog gauges versus a screen (regardless of how configurable it is or how well it mimics the analog look). Most manufacturers are moving away from physical dials; I think one reason is that it is more cost effective for car makers to simply glue a cheap $50 digital tablet onto the dashboard. My hope is that the classic analog style makes a comeback.
I wish they would outlaw those Touch Screens. You have to take you eyes off the road to use them. With REAL SWITCHES, you soon just know where they are and don't have to look at them. Much safer in my opinion.
Very cool and thorough piece! I do have one correction, the pillow seats started with the 72/73 Imperial (separated look in 74) and possibly Oldsmobile but the picture shown is an 80s Chrysler Fifth Avenue.
Maybe too unique, but the 1961 Electra 225 convertible I had back in 1967 pointed up and to the front facing a vertically adjustable mirror to compensate for driver height... Had a speedometer bind breaking the cable and had to open it. Got it back together, but when I traded it in, the oil idiot light still showed backwards!! (everyting was reversed to view correctly with the mirror.)
Very interesting review. Some of those interiors are works of art, but generally it seemed that there was good design from the start, until about the seventies and the eighties. Maybe they started designing by committee!
Car phone them were radio phone that would only cover a small area. The car phones all the P.I. shows of the 70s had were LA mobile radio phones. An operator would connect the call to the landlines.
The 1971 Grand Prix at 11.22 is actually the 1973-77 design from the Colonnade coupe. Your illustration is from the 1975-77 with the 100mph speedometer.
Oh oh, I caught a mistake. The dash shown as a 71 Grand Prix is actually a 73 GP dash. The irony is that that voice over says 'Cars were replacing real wood with fake wood' but ti just so happens that the pre 73 wood in the Grand Prixs was fake and the 73 used real wood.
Hey, you didn't include my 1968 Camaro with wing floor shift and 4 gauges in front of it. Had a real pretty full width straight pad along the top. Mine had a gutless 2 speed auto. LOL. Not even a 4 BL 327 could spin the tires unless it rained. And even better was my dad's 1960 Olds 88 with the horizontal speedo that changed color every 30 mph. Green, yellow and red. Beautiful straight across curved top as well and nice padded doors.
11:54 I don't know if a '71 Cadillac is much of an example of "full instrumentation", but at least this one had the optional (yes, optional on a Cadillac) temperature gauge. To be fair, the standard setup on Cadillacs of that era was one light to indicate that the water was hot, allowing the driver to shut off the AC, turn on the heater or rev up the engine (something that would only make matters worse on today's cars) to cool the water without stopping, then there was a bigger "STOP ENGINE HOT" light with a buzzer to tell the driver to give up and call for help. I'd like to see someone market a full gauge package for modern cars that works through the OBDII interface.
you forgot the 1962-64 corvair monza Spyder dash, had large tach , 120 mph speedo with trip meter , manifold pressure. gauge , cyln. head temp gages. and the 1960 monza started the bucket seat trend and opt 4 speed stick
Very Interesting. Could you do one with a stronger focus on European dashboards. The French, in particular Citroen did some crazy stuff that worked very well. Citroen DS in 1955 was first with a mostly molded plastic dash including flow thru air vents plus a curved single spoke steering wheel that could no longer stab you before seat belts. The CX has satellite fingertip control pods and cyclops eyes rotating speedo and tacho.
The heaters that drew their heat from the manifold were potentially hazardous, should a common crack occur in the manifold and heat reservoir, thus risking the introduction of carbon monoxide into the passenger compartment.
Keep it simple and tastefully elegant is the lesson here. Visual cacophonies are more instrument clutters than clusters. And don't we all prefer chrome and brushed aluminum over plastic?
Very good History of the Dash. WoW. Just shows you how We THiNK!!! But slow by the BiG Corporations to implement them. However ONCE it is implemented it is made better and better due to Competition!!! Then they get cheaply made due to more profits. I would HAVE like to see about the ✅ intermittent wipers introduced in 1973 on the Mustang fastback and seeing 🤔 HOW long it took to improve and implement that invention. Amen 😇😇😇
The intermittent wiper has quite the history. I think they even made a movie about it. I wonder if J.C. Whitney still sells those after market switches.
@@thehopelesscarguy Yes it was made into a Movie 🍿 The Guy won his Patent but was dragged out so long the he lost his wife THEN his family and his life wss SHOT because of his fight. But it WAS his Family that told to fight on and on. And if course he was betrayed by his friend attorney. I think he Sold out to the Ford engineers. ✅ Really Sad story 😞 but he WAS the REAL inventor to the intermittent Wiper. Like of like the Story of Nikola Tesla that wanted to give Humanity free electric ⚡💡. Seems like all that want to do go THEY get screwed by evil Corporations due to greed!!!
I guess this guy has got it wrong, Early cars had a board in front of the driver to which were affixed "Dash pots" These provided and continuous supply of lubricating oil to the wheel bearings and engine parts that needed constant lubrication. The bearings needed just a "dash" of now and then and the dash pots had a screw that could regulate the droppage of oil. Look at the boards of some of the quality cars of the early period that show a number of these Dash Pots. Yes the boards were instalalled on horse drawn vehicles but these were for protection againstall sorts of debris (including horses S***t) And they weren't called "DashBoards"!
So it was "crash safety" that spelled the end of beautiful dash boards? I always thought it was corporate greed and corporate cost-cutting. I still don't like the buckets and console, except on sporty cars. In a regular 4 door sedan, I want bench seats and column shifters. I am proudly American and have American tastes.
I think it was shoulder straps that were mandatory for '68. And, at least on American cars, straps they were, with most of them staying folded and clipped to the headliner for the life of the car. It was not until 1974 that GM made one-piece retractable lap-shoulder harnesses standard; that was also the year that they made most of their dashboards flatter, since drivers could reach farther with the new belt systems.
