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By 1990 General Motors was on its path from industry dominance to bankruptcy.  Ford's aerodynamically influenced 1986 Taurus was a marketing success that required a response from GM.  That response was in the form of its new W Platform .  Coupes appeared for the 1988 model year, sedans following for 1990. The present post deals with the sedans.  These were the Chevrolet Lumina , Pontiac Grand Prix , Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Buick Regal . Shamed by the lookalike 1982 A Body line, GM made an effort to have W Body cars for each brand look distinctive.  Some details are discussed below. Gallery Chevrolet Lumina Euro I owned one of these during my time as demographic forecast supplier to GM.  The basic Lumina had a different grille and no trunk lid spoiler. Pontiac Grand Prix This car had a slightly higher beltline and six-window passenger greenhouse.  Rear door cutlines differ. Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme The basic body here is similar to the Lumin...

One of General Motors' most interesting concept cars from around 1990 was the 1988 Cadillac Voyage (background here ). Unlike some concepts, this wasn't a motorless "pushmobile."  It even appeared in the 1993 Sylvester Stallone movie " Domolition Man ." The Voyage's design was wind tunnel tested, though GM stylists used enough straight-edge and angular detailing to avoid the overly-rounded appearance seen on recent Fords.  As shown below, some of the styling spirit of the Voyage found its way onto later GM production cars.  The Voyage images are from GM. Gallery Front quarter view.  Being a concept car, it has small bumpers.  Windows are large, a carryover from 1970-80 "three-box" design practice.  Note the cutline above the front wheel opening.  According to the first link above, that panel pivoted when the wheel turning angle was large enough, thus fixing (with some complexity) a problem with designs such as 1950-vintage Nashes featuring skir...

The Chinese-built Buick Envision SUV has been restyled for the 2021 model year.   As of July 2020 when this post was drafted, the expectation for its appearance on the American market is early 2021.   Preliminary information from Car and Driver magazine can be found here and here . As I frequently mention, styling a SUV is more restricted by packaging and aerodynamic requirements than for most other types of vehicles.  The result is that SUVs from different manufacturers tend to look similar aside from ornamentation and superficial sheet meal sculpting. The Buick-furnished images below suggest that General Motors' stylists remain trapped along with SUV stylists in other firms. Gallery The openings below the headlight assemblies (are they real or fake?) and their relationship to the projected-forward grille area differ from the norm.  They also do not make for an attractive composition, being somewhat more aggressive than I think necessary.  Otherwise frontal de...

1963 Pontiac Grand Prix at Monaco's Hotel de Paris Arthur "Art" M. Fitzpatrick (1919-2015) is famed in illustration circles for his classic 1959-1972 series of illustrations for Pontiac made in collaboration with Van Kaufman.  Fitzpatrick rendered the cars and Kaufman furnished the settings and people.  There was some overlap in that settings and people might be reflected on the cars. I previously wrote about him and the Pontiac illustrations  here .  Also, I met him about 15 years ago at the Pebble Beach Concours and still have his business card. Fitzpatrick's Wikipedia entry is here .  An interview of him is here , and includes the following regarding his way of working on Pontiac ads such as that shown above: "I photographed a car [for General Motors testimony at a congressional hearing] … same position/view with 3 different lenses, 35, 50, and 120mm. Photographers, for reasons that continue to escape me, were using long lenses, which shorten a car, making th...

I can think of only one example of an American car having its aft end drastically shortened in order to create a new model or new brand.  That was the American Motors Corporation (AMC)  Gremlin derived from the AMC Hornet . A slightly similar example is the General Motors "Aeroback" style found on some 1978 Buick and Oldsmobile models.  Some background regarding these poor-selling cars is here . Aerobacks were created by putting an angular fastback on what was basically a bustleback design.  Due to the shaping details, the visual effect was that of a chopped-off rear end on four-door versions (but less so for coupés). Gallery A 1970 AMC Hornet 2-door, the basis for the Gremlin. High rear quarter view of a 1971 Gremlin. Side view of a 1972 2-door Hornet. Side view of a 1971 Gremlin.  Gremlins were the same as Hornets forward of the B-pillars, though the aft door cuts differ slightly.  The Gremlin's wheelbase is one English foot (305 mm) shorter than the Hor...

Around 1940, it was not clear whether the dominant future American sedan body type would be fastback or notchback.  Some manufacturers such as Ford Motor Company marketed virtually their entire sedan lines with stern profiles in one smooth curved sweep.  Others such as Nash and General Motors hedged their bets by offering both styles. General Motors offered redesigned A-Body and C-Body cars for the 1940 model year.  These sedans featured moderate notchback styling.  Then for 1941 their B-Bodies were redesigned and the sedans were all fastbacks. That model year B-Bodies were used by Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick, though the former two also used A and C bodies, and two Buick lines had C-Bodies.  Some B-Body fastbacks are pictured below.  Images are of cars listed for sale or are from factory sources. Gallery Pontiac Streamliner Torpedo four-door sedan B-Body four-door sedans were six-window types. Pontiac Streamliner Torpedo Sedan Coupe I suppose Pontiac mark...

General Motors' essentially top-of-the line C-Body was redesigned for the 1940 model year.  Body types offered were a four-door sedan, a coupe, and convertible versions of those. The line was expanded for 1942 as part of GM's push to add fastback styles to its portfolio.  This was in the form of a two-door fastback that marketers variously referred to as small sedans or coupes. These were attractive cars, as the images below might suggest.  They were found on the Cadillac 62 Series, Oldsmobile's top-of-the-line Ninety-Eight Series, and on the Buick Super and Roadmaster series.  Image sources are of cars for sale unless noted. Gallery 1942 Buick Century Sedanet This is a B-Body two-door fastback, a type GM introduced for 1941.  Rear seating was fairly cramped, and the aft side windows were smaller than on the '42 C-Body equivalent.  Another car-spotter's tell is that the B-pillar leans forward here, but is vertical on the C-Body cars. 1942 Cadillac 62 Club ...