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?
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.
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.
I’m 76, of course I did. A 59 Chevy Impala! Never did like that car it just wasn’t me!
A Dodge that my parents got from my grandparents. It had the push-button transmission.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
My folks owned a ‘57 Chevy Bel Air station wagon. Lots of happy camping memories in that rig.
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
I have and I am looking at possibly buy a vintage Cadillac right now that has them to a complete restoration.
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.
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.
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 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.
The first car that I owned was a 1984 Dodge Charger with a 2.2-liter engine; no fins.
We had a ’59 Chev Wagon with the rear 3rd seat facing to the rear.
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!
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!