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Sunday
March 21, 2010 Since 1922 |
September car intro not the same
By Jim Finley
Contributor Published September 11, 2009 Even as a youth September was the month I looked forward to. I counted off the hot days of August one by one (using both my fingers and toes, if needed). The anticipation was almost more than I could bear.
Finally, the weather cooled, school started after Labor Day, and it was finally time for … the new car models to come out. What excitement!
You thought I was going to say football, didn’t you? Admit it, that’s what you thought.
Football was welcomed, too. But it was in September in those days long ago when the new models were rolled out and introduced to a waiting world.
It was a big deal.
I got onto this subject by watching and reading about several new models of various brands the other day. It was nice and all, but not the same as it used to be.
If I’m not wrong here – and I rarely am – certain manufacturers now introduce new model automobiles more than once during the year, or at least at different times. I went through that myself a few years back.
Just after Christmas in ’05, I bought this beautiful ‘06 Razorback Red Camry (now deceased). Sometime after the first of the year, which normally falls after New Year’s Day, the ’07 Camry was born.
No matter. I liked my cool wheels a lot, but it’s all just different now.
You have to understand that I came from the Era of the Kaiser-Frazier, the Era of the Hudson, and the Era of the Packard. The Era of What?
Oh, those were all semi-popular cars back in the Ice Age.
(NON-EDITOR’S NOTE: The oddest car of that or any era was the Crosley. The Crosley was about the tiniest car in world history that wasn’t, in actuality, a toy. It was roughly the size of the golf cart my neighbor Dan Borza drives to the Goose Creek course. I may be stretching the Crosley’s size a little, but not by much.)
The Big Guys, though, were Chevrolet, Ford, and Chrysler. And when their new models were introduced, there was almost a carnival-like atmosphere surrounding the event. I think a lot of people even dressed up to go see the new ones.
To be honest, it was hard in those years to find car ads on television. Admittedly, this is kind of a trick sentence, since until the early 1950s, few humanoids had TVs.
Thusly, if folks wanted to see the new models, they had to actually go to the dealerships. Millions did. (That’s an estimate.)
Here’s something you should add to the equation. In the days of yore, the overall appearance of automobiles often changed drastically from year to year. People couldn’t wait to see the sometimes-vast differences.
Today, we seem to go years with cars that maintain a lot of the same look as the year before. That’s not bad, understand, but just the way it is.
In my high school days, us guys – and I’m sure the teen sisterhood, too – could stand on the street corner and tell you “what year” Chevy was coming down the road. It was that way for most of my growing-up years. You could tell immediately the ’58 from the ’56. On all brands.
I’d hate to try that today. I’d fail, which is something I’m not used to.
The most sensational change I ever remember was when I went with family to view the brilliant 1949 Ford, which, for all my blather today about September, was introduced in the spring of ’49.
As talented as I am, I can’t describe the huge differences. When you have a moment, using the Computer Box look up the ’49 Ford and compare it to the ’48.
I was sure nothing could ever top that, and maybe it hasn’t.
Jim Finley is a retired managing editor for The Baytown Sun.
Contributor Published September 11, 2009 Even as a youth September was the month I looked forward to. I counted off the hot days of August one by one (using both my fingers and toes, if needed). The anticipation was almost more than I could bear.
Finally, the weather cooled, school started after Labor Day, and it was finally time for … the new car models to come out. What excitement!
You thought I was going to say football, didn’t you? Admit it, that’s what you thought.
Football was welcomed, too. But it was in September in those days long ago when the new models were rolled out and introduced to a waiting world.
It was a big deal.
I got onto this subject by watching and reading about several new models of various brands the other day. It was nice and all, but not the same as it used to be.
If I’m not wrong here – and I rarely am – certain manufacturers now introduce new model automobiles more than once during the year, or at least at different times. I went through that myself a few years back.
Just after Christmas in ’05, I bought this beautiful ‘06 Razorback Red Camry (now deceased). Sometime after the first of the year, which normally falls after New Year’s Day, the ’07 Camry was born.
No matter. I liked my cool wheels a lot, but it’s all just different now.
You have to understand that I came from the Era of the Kaiser-Frazier, the Era of the Hudson, and the Era of the Packard. The Era of What?
Oh, those were all semi-popular cars back in the Ice Age.
(NON-EDITOR’S NOTE: The oddest car of that or any era was the Crosley. The Crosley was about the tiniest car in world history that wasn’t, in actuality, a toy. It was roughly the size of the golf cart my neighbor Dan Borza drives to the Goose Creek course. I may be stretching the Crosley’s size a little, but not by much.)
The Big Guys, though, were Chevrolet, Ford, and Chrysler. And when their new models were introduced, there was almost a carnival-like atmosphere surrounding the event. I think a lot of people even dressed up to go see the new ones.
To be honest, it was hard in those years to find car ads on television. Admittedly, this is kind of a trick sentence, since until the early 1950s, few humanoids had TVs.
Thusly, if folks wanted to see the new models, they had to actually go to the dealerships. Millions did. (That’s an estimate.)
Here’s something you should add to the equation. In the days of yore, the overall appearance of automobiles often changed drastically from year to year. People couldn’t wait to see the sometimes-vast differences.
Today, we seem to go years with cars that maintain a lot of the same look as the year before. That’s not bad, understand, but just the way it is.
In my high school days, us guys – and I’m sure the teen sisterhood, too – could stand on the street corner and tell you “what year” Chevy was coming down the road. It was that way for most of my growing-up years. You could tell immediately the ’58 from the ’56. On all brands.
I’d hate to try that today. I’d fail, which is something I’m not used to.
The most sensational change I ever remember was when I went with family to view the brilliant 1949 Ford, which, for all my blather today about September, was introduced in the spring of ’49.
As talented as I am, I can’t describe the huge differences. When you have a moment, using the Computer Box look up the ’49 Ford and compare it to the ’48.
I was sure nothing could ever top that, and maybe it hasn’t.
Jim Finley is a retired managing editor for The Baytown Sun.