TECHNOLOGY

Death of the ultimate classic car

The redesign of the Chevrolet Impala for 2013  marks the end of the ‘ultimate car’, a design that has been the cornerstone and flagship of every North American manufacturer and brand for over a half century -- the full size 4 door sedan.  This most versatile of cars could hold 6 adult male passengers in spacious comfort, with  a trunk large enough to hold all the groceries, sports equipment and luggage any family or group could need – under lock and key and invisible to any prying eyes. (Helpful even when just storing away your car ‘junk’, emergency gear and, in films, one or two bodies – dead or alive.)

Reasons to mourn #1

The redesigned 2013 Chevrolet Impala, copied from the 2012 Buick LaCrosse, offers only 5 seats, a swooping roofline that drops sharply and a short truck hatch.  All features that make me cringe!

The 6 seater Impala, which was still available in 2012 as an ‘option’, was the very last such model in all North America as its last rival, the 6 seater Ford Crown Victoria was discontinued in 2011. All models now have the gear shift on the floor – a trend started in automatic transmission vehicles during the 1970s as an ‘option’.  It was marketed as a sportier, race car interior and Ford went even further and promoted its mini-wall barrier version as your pilot’s cockpit, suggesting you had instantly move up to pilot of a 747 jumbo jet! (The fact that eliminating of the middle front seat saved some $250 on additional mechanical link arms for the gear shift and the cost of a 3^rd front seat belt system were not publically acknowledged.)  

So, with the death of the 2012 Impala and the Ford Crown Victoria the year before, the classic North American 6 seater is no more.

 

Reasons to mourn #2

The swoosh-look roofline style is another and even more important disaster.  Only the Chrysler C300 has maintained the horizontal roofline that was the hallmark of the 4 door sedan.  It allowed full adults to not only easily enter the front but even the back.  Today’s sloping rear roof lines and matching shorter doorways – even on the Ford Taurus which is not as steep as GM’s but with a narrow rear door -make it almost impossible for anyone over 5’9” and not a contortionist to enter the rear without crawling on hands and knees.   

Reasons to mourn #3

Finally, the shorted rear trunk lid -- also found on the C300 and Ford Taurus --  makes putting in bulky items difficult if not impossible,  even if the compartment is still big.  While gangster film bodies can still – if barely – slide in, many regular items cannot.  Old suitcases used to be wide and narrow, but today’s full size models are bulky rectangles that need large hatches, as do pieces of furniture or that newly assembled barbeque.

Solutions???

So, what is one to do?  We used to have, as recently as 2000, over 14 North American models to choose from. Each brand had at least one such 4 door easy access adult sedan with  great trunk doors and some had more than one; under badges such as Plymouth, Dodge, Chrysler, Ford, Mercury,  Lincoln (2), Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile (2), Buick (2) and Cadillac (2).   

Today, the Chrysler C300, which can even hold my 6’6” neighbour front and back, is as close as we get; but it’s a 5 seater with such narrow window slits and huge blind spots (and short trunk)that it has been rejected by North American police forces as a viable substitute for the departed Crown Victoria and 2012 Impala model.

Instead, some police are switching to SUVs (sacrificing large, enclosed trunks for easy 4 door access), and taxi companies are switching, at least in Toronto, to Japanese Toyota Camrys – the next closest design approximation.  In New York City, all new taxis must be the Japanese Nissan NU200 van.

The options for individual new car buyers , unless you can afford a chauffeur style  Mercedes or BMW, or Rolls Royce or Bentley – all of which will set you back over $100,000, is similarly a poor compromise!

Yes, SUVs or Jeeps and mini-vans (which for some illogical reason only Chrysler still makes) have the 4 doors and tall entry style, and can hold 5 or more adults (depending on extra seats), but they all give up the privacy and security of the large, enclosed trunk of the classic sedan – a space that combined key lock security and privacy from outside and passenger eyes.

So while GM, Ford and Chrysler can all still advertise they make full size 4 door sedans, it is really not the same – at least by the standards of that classic design that was the centerpiece and hallmark of the North American industry for over 50 years.