Well, new Cadillacs were much less common then than they are now so I'm not sure a '59 Cadillac was ever considered "normal" outside of Hollywood. However, even the most common US cars of that period were pretty exuberantly styled.
'59 Chevrolet Impala-
http://photos.cokertire.com/data/505...ala-white2.JPG

'59 Ford Galaxie-
http://assets.speedtv.com/images/eas...axie_500_m.jpg

'59 Plymouth Fury-
http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/ply59boat.jpg

Two things caused the divergence:
1. We had dirt-cheap gasoline in ample supply;
2. Except for in the oldest East-coast cities, we had very wide roads sized for horse-drawn wagon traffic, not pedestrian traffic.

It's also worth noting that while US cars of the late fifties weren't tiny, they were styled to appear longer than they actually were through the use of 14 inch wheels and long, straight lines.

I always wondered why that was. Did you still get it from Arizona and Texas then?

What! Nothing here about Saab being killed by GM! Well, I guess everybody now knows that that happened. Goodbye Saab! My brother had one of these for a while:
http://www.saabhistory.com/blog/wp-c...laura_left.jpg
On the inside it was that color too but someone had done a shoddy job of making it black on the outside. What a waste.

My parents had a SAAB like that (red though) when I was a wee lass.
It's sad that SAAB is gone. :frown:

Yes it's an awful Christmas present for the people in Trolhättan.

And in Nyköping as well. We have the European storage here.

They say that there are enough parts to keep the present Saabs on the road for the next ten years...

Mr J has finally decided on what make of car he wanted. It's totally unexpected since he started out with checking out BMWs. :D
This though is the latest car on our driveway: A Peugeot 407.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...1-21122535.jpg

And what car did Mr. J. want Jelena? :P

Oi! Can I just say that last Sunday we had the worst Top Gear ever? The three men are clearly out of ideas.

Was it all about Peugeots? ;)

I have to say we're really happy with out plum coloured car. It's spacious, comfortable, got all the technology you want in a country with lots of icy and snowy roads and it's really economically a big step forward compared to the Ford Mondeo we also own.

It wasn't about Peugeots Jelena :). And I also have a Peugeot and mine has everything you need for lots of sun! :). But it has a very good heater too. No traction control or four wheel drive though.

The three (well actually James May didn't participate in the making of the worst topic in TG ever) men had to do a car chase for the upcoming movie The Sweeney. Of course lots of things went 'wrong' but they went so 'wrong' and what went 'wrong' was so predictable that it wasn't any fun anymore. It was just a lot of money and good cars wasted.

WOW, I'm glad I'm not the only one! All four episodes up to now have been really meh, right?

I only saw the SAAB topic in episode 6 yesterday, and that was nice. And I thought episode 5 was also not bad.