I’ve given mine (BMW E3). And Motor Trend gave their COTY to the 1969 Plymouth Road Runner. Not to denigrate the RR, but since it came out in 1968, why the award in 1969? Was the golden age of the American car really that lacking in new product? In Europe that year, three superb all-new new cars (Peugeot 504, BMW E3, Alfa 1750) fought for the title. And what did they bring to the fight: all-wheel independent suspension, OHC engines, four-wheel disc brakes, etc…
What was the Road Runner? A low-trim Satellite coupe with a few taxicab heavy-duty parts, drum brakes, and a four-barrel 383 that had been tweaked for an extra five(!) hp above the 330hp 383 that had graced hundreds of thousands of Mopars for years. A brilliant achievement! Ok; I admit: Even I thought the RR was cool, with its beep-beep horn, but then I was fifteen, and what did I know? And the PR and hype-machines were running as hot as its optional (but rare) 426 hemi. Well, even back then I wondered why it won COTY a year after it came out. And yes, the RR brought joy (and dreams) to many a young man in 1969.
But now we’re grown up, and have the benefit of perfectly objective 20-20 hindsight. So what was the CCOTY of 1969?
Okay, so it was introduced as a 68 1/2 but I think it titled as a 69, so I’m gonna go with the 69′ Continental Mark III, the car that set Lincoln on the path to profitability, and that would set a styling direction(brougham meets pimpmobile)for the next 20 years.
The Mark III is legitimately a 1969, so it qualifies, and quite eminently.
+1
I would definitely nominate the Mark III. If the ’65 LTD launched the Great Brougham Epoch, the Mark III put it into overdrive. And the Mark looked appropriately swanky, despite being a reskinned T-Bird. My grandfather traded in a triple dark green 1966 suicide door Continental in on a triple dark green Mark III, with leather interior. Years later, Dad said that car had the most luxurious interior he’d ever sat in, and the later Mark III interiors (1970-71) looked cheap compared to the original.
I wonder if the green Mark III prominently featured in the brochure influenced (or confirmed) Grandpa Bob’s color choices? Either way, what a classy car!
Most cars get released prior to their model year. My Minx is a built and sold as a 59 but is actually a 1960 model.
There wasn’t much new in 1969 – the Chrysler C-bodies (which fell flat in the market), the Lincoln Continental Mark III (which debuted in the spring of 1968), and the “downsized” Pontiac Grand Prix.
The Continental Mark III and the Grand Prix were much more significant than the Road Runner.
The Continental Mark III’s styling, love it or hate it, virtually defined styling trends for the next 10-12 years. It was one of the first examples of a domestic auto company successfully looking to the past for inspiration. The Eldorado, Riviera and Toronado were all about the future, reflecting the final bits of postwar optimism.
The Continental Mark III clearly evoked the past, was hugely successful for doing so, and signalled that a lot of people would rather look at the past than face an uncertain and scary future.
The Pontiac Grand Prix defined the intermediate-size personal luxury car. This turned out to be the hottest segment of the 1970s.
The Continental Mark III, IV and V would bring Lincoln some of its best years ever, and whip the comparable Cadillac model in total sales – the first Lincoln to achieve that feat. The Grand Prix, along with the Firebird, kept Pontiac viable throughout the 1970s.
The Road Runner, meanwhile, had two good years, fizzled quickly, and was a footnote within the Plymouth line-up by 1972. Plymouth itself faded quickly after 1974. By 1977 it was hard to believe that Plymouth had once been one of the top three brands in this country.
In some respects, I think that Motor Trend chose the Road Runner because it they were surprised by its success in 1968 – it truly was the “sleeper” for that year. Everyone expected big things from the new GM A-bodies in general, and the Pontiac GTO in particular. But the Road Runner quickly beat its initial sales projections, and the “beep-beep” horn and cartoon graphics were far more popular than serious “car guys” ever expected them to be. Also note that, as a muscle car, it was far more in synch with the tastes of Motor Trend editors than the Lincoln, Pontiac or full-size Mopars.
Taxi parts speak to me. The sound of a 383 through glass paks is transcendental. And as a certain signore Ferrari once said (to paraphrase) “I make cars to go fast, not stop”, or something like that. This is clearly a case where libido overrules cold hard logic. I’m going for the RR.
All agreed, though I think it was Ettore Bugatti (the hard-headed French version of Enzo Ferrari) who said that. 🙂
Yeah! That’s right. Ettore Bugatti Ferrari!
Don’t laugh, but the thing I thought was coolest about the ’69 B bodied Mopars were their head restraints (but I was 11 years old at the time). This was the first year for mandatory head restraints (I think the side reflectors were mandated the year before).
I totally understand why…. I always thought they were cool too!
1969. What memories! HS graduation. U.S. Air Force enlistment. All that.
My pick? Hmmm…
Astro-Ventilation.
Oh – a car? Well…my mind’s a blank on this one. ZL-1 427 Corvette, perhaps.
Possible that “it was Chrysler’s turn” for COTY? Torino got it for 1970. Or, MT thought the car was “neato”?
Don’t know what the “rules” were, but the ’69 RR was virtually the same. What was so new for 69 to get COTY? Mopar fans?
But, this was the zenith of Muscle Car mania [called Super Cars then]. Drag strip ET’s, were all that mattered for a few years. It was as if 500 hp from the factory was coming soon.
By 1971, the party was over, and Vega got it for the new ecology and econo times.
I’m guessing that the ’68 Road Runner was released too late to be taken into consideration for the 1968 award, so it was considered for 1969 instead, as its first full model year.
The Mark III gets my vote. Loved the fuselage Mopars, but the Mark was THE CAR.
In all honesty its difficult to take the Motor Trend Car of the Year seriously as really meaning anything…
but mine would be the 69 Grand Prix SJ.
The better sized personal luxury car that started the movement to the Monte Carlo, Cordoba, Regal, softer Cougar or is it the Elite?).
No OHC, 4wheel discs or fully inpt suspension..and those things really don’t matter to me…
Gotta say the Road Runner is pretty cool though!
As true as Kevin Martin’s observation is, I have to go with Geeber here. The Mark III was the first car to take the general package of the Squarebird and sell it as a Lincoln – and the most expensive Lincoln, at that. The Eldorado came out a couple of years earlier, but the Mark III perfected the formula. The Mark III was the ultimate “statement” car. The successful 40 year old guy who bought a BMW in the 1990s was buying a Mark III in 1969-70. This was the first Lincoln to put a corresponding Cadillac into second place.
A clear choice – the 1969 Corvair. The last year of its production but a rightful CCOTY. The end of the great experiment known as the Corvair signaled the triumph of the safety nannies and their stifling of US automotive innovation. The Corvair was the last great hope and its passing lead to the Automotive Dark Ages that followed – The Great Brougham Epoch, its step sister, the Malaise Period. Arguably, it took 21 years after the Corvair’s passing for the US to produce another vehicle that impacted worldwide automotive design as much as the Corvair.
Mark III for it beauty and wretched excess. GP is a close second with me.
I pick the Mercury Marauder X-100 just because I think they look awesome and the name is cool.
This lady worked at a convenience store that was one business over from my father’s old scrapyard in Alabama. Her daily driver was….a white 1969 Marauder X-100 with white bucket seats and floor shift. It was in excellent shape but wore plain black steel rims without wheelcovers — its only flaw. It still had its rear cove painted flat black — my ultimate dream-Mercury. I walked by the car daily when I’d go for a soda and always had to stop for a minute *sigh*
I repeatedly pestered my dad about buying it from her but he never did. I told him how rare it was & that he could make a lot of money off of it (a lie…but I tried) but he wasn’t interested. She ended up selling the car for like $600 or $700 and six months later I saw it in a local junkyard: some fool robbed its drivetrain for something far less worthy. Such a waste!
Y’know gents, studying the above photos again reminded me how much I miss color-keyed steel wheels with nice hub caps! Baby moons would look super.
Big Deal….the COTY was all about advertising revenue and nothing else. Like the GTO in ’68 the RR had a couple of good years and faded fast. Today it is nothing but a footnote in automotive history.
In no real order, I nominate the:
-Lincoln Continental MkIII
-1969 Pontiac Grand Prix
-Alfa Guilia/1750
-Plymouth Road Runner
-BMW E3
-Peugeot 504
Another 1969 debut of note was the Triumph TR6, which if not a remarkable car (it was really just a TR5/TR250 in drag) was the last of the “classic” TRs.
Some other cars that debuted in 1969 that should be on the list for 1970 are the Ford Capri and the Datsun Fairlady Z/240Z.
You might argue for the Ford Torino Talledega, which garnered the Blue Oval boys a record number of NASCAR season wins, a manufacturer’s championship and a championship for driver David Pearson. It compelled Mopar to respond with the Dodge Daytona. The resulting aero wars brought such high track speeds that NASCAR effectively legislated the cars out of existence.
I’ll go with the ’69 Grand Prix. First of the reasonably affordable “superfly specials” that would rule the market in the early and mid ’70s. Just an aside on the Roadrunner 383 though, it made a lot more than 5 extra horsepower over a station wagon grade 383. Ma Mopar fudged the numbers to get a favourable class in the NHRA and give the target market some chance of getting insurance. Neither were fooled for long. Still not COTY material though.
I guess there are a lot of worthy candidates but the RR is at the top of my list. I owned it’s corporate sibling – the Dodge Coronet 440 (with a post) and I pine for it still. A drunken sailor made scrap of it in 69 at a very low mileage. I haven’t yet forgiven that. Of the suggestions, the corvair is the only one that I think is right there with it.
I am unsure if innovation is more important than appeal. On the muscle cars it seems the factories were just imitating what hot rodders had been doing for years.
Memories of an 11 year old in ’69: Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour on Saturday mornings…..seeing a B-5 ’69 Road Runner a few streets over from me; I later learned the car was a gift from parents to son after his return from Viet Nam. I’ll never forget that car running about in town. The owner later had a large American flag painted on the rear quarter panels, this, in a time when being overtly patriotic was not the “in” thing to do…….one street over from me was a fellow who bought a new ’69 GTO Judge. 4 Speed Hurst, Carousel Red (more orange!)……everyday at the end of work he drove up our street to reach his home. That 400 Ram Air goat sure sounded great in the era of Sunoco 106 octane! I don’t believe I missed too many days watching that Judge go by! The 69 Road Runner defined the second half of the muscle car generation; gee, that and a host of other great ones were soon to follow. But Plymouth hit a goldmine with the Road Runner and it sold like hotcakes. And yes, that 383 had a great soundtrack of it’s own!
Looking through the prism of the past; living in that year of 1969 to form my opinion, there is no doubt the Road Runner is the 1969 CCCOTY. Looking at the past with 44 years of hindsight behind me, the 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix is the clear winner. The first real Personal Luxury Car, with apologies to the Lincoln and Cadillac. The ’69 GP had killer styling. Who can forget that long, sculpted hood merging with the twin nostrils chrome grill? The dashboard alone is enough to give the GP the title; a great design that separates the driver from the front seat passenger and places all controls and gauges in front of the driver. It was more akin to piloting a jet air fighter. The height of Bill MItchell styling. The Grand Prix ‘s model designation echoes those of the famous Duesenberg models with the Grand Prix SJ being the ultimate GP. And most importantly, the 1969 Grand Prix defined the new term Personal Luxury Car, the 2 door coupe with a long hood, short rear deck, small back seating area, twin front buckets. The car made for the up and coming executive. A genre that survived for close to 3 decades before the 4 door German sport sedans put an end to the Personal Luxury Car’s dominance. Yep, that’s my choice; the 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix!
Im old enough to remember the Road Runner (and GTX) but lets get real. They are minor footnotes in both automotive history and Curbside Classicism. BMW straight-six all the way!
From a US perspective, the GP is probably it. Those things were going for way over sticker and really did start the inexpensive personal luxury coupe trend. I was 16 in ’69 and a VW nut at the time. The beetle’s sales in the US peaked that year. My other favorite is the fuselage Dodge Polara, fastest CHP car in history.
CCOTY for ’69? Definitely my Mom’s ’69 Dodge Monaco, since it was the first car I drove on a road trip (in ’71, once I was 17 and had my NJ license). Okay, the road trip was with the folks, but they were seriously not back-seat drivers (Mom fell asleep while I was driving, and Dad only complained if the speed went over 85), so it was okay.
Now seriously? Can we do a co-CCOTY for the Mark and the GP? The love child of those two (sized like the GP, but pimped out like the Mark), defined the Broughamlicious 70s. By the mid-70s, the Mark was what every GP, Monte Carlo, Cutlass Supreme, Elite/Thunderbird, Cougar, Cordoba, or Mirada yearned to be when it grew up.
Grand Prix…
Why?
Well, just look at it!
I never tire of this great Pontiac ad. It’s tailor made for speculation. Carmine, was it not you who suggested this was a mob hit man, walking back to his Grand Prix SJ; a quick glance over his shoulder for possible witnesses? I get a chuckle out of this ad each and every time.
There was a book published in the early to mid 80’s on Detroit muscle car ads. One ad the author presents was a 67 or 68 Shelby Mustang GT 500 done as a painting. The car is obviously at speed. In front of the GT 500 is a young child right in it’s path while in the background a frantic mother looks on in horror.
Sometimes there can be no doubt that the ad men, the Mad Men of the 1960’s pushed the boundaries of good taste to see how far they can go. Remembering back at that Shelby ad, I think they can call that one Mission Accomplished! 🙂
Though seriously, the 1969 Grand Prix set the was the opening shot in the middle class personal luxury coupe wars that ragged through the 70’s and finally didn’t end until the 90’s really.
Yep. Both the Mark and GP set the tone for the next 20 years, more or less. The Mark for those who “made it” and the GP for folks who were getting there. Or the Baroque Brougham and the Sport Brougham, if you prefer. In the U.S., these two were must-haves. Both definitely worthy of CCOTY.
Love the Road Runner, but as good as it was, it was an unusually well-marketed retread of a tried-and-true formula. Therefore, I nominate the Datsun 240Z, for three reasons:
1. It was the first good-looking Japanese car to sell in sufficient numbers to cement in the public’s mind that Japanese cars could have style.
2. It provided a perfect template for the post-muscle-era performance car: still-sufficient grunt, relatively light weight, and a proper chassis and brakes.
3. It put the US and Europe on notice, and heralded the rise of Japanese carmakers, in a way that arguably wasn’t repeated until Lexus released the LS400 two decades later.
Wrong model year. There was no 1969 240Z.
But for 1970 COTY, the 240Z is definitely a better choice than the Ford Torino.
Clearly not the COTY, but I think the Fiat 128 deserves honorable mention. It was a wonder of space utilization both on the inside and under the hood. This was the first use of a transverse FWD arrangement with unequal-length axle shafts, which is still the standard in virtually every single front-wheel-drive car to this day. It also debuted the SOHC four that powered Fiats for the next 25 years or so… plus it was a cheap car that looked cool and was a lot of fun to drive. Too bad they all rusted to pieces years ago…
“What was the Road Runner? A low-trim Satellite coupe…”
Wasn’t the Roadrunner based on the Belvedere? I think all Satellite 2-doors were hardtops and the Roadrunner (atleast initially) was only offered as a pillared coupe with ‘flipper’ rear quarter windows.
BTW, the silver paint on the beautiful ‘Runner in the first photo was an extra-cost option (‘hand-buffed’ or some such thing). It also has the optional ‘Air Grabber’ hood intake. It’s possible to tell because the ‘Air Grabber’ on those cars had red grills (non-Air Grabbers were black). Air-Grabbers (Ram Air) on Dodges were much easier to spot – they were the ones with the small, dual hood scoops.
The ‘Air Grabber’ didn’t really help performance much on any of them, it just made the intake louder. They were eventually outlawed in California as ‘unsilenced’ air intakes.
The RR was essentially a Belvedere cop car with the coupe body and funny sounding horn. A friend of mine still has the one he bought new, his first new car. It is a very base equipped one, 383-4v, black vinyl bench and manual everything. Its a beast to drive with no power steering or brakes and the HD clutch.
Am I the only fan of the Dodge Charger Daytona?
I’ll go with a tie between the Grand Prix and the Continental Mark III..
Meanwhile in Australia, Holden got another COTY, after the Monaro in 1968, the Torana got it for 1969.
Wow, a six cylinder Torana that ISN’T wrapped sideways around a tree! How did they do that?
Stop the Presses! Due to an arduous day at work yesterday, I was not thinking clearly and forgot to nominate the 1969 Mercury Marquis. This was the car where Ford finally (though briefly) figured out how to make a Mercury competitive against Oldsmobile or Buick.
That Marquis was a really, really nice car in 1969, at least until they started rusting. It really did seem to be more like Lincoln than like a Ford. My father got one as a loaner when his Mark III was in to the dealer for repairs (not an infrequent occurrence), and I remember how impressive of a car it was. Other than the 1967-68 Cougar, this was the only other postwar Mercury that was really successful.
My vote is for the Grand Prix as well. It was the most significant car from 1969 to the North American market. It was the trend setter for affordable perosnal luxury cars, which had a massive impact on the 1970’s auto market. So much so, that the T-bird even changed to follow this formula in 1977.
The Mark III was a good car, but it’s impact on the market was not as significant as the GP. The Road Runner was a neat concept, offering bare bone cars with muscle, but that fad faded too quickly to be significant.
The most substantive new American designs for 1969 were Chrysler Corp.’s full-size line. The fuselage look didn’t sell all that well but it did help solidify the trend away from three-box designs. Indeed, by 1971 GM was outfuselaging Chrysler with its new big cars.
I bet that the Road Runner got Motor Trend’s COTY Award because it was Chrysler’s turn but MT just couldn’t bring itself to hype the half-baked fuselages.
The Mercury Marquis deserves at least an honorable mention because (as noted above) it represented the first time that the brand’s full-sized cars really found their groove, however briefly. Think about how much money Ford had spent over the years trying vainly to make Mercury a top-tier premium brand.
In a way it’s arbitrary to bestow upon Pontiac a CCOTY award merely because it was the first GM division given the green light to offer a mid-sized coupe as a notchback. Big deal. The Monte Carlo and Cutlass Supreme, which were introduced a year later, sold better. Nor do I think the Grand Prix deserves accolades for its styling, which was rather bland except for the Jimmy Durante nose.
If you’re looking for who started the broughamization of mid-sized cars, I’d point to the 1968 Torino and Montego.
In a way the Lincoln Continental Mark III is an embarrassment. How often can you find in one car so many design cliches? Yet they held together pretty well, at least for the time. And, perhaps most importantly, the Mark III put a dent in Cadillac’s sales leadership. As mentioned above, that was a big deal.
The GP was more than just a notch back Tempest. Sure the car used the A-body chassis, but it used a unique long wheelbase, had entirely unique styling and of course that mile long hood. I still say it was a significant impact because it was the first to market a persoanl luxury car that was affordable. T-birds, Rivs and Toro’s were just out of reach to so many, and these new lower priced cars really opened up the market. Look at how many copy cats resulted from the GP? The Monte Carlo, the Cordoba (and 1975+ Charger), the Cougar (1974+), Ford Elite, the 1977+ T-bird, etc. And all of these cars sold well in there time.
The fuselage Chryslers were all new, but they have really become forgotten with time. I always thought the styling of these cars rather bland and unappealing and for certain models years a little strange. I prefer the 1974+ fullsize Mopars.
The Grand Prix didn’t really “start” it all — the Monte Carlo and Cutlass Supreme were already in the pipeline. In addition, the latter cars turned out to be more popular. A big part of the problem was that the Grand Prix was priced too high, e.g., in 1970 it listed above the Bonneville two-door hardtop.
In contrast, the Monte Carlo was almost $900 less than the Grand Prix. So what did you get for the extra money? A longer, more phallic, hood? More than twice as many buyers thought the Monte Carlo’s hood was big enough for them.
I also would argue that the copy catting was largely of the Monte Carlo rather than the Grand Prix. For example, the Cordoba cribbed the fender blisters, wide radiator grille and vertical taillights of the Monte Carlo. One could plausibly argue that the Cougar adopted a grille that was similar to the Grand Prix’s, but it was also an evolution of past Mercury designs.
Although the Grand Prix was a big step in the direction of the ’70s midsize personal luxury coupe, it didn’t take us all the way there. It was still priced more like a traditional fullsize personal luxury coupe, and its stretched wheelbase made it almost as long as some full-size cars. The 1970 Monte Carlo was really the car that laid the template. By ’73 the Grand Prix had moved to the shorter Monte Carlo/4-door A-body wheelbase, and in 1976 Pontiac finally decontented it into the heart of the midsize personal luxury market.
The above having been said, the Grand Prix was a big enough step, and was so emblematic of the broughmification movement as a whole, that I’d still call it the top American nominee for CCCOY. In my mind it’s between the GP and the BMW E3.
Mark III. Why? 460V8, RWD, tire frying luxury. The only one of the cars nominated that I still actively lust after. If one came up for sale at the right price the only thing I would check would be the condition. Not the options or the color, just the condition.
You know memory is a fragile thing. IIRC 69 was the year that they changed the looks of the charger and I think I liked it better than the road runner and certainly better than the grand prix.
I also don’t remember the criteria for being the CCCOTY. If it’s innovation we should be giving it to who handled the federal mandates the best. If it’s popularity this far into the futures the sales leaders would win. If it’s lasting appeal (which it seems to be) it is a popularity contest.
My late to the party vote is the charger over the road runner or a co-mvp. Of course, I drive a cube so what do I know. Answer: I know what I like and it probably won’t be popular. I don’t think you could sell me a pacer. Well, anyway, I’m just waiting for 1970.
How about a Ram Air IV Judge?
My 1967 383 Barracuda had y-pipes with removable caps in the exhaust pipes in front of the mufflers. So a couple of times early on a Saturday or Sunday morning I would do some back-road touring with the caps off, and got to hear the unmuffled sound of a 383 at full throttle. I always did like the sound of a Mopar V8…and there was a noticeable addition to the car’s performance.
I’m sure that the unexpectedly high sales of the 1968 Road Runner factored into the Car of the Year award for the 1969 model – for what that’s worth.
I’m shocked no one has mentioned any of the 1969 pony cars. The Mustang, Camaro, and Firebird were all significantly restyled for ’69 and the Boss 302, Z-28, and Trans Am all debuted that year. A tough choice between them for sure, but I’d have to go with the TA as CCOTY for its torque-monster 400 over the higher revving 302’s of the other two.
Globally, the Mk I Capri was rolled out in the spring of 1969, so, there is that (though to be fair it did not arrive on our shores until 1970).
As far as what one could buy here, wasn’t the first-year TR6 available here? I’d wager from the standpoint of driving dynamics, it was a cut above most anything else listed here, and was/is relatively durable as Triumphs go.
Actually, the Boss 302 would be a good contender for 1969. The Boss 302 engine was a high revving little monster of an engine, and the car handled and braked well for it’s era. However, the concept was just copied from Chevy’s Z28 which came out in 1967. Both cars were probably the best all-round performers of the time, and each had a 302 that was basically a detuned race engine. The Trans Am was nice, but the 400 was not in the same league. Sure it would probably run as quick or quicker, but it didn’t have the high revving race inspired performance of the 302’s in the Camaro and Mustang.
Before this article disappears from the front page I did also want to mention that while obviously not CCOTY material, I am a huge fan of the 1968-1969 Chrysler B-Body coupes. Great looking car and the Road Runner/Super Bee were probably the most quintessential factory “muscle cars” that ever existed.
The Lincoln Mark III is also one of the few Broughamesque vehicles I’m really into. In my opinion it was the best vehicle in that genre by far.
Didn’t they change for a color version of the Road Runner sticker for 1969? Perhaps it was that change that tipped the balance for the COTY…