Wagon of the Day - 1958 Chevrolet Biscayne Brookwood Wagon

those taillights

Wasn't this from just before they started "classifying" their cars with the taillights?..One one each side, a standard Chevy.Two on each ide a better Chevy.Three on each side,as good as Chevys got.That kind of thing...That's how it was explained to me when I was kid...With Corvette off to the side with it's own taillight set-ups.

 

They did this in 58. The way it worked was Wagons had one tail-light, with an optional back-up light which would be to either side of the license plate. The Delrays, Biscaynes, and Bel-Airs all had 2 tail lites on each side, and could get the same back-up light option. And then the Impalas (which in 58 was the Bel-Air Impala) had 3 on each side, 2 tail and a back-up light. They continued this practice for years. It's very noticable on 60-65 and then 68 as well.

 

I never saw a 3 taillight Belair Impala in Canada. That would stand out up here. Big time! I can imagine tha sheetmetal work on the tailgate. Awesome. Thanks for the info.

 

Sorry, let me clear up the confusion for you there Norman. It's my fault on my wording. The wagons only came with the single tail-lite assembly. I was speaking of the Sedans, but I have seen a 58 Chevy Concept Wagon in my travels that had the 3 tail-lites in the back.

 

Still, that must have been nice to see it in the flesh.

 

those taillights

Looking at the back of this wagon,it does look like it would've been a bit more difficult to add the extra lights,than it was on those 62 thru 64 models.It still looks good anyway.I wouldn't mind having one.

 

Yup, nothing comes close to the 58 GM's. All the sheetmetal, etc was only for one year, since it was the 50 year anniversary that year. Could you imagine how popular these rides would have been had 1958 Not been a recession year?

 

Here's the '58 (BelAir) Impala - only available as a convertible or 2-door hardtop.



The '59's (new body style) had the horizontal fins with the teardrop taillights, so no 2-light / 3-light combo that year. The 60's picked it up again with the 2-light / 3-light set-up in a concave panel below the fins.

 

Boy, take off the continental kit, put on some rims, and you'd have a look-alike for Ron Howard's car on American Graffiti. Beautiful example!

I never knew what to think of 59's. I liked the hood vents, but always was kinda himming and hawing about the dang cat-eye tail lights. Didn't know what to make of them.

And of course, I had the 60 Bel-Air, which had the 2 tail lites on each side. But boy, you just can't beat the tri-lite set up of them Impalas!!

 

that recession stuff

Have been in Youtube conversations about the late-Fifities recession.Officially called Eisenhower's Economic Slowdown,from what I've read,because we were in The Cold War and the word Depression was considered too depressing.And it was feared a Depression could've lost us The Cold War.How the slowdown affected the auto sales of the era often gets overlooked.Each of the Big 3 introduced new looks in 58.And,because of the economy,auto sales were down.I've noticed many blaming the poor sales on the new looks.This Chevy's looks flopped.The Edsels flopped.DeSoto and Packard sales fell off even more than before.I do believe Packard shut down in 58.And their look hadn't changed that year.And many don't see the effect the economy of the time had on this.They see way different cars,from year to year,and think that's what the problem was.

 

I think that the variety was a good thing. I like the fact that you can look at cars from that era and know what year they are, not like now. Tell me one year PT Cruiser from the next, ya can't. 58 Overall is one of my personal favorite years for automobiles and I think the Big 3 each had it rite that year. It was just poor timing. Can you imagine how the Edsel would have done had it been a economically prosperous year? The car was high-tech and ahead of its time in 58.

 

varieties

About ten years ago,a car critic at the LA Times was complaining that GM no longer understood "platforming".The example they gave was that the Chevy Caprice was two inches skinnier than it's Pontiac counterpart.(Pontiac Widetrack having been forgotten,I guess)And that GM needed to be making more of their cars "all the same" on the outside and different under the skin.Chevy would be the "standard car" and Pontiacs would be "performance car" versions...I remember when there were more differences between Chevys and Pontiacs than just the headlights,taillights and suspension packages.

 

Yeah, it's a shame that it's come to that. Nowadays your Impala and your Grand Prix have the same 3.8. Where back in the day they had the 283 for Chevy, the Nailhead for Buick, and the 389 I believe it was for Pontiac. And though they shared some sheet metal, they were still very distinct cars from the outside.

 

And the 389 even got a Beach Boys song! Or was it the 409??? Gotta eat more carrots...