The German term strassenkreuzer left a deep impression on me as a little kid in Austria. “Street/highway cruiser” is technically the direct translation, although “freeway cruiser” is what it implies. Why weren’t they called autobahnkreuzer? That would have conveyed the meaning better.
And what did that word convey? Big American cars, so eminently suitable for cruising and not hurrying or racing. Germans have a deep affinity for big American cars, and so many of them end up there. xiao car posted a raft of pictures from a car show, almost all of them American. But this little quintet of strassenkreuzer set against that backdrop that is so quintessentially rural German deserved to make it to the pages of CC.
Well, that and one more…
This 1960 Buick Electra convertible. That’s about as strassenkreuzer as it gets.
If you read the vintage feature on the design process of the 1977 Chevrolet coming up a bit later today, GM VP of Design Bill Mitchell had some choice words for these big Marks.
Here’s that snippet. Ouch. But right on the mark.
Was Mitchell’s Eldorado any better? Ouch, again.
Enough of that; let’s just step back and enjoy these cars. And that woman is wearing a dress that reminds my of one my sister had in 1959. Very appropriate.
What a word! I have never heard it before. What nice cars, too! I have always admired the rounded corners of the ’60 Buick as compared to the introductory model in 1959.
Thanks for brightening my day. By the way, it is 7:10 AM on the East Coast. So, you are up and running at 4:10 AM in Oregon! Here, run down to the coffee shop and have one on me.
Of note, my German is quite rusty.
I love the term as well. The 60 Buick and the 59 Ford would be interesting to consider side by side, as they sort of swap the Ford/GM design philosophies of the 70s, with the Ford being almost reactionary in its square conservatism. OK, except for the acres of chrome.
I don’t think I have ever seen a bright red 72 Mark IV, and doubt that one was offered new. But then special orders were not unheard of then (not to mention “restorer’s license”). Some of those “Lipstick” trims came later, but not at the start.
I see the Buick Estate Wagon at the edge of the field and wonder how it failed to make the show cut.
left a deep impression on my as
Did you forget the second s?
These flamboyant cars should be center stage, not parked with their butts against the sunflowers.
No, look again; he typed my instead of me.
Yes; fixed now.
Gosh, why are these guys so hard on you. ?
The 1959 Buick was a garish, cartoonish car with its canted headlights and huge fins. The 1960 refresh greatly toned down the excesses of the ‘59 and resulted in a much nicer overall package. A great dash too, with that large, ribbon speedometer that changed colors as speed increased. I think the same can be said of the ‘60 Chevrolet refresh, which resulted in a car far more handsome and restrained than the bat-winged ‘59’s.
Of course the real change came next year. The trimmer full size ‘61 GM offerings are some of my favorites of all time.
I say the 60 Buick gets Best In Show Award for sure.
Whew, that Caddy looks like a slab of lard in white.
+1
I love that Buick. The Eldorado has a strange draw on me though. Whenever I see a white on white big GM convertible my mind travels to a random Sunday afternoon when I was about 12 or 13. I was pedaling my ten speed home from a friend’s house about a mile from home when this white Eldorado roared past me, gliding around a sweeping curve. The road cut around a cow pasture, so I can remember watching the car across the field, about 3/4 of a mile in distance from where it had passed me. There were three late teens in the front seat, just out for an afternoon cruise in (presumably) Daddy’s car. I remember thinking that would just be pure heaven. It was a picture of joyous freedom in my young mind. Forty years later that moment comes back to me so easily. Like a well known painting or an old song.
That looks like a 1959 Ford second from left, and it lookos to be in fine condition.
What a fine place to have a car meet .
Nice cars, all of them .
-Nate
Did you see many American cars in Austria ,as a boy Paul. They had some impact on the Dutch market as the country didnt really have much of an auto industry besides those DAF Varomatics .
Well, actually.. the thing that appears on a german’s mind by the mention of “Kreuzer” would look more like the one below, whereas “Strassenkreuzer” just puts said thing in the middle of a city street, size, cannons and all as is. Also, the use of “Schlachtschiff”, as in war ship, meaning to express “land yacht” wouldn’t rise any brows either.
“Cruiser” would be the term said german would simply appropriate, if mockery is none of his intentions.
Perhaps, but I am sure Straßenkreuzer is type-approved, certified, and homologated as fully compliant with all applicable DIN standards in accordance with the usage conditions set forth in volume IV of the term’s operating authorisation documentation, which must in all cases be carried when using the term.
What makes these cars special is their refusal to compromise to established norms. The Germany I know adheres to strict compartmentalization. It is a land of both the Berlin “Love Parade”, and obedient lines of silent school children waiting in der Bahnhof. People who quietly wait for the walk line before crossing an empty street, and a place where graffiti runs amok. Where citizens dutifully wash recycled trash for the Gelber Sack, yet frown on wasting water.
I always say, Disney world couldn’t have happened in Germany, but Octoberfest does.
These American cars are too big, too flamboyant, too wasteful, too ridiculous, and too much! This is their appeal. There exists in every German soul a happy place they rarely publicly show – the love of American excess. Our movies, our sports, our McMansions, our Walmart, and our politicians satisfies this happy place. Don’t forget Schadenfreude, and beer. They got lots of that too!
Once someone discovered I was American, it wasn’t unusual to be shown a side of Germans, many Germans don’t show publicly. Giddiness. I treasured this because it often took time to be allowed into that level of social intimacy. In return, I showed a deeper level of honesty, not commonly shown publicly in America. I learned to mean what I said, and meet every promise – no shallow typical Ami “klein sprache”.
I like returning when I can, and hope to set up a second home in Friesland, and learn to speak Platte Deutsch with my university friends and families along the North Sea coast.
I’d drive a Ford F-150 and lovingly watch as they scold me!
Living close to the Dutch-German border, I clearly remember we had 2 Dutch TV channels and 3 German ones (ARD, ZDF and WDR). And that was that.
Back in the days, we often watched the German channels. Very often, as a kid. Their children’s programmes were, and possibly still are, of the very highest quality, education-wise.
Pop-/rock-music? Oh no, Schlagers and “hoempamuziek” (polka), that’s what came from the speakers.
Cars? Opel, Volkswagen, Ford Köln and a Benz W115 as the ultimate.
Short or long holiday trips? To Germany. Eating a plate-covering, full-size Schnitzel was a highlight.
…oh yes, back in the days! When the rabbits still had tusks and the birds flew backwards.
Ford must have lost money on the 4 door Continental convertible, since they didn’t make one for these Marks. Or maybe there were too many complaints and warranty repairs about the complex mechanism.
I wish they’d widened the rear track of the Eldorado when they took off the fender skirt. That helped the late 90’s Deville look less bloated than its predecessor.
Vanilla Dude,
I lived in the Mannheim-Heidelberg area back in the early to mid 1970s, when the Dmark was 3 to 4 per US Dollar. I was with the US Army, and spent every possible moment off the base, making friends that I still stay in contact 45 years later. My everyday car in Europe was a 1956 Chrysler Imperial sedan.
That car made it easier to make friends, as many of the younger population was fascinated with the Imperial. I put almost 40,000 kilometers on the ‘ol 56 before shipping it back stateside. We made it to Austria, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Belgium. I also tried to drive thru a tunnel under the Alps to visit Italy, but because of the car’s age, we were not allowed to drive the tunnel!
Your comments are quite descriptive of Germany and it’s population. I suspect you will do well in your second home.
Bis spater!
At first when I saw the photo of the 5 cars in the field, I just thought it was a nice grouping for a photo.
Then I remembered I had owned the following vehicles, all featured in the photo:
1959 Ford Galaxy retractable, white over turquoise.
1973 Lincoln Mark IV, blue with blue interior.
1975 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, white with white leather, red dash & carpeting.
The ’59 was a regular participant at local car shows, often displayed with the top half-way up, but sometimes displayed with the top half-way down. The top always worked.
The Lincoln was purchased from the original owner with about 4,000 miles showing, I drove it only a few hundred miles, and it was quiet like a bank vault. Well, a bank vault that wallowed in the turns.
The Eldorado was also a low mileage car, I think it had about 12,000 miles showing. I hated the white leather seats, I was a restoration mechanic and if I had even the smallest spec of grease on my jeans, it would magically transfer to those white seats.
And it was the worst abuser of gasoline I’ve ever had, worse than some limousines I owned!
The term got its own Wikipedia site: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straßenkreuzer
“Vollgasfest” is another oh-so-German car-related term. And quite at the other end of the Straßenkreuzer spectrum.
The Eldo has overhang EVERYWHERE instead of just the front and back. Is it better?
Yes.
Yes it is.
Boxy was attractive for it’s functionality (or appearance of.)
The Eldo is a big curvy lady. Baby got back and all that.
The Lincoln is like Lurch from The Addams Family.
Hey, that’s one of the last 200 ’76 Eldo convertibles, the Bicentennial edition with blue and red stripes.
There is just something special about American cars of this era when pictured out of their element. Maybe not the regular family cars, which can look disproportionate, but these luxury cruisers. Take the Lincolns: they may be huge but all the lines relate, it’s a coherent design. Larger than necessary, sure, and inefficient, but nice to look at, to admire. Automotive sculpture.
That Buick especially has a real style. It’s not just regular-family-car blown up to size XXXXL, but something that looks decidedly different from anything else on the road. Except another ’60 Buick, which I imagine would be an unlikely occurrence in Germany. Mercedes-Benz now make cars about as big as this but they aren’t half as eye-catching. Designed for different aesthetic sensibilities, undoubtedly. But the times, they were a-changin’.
We’ve lost something precious since those ‘sky’s-the-limit’ days. And it’s not just red interiors.
The German word “autobahnkurier” comes to mind but that doesn’t fit these cars.