When you talk about “coolness” as it relates to people and things, ya gotta think about car fins! Back in the ’50s and ’60s, if you weren’t driving a car with fins, you were not cool. That is a plain and simple fact! It wasn’t until the Germans came along with their inexpensive, no-frills Volkswagen Beetle that American automakers finally figured that maybe fins weren’t as important as low price and outstanding fuel mileage. Of course, it took them 25 years or so to figure that out.
Fins were so cool that Shasta put fins on its travel trailers. Now what conceivable use could a fin mounted up high on the back of a trailer serve an RVer? We will tell you: It made the trailer cool.
Well, not really. But that was the idea. What it really did was raise the price of the trailer a few dollars. But, hey! How can you put a price on coolness? We have no idea what that last sentence means but it sounded good.
Okay, so we come to our question of day. Did you ever own a car with fins?
You can answer yes if your parents owned a car with fins when you are a kid.
If you answer yes, then please leave a comment and tell us all about it. We want to know. Did you feel cool?
My Beetle did not need them.
My Spitfire didn’t need them either
Yes, my first car given to me for my Graduation in 68. Aqua Marine blue 1961 4 door Ford Fairlane sedan, 175 Horse Power 292 V-8, 3 on the tree with Overdrive, 3.89 to1 rear end, heavy duty rear springs. Dad paid $2250 and trade for his 55 Plymouth Plaza 2 door. Ford was picked up 20 April 1961 from the Ford Dealer in Unionville, Michigan. I loved that Overdrive far better than the current versions.
I drove my Dad’s ’58 Rambler station wagon, with 3 on the tree. Front seats reclined ALL the way back!! Was like a bed on wheels!!!
My first car was a 1956 Desoto Adventurer. I bought it in 1967 for $125. When it had transmission problems, I bought a 1958 Chevy Belair. I did get the Desoto repaired and sold the Chevy. I had the Desoto until 1980. I sure miss that car.
My first car was a 1950 DeSoto flat head 6 with the fluid drive transmission. You could shift if like a “3 on the tree” or leave it in 3rd and drive it like an automatic. I always shifted it, my Dad borrowed it to drive to work one night and drove it like an automatic and almost got ran over by a semi that he pulled out in front of a 1/4 mile away. The next morning he told me to ride the bus to school, he took my car and traded it off on a ‘53 Chevy, later that evening he told the story about his experience and said I wasn’t going to get killed like he almost did. I never had a problem as long as I drove it like a 3 speed. I guess that’s where they got the nickname “slush box 6”. Lol
Mom and Dad had a1960 Plymouth Belvedere, huge fins. Big block 318 push button auto on dashboard, a very large 4 door. Many trips from Chicago to the Quad Cities on the new I-55/I-80.
1959 2-door coupe white Pontiac with a V8.
Yes. My 1958 Rometsch roadster had somewhat muted fins!
My 71 coupe deville had the transition fins (meaning they still came back just squared points top and bottom.) and the body lines are still sexy. 62s were the last of the pointy fins. Style and class of the mid 50s to mid 70s the elegance and class.
Bronze & white top 57 Bel Air 2dr Hardtop. Then a 57 2 dr post. Wish I still had the first one. Sigh.
1957 Plymouth Belvedere, sky blue, flat head 6, three on the tree, and it REFUSED to start whenever it rained in Chicago.
My uncle had a 1957 Thunderbird. Just like a lot of the cars back in the day, it had personality.
No I went from the ‘55 Chevy to a ‘61 Plymouth Savoy and then into a ‘61 Chevy Impala. Then I joined the Marines where i ended with a ‘65 Corvair Monza when I got out in ‘69. One of the best cars I ever owned.
A 1967 bright yellow Cadillac convertible.
The family had a 1959 Chevy (horizontal fins). My own first car was a 1958 Chevy which had a sort of rolled fin a transition from the vertical fins on the ’57 to the horizontal fins on the ’59.
I had a 1958 Studebaker Silver Hawk. Black with red fin panels. 289 (not the Ford small block) cubic inch V8 with a 4 barrel Rochester carburetor.
My first car was a 1962 Oldsmobile convertible.
Yes, my Parents owned a 1957 (I think) Desoto, while we were growing up. Color was kind of a peach rust bottom with a white hardtop, with push button automatic, no seat belts, and bench buckets. I was the only girl with 3 brothers so I got to sit in the front with my parents and my brothers in the backseat. Coolest car ever!
I had a 1957 desoto station wagon
Both my parents and grandparents owned cars with fins. My grandmother had a Buick Century that had a backseat that could fit all 6 of the grandkids it was so big. I currently own a 1957 Lincoln Premier that has the big fins and tons of chrome. It runs and drives like a dream and it’s such a cool car.
My parents owned a 1962 Cadillac coupe deville Black with black interior. So cool.
I didn’t but my Dad did, and loved every minute of it!
I’ve owned several mid 50s, a few early 60s Fairlanes, and 61 Fords.
Black 1957 4 door hardtop Chev Bel Air with a continental kit, 1959 Pontiac Bonneville 2 door hardtop, In Alaska I had a 1960 Beetle (Gas was $.54/gal., and the gas heater took more gas than the engine!); then a 1961 Chev Corvair Monza coupe – loved that car, altho hard to keep the fan belt on!). Returning to the lower 48 a 1964 Pontiac Bonnevile 2 door hardtop with a 389 cu.in., and a 1964 Cadillac 2 Door hardtop for my wife. Style and grace and gorgeous interiors like the 59′ Bonneville with silver threads in the carpet – when the under-dash lites came on – breathtaking!
I also had a 1960 VW Beetle with gas heater. It would blister the legs of the front seat passenger. My first car.
Hey DW/ND; Beetles and Corvairs didn’t have fins, at least the ones I had didn’t have fins(’61 &’62 &’66 Corvair and “70 Beetle). Oh well!
Fortunately, that fad had passed when I got my first car, a 1966 Mustang. Then there was the ‘meh’ years with a 1980 Chevy Malibu, and a 1984 Pontiac Parisienne, but then I got a 1986 Cutlass Supreme – and boy was that 308ci V8 with a four speed SWEET!
We had a ’59 Chev Wagon with the rear 3rd seat facing to the rear.
The first car that I owned was a 1984 Dodge Charger with a 2.2-liter engine; no fins.
My folks always stuck with Ford/Merc products. I remember longing for them to get one of those really neat looking cars. However, we did have a ‘58 Edsel wagon. Sadly, it was truly a piece of junk.
At one time I had a 1957 Ford Fairlane. My parents had a 1957 Plymouth, and after they sold that they bought a 1960 Buick LeSabre.
My first car was a baby blue 1959 Plymouth Belvedere Classic that my Dad bought me when I graduated high school and went to college. I was the envy of my classmates in college.
My parents had an ugly brown 1960 ish Chevrolet Station Wagon. I was soooo 😳 embarrassed!
The last Chevy with fins was the 1960 model. I had an Impala, white with blue interior…. 348 with 3-duces and a 4-speed. Keystone mags and dual exhaust that would really sound off. Loved that car and sure wish I still had it.
I have and I am looking at possibly buy a vintage Cadillac right now that has them to a complete restoration.
I learned to drive in Dad’s 1956 Plymouth Savoy. It had the fins like the ’57 Chevy, but a year earlier. Push Button Drive. I had to find out if when driving down the road, what would happen if you suddenly pushed the Reverse button.
Oh boy! Don’t I wish I still had our 1956 Plymouth Fury. What a beauty. Big 8 and so much power. Same Push Button Drive, pink and creamy white with big fins. Big front seat so my honey could snuggle up to me. Pleasant memory.
We had a Plymouth Fury with the push-buttons but sometimes, if you pushed the buttons too hard, they would get stuck behind the panel
My folks owned a ‘57 Chevy Bel Air station wagon. Lots of happy camping memories in that rig.
My Father bought a 60 Comet that I drove once I got my license a few years later. His thinking was you can’t get into trouble with a car like that. As I remember it had a two-speed automatic. I couldn’t wait to get a car with a stick shift.
THE CATS EYE TAIL LIGHTS WERE KINDA NEAT LOOKING.
I learned to drive in my Dad’s ’60 Plymouth. I owned a ’60 Plymouth Fury myself until a few years ago. It’s image is on my bronze grave marker when I pass. My favorite!
We bought a $250 car from a mall parking lot. That car! The front seat would roll backwards unless you started of VERY SLOWLY. It got about -8 mpg and smoked like a badly set fire in a campground. Pink with tall chrome fins and a white top, it got us where we wanted to go! When it got too unruly, we sold it for $250!
I had a 1955 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. The tail lights were on the fins and if you pushed on the small reflector below the left tail light, the tail light would pop up to reveal the gas filler cap.
1958 Desoto. 318 V8, push button transmission, and lots of room. Of course, a good (for the time) radio. A six feet, I could very nearly stretch out lying on the seats.
A Dodge that my parents got from my grandparents. It had the push-button transmission.
I’m 76, of course I did. A 59 Chevy Impala! Never did like that car it just wasn’t me!
Oh my gosh yes, (and still own a ’60 Chevy Biscayne sedan) 3 1957 Chevys, ’59 Chev El Camino and Belair sedan, and a ’60 Chev Impala convertible.
2-door ‘57 Plymouth Desoto Firedome 8. Push button transmission and a 6-way power front seat. White with red top. Belonged to my dad but was mine to drive when in high school.