We recently heralded 1960 - opens in new window or tab. as the year domestic auto companies debuted a roster of compact cars. It took Detroit executives a few years to accept the fact, during the late 1950s, that U.S. buyers were becoming more interested in small inexpensive imports. Let’s take a look at the compact imports that changed the look of US roadways forever.
In January 1949, Ben Pon, Sr., a Dutch businessman, became the world’s first Volkswagen importer when he shipped two examples of the “people’s car” to New York City. VW remained Detroit’s chief competition with their “Type 1” sedan.
Over the next several years, sales slowly climbed and Volkswagen of America was established in late 1955 with headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Roughly 35,000 VWs were on the road by that time, and the numbers surged to nearly 300,000 by 1960. Much of that success could be attributed to a clever marketing campaign that began in 1959. The advertising firm of Doyle Dane Bernbach coined the term “Beetle” and focused on turning the car’s drawbacks into selling points. Themes such as “ugly is only skin deep” helped the public’s growing interest in the simple, but durable little machine.
Second in 1960 import sales, but far behind VW, was Renault—with its attractive Dauphine 4-door sedan (shown at the top of this page). Introduced in France in 1956, the Dauphine was technically similar to the Beetle due to its rear-mounted engine. Priced just below $1,700, advertisements claimed the Dauphine could get up to 43 miles per gallon.
Originally to be named the Corvette, the Renault suffered waning sales because of poor quality. It was also slow by American standards. In a Road &Track Magazine test, it took a glacial 32 seconds for the Dauphine to reach 60 miles per hour. Detractors quipped that if you stood beside the car you could actually hear it rust away. The high point for Dauphine sales in the U.S. came in 1959, with about 91,000 examples sold.
The third best-selling import in the U.S. in 1960 was the Opel Rekord. Long a subsidiary of General Motors, Opels received a lot of exposure because they were sold through Buick dealers beginning in 1958. Also helping sales was the Rekord’s styling, which featured American styling cues such as a wraparound windshield and two-tone paint. The Opel featured a traditional front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout with a 3-speed manual transmission using a column-mounted shifter. The 1488 cc engine developed 50 horsepower.
Not to be left out of the import scene, in 1958, GM’s Pontiac Division began offering the British Vauxhall compact.
Finishing fourth and fifth in import sales for 1960 were Ford’s English-built Anglia and Taunus sedans, following by Fiat’s pocket-sized 500. Ranked fifth through tenth in U.S. sales were Triumph, Simca (marketed via Chrysler Corp.), Austin-Healey, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo.
Combined, these ten makes accounted for 372,155 sales, or 7.58 percent of the U.S. market. While a few of these European vehicles would disappear over the next few years, the coming Japanese imports would quickly take their place.
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