Cadillac's 1948 Redesign Brand Image Continuity

I point out in my e-book "How Cars Faced the Market" that upscale makes tend to maintain visual brand identification continuity over a body redesign transition.  I dealt here with example of top-of-the-line Oldsmobiles that received General Motors' new C-body for the 1948 model year.  It turned out that Oldsmobile stylists did a good job of carrying over the grille theme and side trim to the new shape.

The only other GM division using the 1948 C-body that model year was Cadillac.  The present post treats how Cadillac made its transition from 1947.

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To set the stage, here are two Hyman auction photos of a 1947 Cadillac 62.  Details to consider include the grille, chromed side trim and the backlight window.

I'm also including this Bonhams photo of a '47 62 Cabriolet because this car has the more common running lights that flank the grille.

Front view of a 1948 Cadillac via Mecum Auctions.  Its grille retains egg-crate gridding, a theme used by Cadillac for many decades.  The stacked, two-level profile of the grille is carried over, but the opening is smaller and the design is simplified.  The V-plus-crest theme at the front of the hood is retained, though details vary.  The rectangular flanking running lights are another carryover.

Side trim is quite similar for both model years, especially the rock-guard-plus-strip on the rear fender.  Also, aside from the chrome panel by the front wheel opening, both designs otherwise lack major side brightwork.

The rear has the least brand retention compared to 1947.  Placement of the V-plus-crest on the trunk as well as the hood serves as brand identification (the tail fins became a strong Cadillac symbol, but this wasn't known when the car was styled).  The one aft-end carryover is the three-piece backlight theme.  All things considered, the Oldsmobile team maintained brand consistency somewhat better than did Cadillac stylists.  Barrett-Jackson photo.

Richard Howard Stout's Fascinating Article on 1950 GM B and C Bodies

A magazine I truly loved, especially when Michael Lamm edited it, was Special-Interest Autos, published by the Hemmings organization.Here on the Hemmings web site is a complete index of SIA articles, some of which have links, and other do not.

Those that are linked are where the Hemmings Daily posts SIA Flashbacks.  This is a fine feature since SIA is long gone, yet its content is often pure gold for automobile history buffs.  One article yet to appear on the Internet is from SIA #39 titled "Body Politics" by Richard Howard Stout.  The title seems a bit misleading because it goes into great detail regarding how General Motors B and C body elements in the early 1950s could be arranged and rearranged to yield designs with different impacts.  I found this fascinating, and I think it should be of great interest to readers of this blog.  Especially helpful are the fine illustrations by Harry Bradley.

By the mid-1950s Stout was working at Ford Motor Company and created presentation material largely like that in the article.  It opened management eyes to ways of making better use of body resources.  A byproduct of this revelation (that's what it was) was aiding people who were pushing a concept that resulted in the Edsel brand.

A big problem for me is that, even though the article appeared more than 40 years ago, it is surely still under copyright.  Yet due to its importance (as I see it) I'll risk presenting scans of it below in the hope that Hemmings will see fit to post their own, better scans on their site in the near future.

Be aware that if Hemmings asks me to delete this post, I will do so.

The images below can be enlarged, but the scan quality is such that the text can be hard to read in places.

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Ford's Controversial Scorpio II in Context

Ford of Germany marketed a model named Scorpio from 1985 to 1998.  There were two versions, the second of which, sometimes called Scorpio II, was produced 1994-98.  Wikipedia provides background information here.

As of the time this post was drafted, there was a Wikipedia entry section noting that Scorpio II styling was criticized be several noted car buffs who proclaimed the design ugly.  I would not go that far.  To me, it was nondescript in the soft, aerodynamic sort of way seen from the mid-1980s unto the early 2000s.

Here it is, placed in some contexts.

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The Scorpio II sedan (there also was a station wagon / break version) was a six-window affair with a low, rounded nose.  I don't notice a large chin air dam, and the spoiler on the trunk lid is quite small.  Given that Ford was into aerodynamic efficiency ten years earlier, I find the modesty of these details puzzling.

Front end.  Soft, and not cluttered like current cars.

Two views of the rear.  Again, large-radius rounding that might have pleased General Motors' Harley Earl in his heyday.  The wide tail light / reflector assembly is clean with a dab of variety in the width of the upper framing strip.  See how modest the spoiler is.

This rear view is of a 1985 Ford Tempo, the company's first American compact car with proper aerodynamic basic body shaping.  It considerably predates the Scorpio II.  Its front has a chin air dam, but there is no trunk lid spoiler.  It too is a six-window sedan with a simple rear-end design that is less rounded.

General view of a 1985 Tempo.

1992 Mazda 929 ("Sentia" in some parts of the world).  Ford had ties with Mazda in those days, but I don't know how much that might have extended to styling.  This is a four-window sedan, but it has a rounded, spoiler-free trunk lid.

Now for the front.  Here is a Cadillac Deville from the early 2000s.  The hood is more raised and sculpted than that of the '94 Scorpio II.  Otherwise, the shape of the grille is reminiscent of Scorpio's and the headlight assemblies' overall shape in quite similar.  Again, a soft, uncluttered design.

Cadillac's First Seville

The first-generation Cadillac Seville (1976-79) was given a clever marketing twist, as is mentioned here.  The Seville was smaller that other Cadillac sedans, but priced higher; normally the largest American luxury models had the highest prices.  General Motors' idea was to change the perception just mentioned.  This made further sense in that, partly in reaction to the 1973 oil crisis, the new trend was to smaller American cars and Cadillac needed to move in that direction.

The Wikipedia link above notes that the first Sevilles were based on the nearly-unique (to them) General Motors K platform.

My take is that first-generation Sevilles didn't look especially luxurious and expensive.  Nor did they have what might be called strong "character" -- admittedly a fuzzy, subjective assessment.  There was nothing technically wrong with the styling, but the likely intent of the designers was to produce a dignified image and this resulted in something bland, rather than distinctive.

My previous post about Sevilles dealt with the later, definitely distinctive "Razor Edge" version styled under Bill Mitchell's guidance.

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Front and rear three-quarter views of 1976 Sevilles.

Side view.  I like the long hood on this rear-wheel drive car.

Another advertising image, this showing a Seville not in a photography studio.

1978 saw the introduction of the Elegante package, a new top-of-the-line Seville featuring a two-tone paint scheme (Palm Springs area for-sale photo found on the Internet).

A High Point in Platform-Based Brand Styling Variation

It costs huge amounts of money to develop a new automobile design.  For decades, manufacturers with more than one brand have been spreading those costs by using basic parts of the new body for various models of designated brands.

At one extreme, there is what is derisively called "badge engineering" where brands are differentiated by a small number of details such as brand badges.  The opposite extreme is the use of large amounts of differing sheet metal to give the basic body distinctly different appearances for each brand used.  A classic, successful instance of the latter was 1966-67 bodies on General Motors' E Platform.

The brands and models involved were the 1966 Buick Riviera, the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado and the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado.  All were large, sporty coupes.  And they were made to look so different that casual observers were unlikely to realize that they shared a common platform.  Half a century ago, GM was rich enough to be able to do such things.

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From top to bottom are the Riviera, Toronado and Eldorado.  Similarities include the door cut lines, windshields, the tops as far back as the aft door cuts, and (to a large degree) the front and rear overhang.  Everything else seems different.

From the rear, there are no obviously shared parts.