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The Sixties: A Car Society

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

Car-centric America in the Era of Cheap Gas

In the twentieth century, the automobile was one of the most important inventions in American life. This was especially true in the 1950s and 1960s, "Dishwashers and refrigerators ...were not the benchmark of material achievement...the gleaming chromed, US-made automobile, parked in the driveway and fueled by cheap gasoline, came to symbolize the American way of life." (The Long Sixties, p. 18) The car market in the United States was controlled by four American automobile manufacturers: General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors. The Tailfin Era of the fifties was replaced by the high performance Muscle Car era of the sixties. While foreign auto makers were making inroads into the American market, they were still only 11.3% of the sales in 1969. The most successful of these foreigners was Volkswagen with its VW Beetle and the VW Bus. The very popular economical VW Beetle was first introduced in the United States in 1950. By the end of the decade, Volkswagen was the top-selling foreign car maker in the American market, selling over 500,000 cars in 1969 (Cars of the Sizzling Sixties p. 413)

American mobility

After World War II, Americans became more and more a mobile people. Automobiles were an economical transportation for a large percentage of the population. With the automobile, many Americans moved out of the cities, where they worked, and into the suburbs. The country was so big it took the automobile to shrink it down to manageable size. It made the National Parks and Disneyland economical and reachable in a few days from any section of the country. Only Hawaii was out of reach of the automobile. To further facilitate the mobility, Congress passed the Federal Highway Act of 1956. creating the Interstate Highway System. By 1960, twenty percent of the system had been completed. In addition, the popularity of a smaller economical class of compact made travel extremely affordable (Cars of the Sizzling Sixties, pp. 8, 50). 

The Book That Challenged Detroit

Book cover: Unsafe At Any Speed

Book cover of Unsafe at Any Soeed

In 1965, Ralph Nader began what would become a consumer revolution. His book, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile, called attention to the fact that Detroit placed a priority of design over the public's safety. His book helped push for the legislation that became the 1966 the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, passed by the U. S. Congress.

Source: History.com

Station wagons, Compacts, Bugs and Muscle Cars

  • The Station Wagon accommodated the larger families that came with the Baby Boom. According to Autoweek.com, "1960 was the pinnacle of the Wagon Era." It was the SUV of its time.
  • Compact cars (medium sized economical car) became more popular with blue collar and white collar families.
  • VW Beetles were driven by students and the economical inclined.
  • VW Micro Bus (an icon of the American counter culture) was the vehicle of choice for many hippies. 
  • The Muscle Cars (mid-sized cars with large V-8 engines for high performance), such as the Pontiac GTO, were for the younger customers looking for power.
  • The Pony cars, such as the 1968 Ford Mustang, were compacts with a sporty look. First introduced in the 1960s, they were an affordable alternative to the Muscle Cars for the working class.
  • Luxury cars, such as the Cadillac Coup De Ville and the Lincoln Continental, showed the world you were riding in style financially speaking.

Source: Cars of the Sizzling Sixties.

Spotlight: Popular Cars of the Sixties

VW Beetle (also known as the Bug)
Photo courtesy: Pixabay.com

Business Insider's Iconic Cars of the Sixties
Volkswagen Beatle
Ford Mustang

Motor Trend's Car of the Year Reader's Digest Most Popular Car of the Year
1960 Chevrolet Corvair Rambler Ambassador
1961 Pontiac Tempest Jaguar E-Type
1962 Buick Special  Lincoln Continental
1963 American Motors Rambler Buick Riviera
1964 Ford Fairlane, Falcon & Thunderbird Ford Mustang
1965 Pontiac Motor Division Chevrolet Impala
1966 Oldsmobile Toronado VW Type 2 Camper Bus
1967 Mercury Cougar Chevy Comaro
1968 Pontiac GTO  Chevy El Camino
1969 Plymouth Road Runner Plymouth Roadrunner
1970 Ford Torino Dodge Challenger

Indy 500 Winners

1960. Jim Rathmann, USA
1961. A. J. Foyt, USA
1962. Rodger Ward, USA
1963. Parnelli Jones, USA
1964. A. J. Foyt, USA
1965. Jimmy Clark, Scotland
1966. Graham Hill, England
1967. A. J. Foyt, USA
1968. Bobby Unser, USA
1969. Mario Andretti, USA
1970. Al Unser, USA

Source: The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool by Stoddder & Phillips, p. 22.

Famous cars from TV Shows

  • The Batmobile, Batman (1966-1968).
  • Black Beauty (a modified Chrysler Imperial ), 192The Green Hornet (1966).
  • The Mystery Machine, Scooby Doo (1969).
  • Chevy Corvette convertible, Route 66 (1960-1963).
  • 1965 Sunbeam Tiger, Get Smart (1965-1970).
  • The Monkeemobile (1966 Pontiac GTO), The Monkees (1966-1968).
  • 1921 Oldsmobile Model 46 Roadster, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971).

Source: The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool by Stodder & Phillips (Location1292 - 1293)

Teenagers and cars

For the American teenager, getting a driver's license was a rite of passage. A car offered independence, status, and identity. A teenager with a car was now one of the "cool" kids. Many teenagers held down jobs just so they could purchase an automobile. This teenage independence, because of the automobile, led to the development of a teenage culture.

Source: The Life of the Automobile by S. Parissien, pp.232-260.

Songs about cars and the highway

  • The Ballad of Thunder Road, Robert Mitchum (1958, 1962)
  • My 409, The Beach Boys (1962)
  • Hey Little Cobra, The Riptides (1963)
  • Little Deuce Coupe, The Beach Boys (1963)
  • 426 Super Stock, Dick Dale and the Del-tones (1963)
  • Dead Man's Curve, Jan & Dean (1963)
  • Fun, Fun, Fun, The Beach Boys (1964)
  • Little Old Lady from Pasadena, Jan & Dean (1964)
  • Mustang Sally, Wilson Pickett (1966)
  • My Old Car, Lee Dorsey (1967)
  • Mercedes Benz, Janis Joplin (1970)

Songs found on Spotify
Musicians found on allmusic.com

Car movies

Often movies made for an American audience gave the car a starring role:

  1. "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (1963): A group of comedians race each other for a bag of hidden money.
  2. "Goldfinger" (1964): What would James Bond be without his Ashton Martin with its ejector seat, machine guns, smoke screen and a futuristic map? It was the beginning of a trend for 007.
  3. "The Great Race" (1965): Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon race each other in a trip around the world
  4. "Grand Prix" (1966): James Garner is an American race car driver.
  5. "Bullitt" (1968): This highly successful Steve McQueen movie is a San Francisco cop in a Ford Mustang GT Fastback chasing the bad guys.
  6. Disney's comedy "The Love Bug" (1968) starred a VW Beetle named Herbie, with a mind of its own.
  7. In "Chtty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968), based on an Ian Fleming novel, Dick Van Dyke had to share star billing with a vintage 1920s racing car.
  8. "American Graffiti" (1973) featured high school students cruising around town on the last day of summer vacation in 1962.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool by Stodder & Phillips (Location 1292 - 1293

Additional References

  • Cars of the Sizzling 60s: a decade of great rids and good vibrations. (2002). Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International.
  • Parissien, S. (2014). The life of the automobile: A history of the motor car.. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.
  • Stodder, C., & Phillips, M. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool: A Celebration of the Grooviest People, Events, and Artifacts of the 1960s.[Kindle]. Retrieved from Amazon. com.
  • Strain, C. B. (2016). Long Sixties: America: 1954-1974.  Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John.