Seeing what is going on with this forum, and what may happen to it, I feel the need to get some silly questions out before it is too late. Here is one of my silly questions: I had always wondered what Duesenberg cars would look like if that company had survived into the post war era. Would they look more like Cadillac? Or would they look more like Rolls Royce? My first thought was it would resemble Cadillacs and Lincolns and Imperials of that era. Packard by the 1950's were adopting design themes that were popular in America, making its cars longer and sleeker. Packard cars of the early to mid 50's were among the best looking cars ever made. So maybe Duesenberg would do the same if the company had survived. Then a second thought, Duesenberg lacks the resources of the Big Three, they may not be able to afford to make fancy styling changes every 2 to 3 years. We saw Packard had tried, but it didn't survive into the 60's. So Duesenberg may build cars similar to Rolls Royce, catering to a niche market rather than trying to compete with mainstream luxury brands from the Big Three. They will be hand built, with more traditional styling, their cars being taller and more upright, similar to Rolls Royce and Daimler. What do you guys think?
Back in the days Duesenberg was a very unique prestige brand perhaps superior to Cadillac. Most of the Hollywood stars back in the 30's 40's and important personnalities had a Duesenberg. The fact that Duesenberg didn't belong to a conglomerate is what killed them financially. Back in the 50's, Mopar had a talented stylist name Virgil Exner and GM had Harley Earl, if Duesenberg belang to a group and had such a designer, they would have survived.The Duesenberg engine of back then was known for its smoothness and responsiviness. The best selling luxury cars of the late 50's were Cadillacs even if their handling and interior space room was much more inferior than the ones found on the Imperials. Imperial always outhandled Cadillac and Lincoln by a long margin.Rolls Royce and Bentley were something special before they were bought by BMW and Audi. Duesenberg is a souvernir from America's prestige kinda like is Imperial. American luxury cars being europeanized is what killed the American luxury land yacht.
Not just the late 50's. From the late 40's to the early 70's Cadillac had the brand image and prestige that no other car could touch back then, not even Rolls Royce. I had talked to a lot of folks from the baby boomer generation, and also read a lot of automotive history articles. In the 60's Cadillac was the car to have if you want to be seen as successful. Back then Cadillac did have plenty of substance, it had powerful engines, and very good reliability and build quality. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blo...-driver-test-from-1965-with-some-cc-pictures/ https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blo...deville-nothing-missing-but-the-garage-space/ https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cur...-cadillac-sedan-deville-the-kings-last-stand/ But was Cadillac really that much better than its competitors? I don't think so. Like you said Imperials had more room and better handling. Styling is all up to personal preferences. Among the 60's and 70's cars I prefer Lincolns and Imperials. By 1967 Cadillac cars started to having cheaper interiors, and the quality dropped further in the 70's. But Cadillac kept its big market share and prestige because the Cadillac name had become synonymous with American dream in pop culture. I guess GM was better at marketing than Ford and Chrysler. The first generation Seville was a good car. The second generation Seville was a good car until they replaced the 6.0L V8 with the HT-4100. The fall of Cadillac started with the Cimarron, which was the worst piece of turd ever when you factor in the Cadillac logo it wears. Then came the HT-4100 which was arguably the worst engine ever from GM. Then came the downsized Devilles and Sevilles of the late 80s. Cadillac ruined itself by cheapening their cars and at the same time trying to replicate German cars instead of trying to cultivate its own brand image. The 1996 Fleetwood Brougham was the last really cool production Cadillac in my opinion. Escalade is the closest thing you can have that replicate what Cadillac was back then. They came up with great concepts like Sixteen and Emiraj, then choose not to put them into production. Lincoln had made a good comeback in recent years with Continental, Navigator, and Aviator. Cadillac is still trying to chase the Germans with CT4 and CT5. XT5 is getting old. XT6 is inferior to Aviator and foreign competition. I hope Celestiq and Lyriq is worthy of the Cadillac brand.
They would've ended up assimilated in one of the big corporations, having their name used as a premium badge for regular cars. Like the Duesey version of a Navigator, trying to appeal to the rich hip-hop community.
The way they built cars didn’t work hence why they died. Deusenbergs were spoken to have never existed for most of their existence. The cars they put out were better then literally anything else at the time. The only ones to be seen as competition were Bugatti. The model j was designed in 1929. It took til the war to sell what they did due to the ridiculous cost of one. I’ve been lucky to drive a few and they can drive easily in modern traffic at speed with 0 issues. That’s how far ahead they were
The way they built cars didn’t work hence why they died. Deusenbergs were spoken to have never existed for most of their existence. The cars they put out were better then literally anything else at the time. The only ones to be seen as competition were Bugatti. The model j was designed in 1929. It took til the war to sell what they did due to the ridiculous cost of one. I’ve been lucky to drive a few and they can drive easily in modern traffic at speed with 0 issues. That’s how far ahead they were
that is quite comparable to the Thunderbird Four Sedan from 1967-1971 https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/ford/thunderbird/2322326.html
An attempt in 1980 to recreate the brand. You could buy 5 Cadillac Sevilles with the price they are asking. Link to the article: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/aut...g-one-last-run-at-exploiting-a-hallowed-name/