A recent CC post that showcased an AMC AMX with the rare factory hatchback tent option got me thinking about one of my central obsessions related to cars – OEM options. Given that I am less of a gearhead and more a devotee of the automobile as a reflection consumer culture, it probably comes as no surprise that the options that fascinate me are less about propulsion dynamics, gear ratios, cubic inches and such than the various things that car manufacturers have over the years decided that consumers want as matters of personalization, convenience and comfort. Or just as often, as ways to have their vehicles reflect or promote a certain attained or aspired to lifestyle
I suppose that much of my fascination with car options came from my early-in-life absorption with print media. Or maybe more accurately, with the pictures in print media, as I developed the position early on that I’d read nearly anything if it was illustrated. Complicated text was fine, but if there were no pictures or few pictures, I’d give it a pass relative to something that had more pictures. I guess that’s why I would tell people that I wanted to be a physician versus a lawyer (medical texts have GREAT pictures!) back when I was a kid and those two choices seemed to be the only ones possible for the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question…which adults seemed to obsessively ask. In the end of course, I wound up being neither; but I still have that thing about wanting to read with pictures.
As a child, I devoured stuff ranging from encyclopedias (the Golden Book Children’s Encyclopedia was a huge favorite due to the heavy picture to text ratio) to catalogs such as Sears and Montgomery Ward (aka, what I was absolutely convinced for year was the “Monkey Wards” catalog before the correction set in). But what I truly loved more than anything else should one fall into my hands was a new car sales brochure.
Of course it was always the fine print that captured my attention. The pictures, while eye-catching, seldom made much sense to a mind that was (and is) always attempting to decode a narrative behind the composition. Who are those ladies there with the Newport and how did they manage to teleport from what appears to be the late 18th century only to find themselves standing next to this guy with his mod green car. He’s going to absolutely lose his mind once he notices them. And how are they going to choose who’s going to have to ride in the back seat, because they’re definitely not all going to fit in the front.
No, what got me was that the “options list goes on and on and on”! And so turning ahead to page 20 in this 1971 brochure, I discovered the totally fabulous Compact Cassette Stereo with Optional Microphone. There were so many things cool about that. First off, cassettes. Oh, I knew of 8-tracks, having discovered those advertised by the Columbia/RCA Record and Tape club. We never had them in my house (too new-fangled, and therefore obviously intended for richer folk than the Sun Family), but at least I knew what they were. But here Chrysler was offering cassettes; something newer – and therefore presumably “better”…because that’s how things worked back then. Regardless, the microphone was what really drove me crazy.
I had to have one, or more specifically it was my loudly expressed opinion that my parents needed to option their 1971 Town and Country with that particular radio. Of course, readers of my COAL series know about my parents’ general disposition toward displays of automotive excess such as radios so it’s not surprising how that purchase turned out. They miraculously sprung for the car (which they kept for the rest of their lives) but naturally denied me the optional high-grade audio system. Well, no matter. I still had the brochure – soon joined by others that I learned could often be grabbed from showroom displays that as a teen I increasingly had access to. Through sales literature, I found a way to indulge a fantasy where the various cars in my life could be optioned with all of the amazing extras which various manufacturers could offer. In this way, a life-long interest in car options got its start.
There’s a lot to unpack when considering the various options offered on new cars. One could in fact write a book (hummmmmm) about the subject, so I’ll keep this discussion largely focused on lifestyle and convenience options versus mechanical and safety offerings. Likewise, for the most part I’m going to stick to major manufacturers’ commercial offerings. So, no discussion of the on and off again availability of whale penis leather interiors on oligarchs’ SUVs. (OK, in fact there are actually a lot of reasons not to discuss that) I’ll try to provide links to various sites where I found most of these things so that readers can indulge their own reading-with-pictures inclinations.
Let’s start with where this story idea started, which is automotive tents. The tents that most fascinate me are those like the one on the AMX; that is, tents that convert more or less standard vehicles to temporary campers.
Of course, the go-to example for factory option tents is the Pontiac Aztek (2001 – 2005). I’ve seen one of these tent rigs in-person, but they are quite hard to find pictures of in sales literature. Part of that is because Aztek sales literature is hard to find online, but I think it’s also the case that even when tents are offered as an OEM option, they’re usually not well publicized. For example, there’s no mention or image of the tent in AMC’s 1977 brochure (the tent was only offered in 1977).
On the other hand, the 1977 AMC brochure does offer a range of dealer-installed options where the tent would seemingly fit right in. It’s odd to think of a litter container on the hump (fancy!) and a dash-mounted compass as being options. Didn’t most of us just pick those things up at JC Whitney or KMart? The air compressor is cool, and was also a factory-installed option many years later in the Aztek.
The tent as a somewhat elusive factory option continues with Honda, and in particular, everyone’s favorite discontinued active lifestyle utility vehicle, the Element (2003 – 2011).
The Element offered what is called the “Tailgate Cabana”, an option that received minimal mention in the sales literature.
Here, the cabana makes an appearance in the 2003 brochure, but it’s not fully described. Rather it’s just sort of tossed into the blender of “more of the ways” you can customize your Element. Maybe it was an expensive option, since there’s more than one online image of ways that Element owners over time have replicated the cabana/tent option using more home-grown solutions.
This conveys a certain porta-potty/crime scene/changing room vibe.
The Element reminds me a lot of the Altra camper-car, a Renault R4-based camper featured in Jacque Tati’s Trafic. Unfortunately, the Altra did not exist as a real vehicle (beyond the one made for the movie). Which is too bad, both for Renault lovers but also for folks who would like as a factory option a camping grill incorporated into the vehicle’s front end.
Still, the resemblance between the Alta and the Element is striking.
Currently, Honda offers a Honda-branded tent accessory that “fits” present-day Odysseys and Pilots. I’ve seen one of these at the dealer, and frankly they’re little more than dome tents with a Honda logo where you can tack one of the flies to your tailgate.
That doesn’t seem to be as much of an “option” as just something that one might choose to transport in their car. Likewise, Subaru markets little stand-alone tents emblazoned with a Subaru logo. Meh. That seems quite lazy.
One of the Element’s coolest versions was the “Dog Friendly Element”. This was a $1000 package of options that served to make your car more physically accessible and safe for your best friend. The package also included some simply wacky but neat things such as an electric fan (presumably to disperse dog hair uniformly throughout the cabin) and an integrated water dish. Mostly silly stuff, but nevertheless an overall solid effort to offer vehicle options that connected with and proclaimed owners’ lifestyle choices.
Speaking of lifestyle choices, that brings us to one of automotive history’s more “what the heck?” options. This would be the glovebox bar offered on the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham.
1957 was before the time when nearly all manufacturers offered showroom advertising literature, so it’s kind of difficult to figure out how exactly this option was presented or the degree to which it was promoted. Still, there are a number of examples of Cadillac glovebox bars that appear online. It is said that Frank Sinatra’s Brougham had one. You can imagine the Chairman of the Board driving the lonely streets of Los Angeles trying to win back Ava with a glovebox full of booze. Well, at least with a glovebox full of booze. Make it one for my baby, and one more for the road.
Maybe the glovebox bar was a bit of an esoteric or VIP option, but 1957 Cadillacs came with other more well-advertised options. Such was the rear seat perfume dispenser.
Here it seems that the “convenience items” option included those things that Cadillac decided that its customers wanted, or needed. Brougham buyers got a notepad, a pencil, and Arpege Extrait de Lanvin. I’d probably have wanted to substitute a stapler or maybe a really fancy Scotch Tape dispenser for the perfume, but it’s doubtful that was possible.
She seems pretty happy that she got the perfume to go with the note pad and not a stapler.
Whatever this stuff smells like, it’s probably classier than “Black Ice”, although no doubt much more expensive.
Cadillac wasn’t the only manufacturer to explore the sale of in-car aromas. Fiat tried this for a while in association with the 500 (2007 – ?, but pretty much dead in North America by 2020). BMW continues to sell a line of air fresheners that basically work just like a Little Tree, except that you put them in a plastic holder and jam them into your cabin air vents.
Oh, and they cost a whole lot more than Little Trees, but come in flavors scents with new age names. Because, you know, “Natural”.
Maybe scents aren’t your bag and perhaps your cravings for lifestyle identification go more toward things that are perishable. Do you fancy your vehicle as a restaurant or snack bar on wheels? Are you so on the go that you really can’t imagine being in the car without a properly cooled beverage…or….I don’t know, have a need to transport cheese, leftovers, human organs for transplant? Should any of those things be the case, then quite a few automakers offer OEM in-car refrigeration solutions!
The Aztek went pretty old-school in this regard by offering a basic cooler that was engineered to fit in the center console.
Despite the fact that Pontiac felt that the cooler had the potential to kill Aztek occupants, the feature was touted as being quite useful.
But a simple cooler leaves lots of room to step up the OEM car refrigeration options game.
The Ford Flex (2009 – 2019) offered a center console option that not only had actual refrigeration, but was in fact an in-car freezer. It’s not entirely clear why anyone would need to spring for this $900 option (and perhaps not many buyers did), but if you were a buyer who needed to have it, the Ford Flex provided.
Ford was not the first to offer a refrigerator/freezer in its utility-ish vehicle. Toyota offered a “cooler/icemaker” in its vans as early as 1984 (only to discontinue it in US versions of the “Van”, relaunched as the Previa).
Toyota’s device seems to have worked much like a conventional small bar or dorm refrigerator. Coolant circulated in a “freezer” section and that section provided the cooling for the rest of the box. Anything placed in direct contact with the freezer plates would (eventually) freeze; hence Toyota supplied ice cube trays and the thing made ice. From the looks of it that ice wasn’t exactly plentiful, so it would likely be better for just dropping a few cubes into a drink (sadly, glovebox mini-bar not included) than generating enough ice to cool down the results of your 2 day saltwater fishing expedition. It’s also not clear how these devices – Toyota’s or Ford’s – kept working once the vehicle stopped running. Residual cooling probably doesn’t last long once the power goes off, and there’s only so much that insulation can do to maintain the temperature in a cooler sitting in a hot car. So, practically, these expensive options likely have little benefit over carrying a cooler and spending a few bucks on a 10 pound bag of ice. But then that doesn’t account for the bragging rights around having an icemaker built into your car.
Bragging rights were also most likely what was behind the in-car espresso maker offered by Fiat in the 500L. Despite the fact that this option generated considerable buzz (pun intended) at launch, it seems to have been quite rare and does not ever appear in Fiat’s US sales literature. It’s mentioned by option code (6WX) in European brochures. Still, there are a few YouTube videos of Americans demonstrating the device, so it does seem that it was offered here at some point and the machine was available for a few years around 2013.
For what it’s worth, by 2014, Lavazza had shifted its vehicular attention to deploying the first espresso maker in space, and Fiat was having a mighty hard time selling any 500s in the US whether or not they came with a coffee maker.
Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti – the first Italian woman in space – is currently (8/2022) on her second ISS mission, and probably giving the espresso machine originally installed in 2015 a good workout. That should put an end to any jokes about the durability of Italian appliances.
Speaking of space, that brings to mind vacuum, and when I think vacuum I think about in-car central vacuum systems. (well, not really, but some sort of transition was called for here). The Honda Odyssey has been offered with a vacuum since 2014.
Naturally, other vehicles in this family-friendly segment – namely the Chrysler Pacifica and Toyota Sienna have offered in-car vacuums. The Pacifica (2017 to present) has always had a vacuum available. The Sienna vacuum seems to come and go. It’s currently (2022) gone, but may return – along with the ice maker – for 2023.
I’m not sure I’d bust out the vacuum to pick up 12 raspberries. But maybe she doesn’t like touching fruit…
Let’s end this exploration of car options with the devices that got me started on this topic and piqued my interest in automotive options back in the 70s. That would be car audio systems.
That Chrysler built in cassette recorder which was the object of my automotive lust turns out to never have really caught on with the public. A Chrysler-branded Phillips product (Phillips invented and held the patent for 1/8” audio tape cassettes, so it made sense that Chrysler had to license the device from Phillips), those few that still exist are much sought after by collectors. Aside from transcription devices (Dictaphones and the like) in high end “executive” cars, most automakers didn’t really bother with recording devices as audio options. But what nearly every car maker did go for in a big way by the mid-1970s was…
1978 Buick brochure
…the CB radio. Starting in the 1978 model year, all GM brands offered a combination CB/AM/FM radio.
She’s serious…about matching her raincoat to her Alfetta GT as well as the CB radio she operates. Also, Laconia, NH. Just up the road a piece from here, and not a place one would easily associate with the manufacture of anything nowadays. Which says a whole lot about how different the world is in 2021 vs. 1976.
Certainly the makers of after-market CBs made a pitch that “serious” CB enthusiasts would want a unit that was technically superior to something that could be optioned into their car; and frankly, I’ve seen a lot more of these after-market CBs (usually at tag sales at give-away prices) than the factory installed ones. Still, GM, Chrysler, Ford…they all offered CBs as factory options by the mid-70s…knew a viral consumer trend when they saw one and therefore made it easy for buyers to get the official and well-integrated CB unit.
Most were integrated into AM/FM radios.
8-track and CB. This is pretty much peak 1970s culture.
Some came with audio tape – 8-track in most cases – options.
European manufacturers didn’t miss the wave either. Volvo typically devoted five or six pages in its sales brochure to audio options, and one whole page to its CB offering.
My 1976 245 at one point had the Remote Modular unit shown above. I still have all of the wiring in the car and the antenna, but unfortunately the unit itself vanished before the car made its way to me. That’s too bad since these things are extraordinarily rare nowadays. This makes me wonder though just how many car buyers during the CB craze really did spring for the OEM CB option. I’ve hardly ever found one in the wild in all of the mid-70s to mid-80s cars I’ve seen. And as fast as the CB craze exploded – due to one of those perfect-storm confluences of solid-state electronics, geo politics, US government policy, residual 1960s populism, and an advertising stunt from a mid-western bakery – it also collapsed. Lacking any real sales figures about who chose the CB option, I am going to guess that most buyers passed on the special order option and if they really wanted a CB radio, they went for the after-market, under-dash, variety.
Maybe that’s a good place to stop for now, before going down the next/related rabbit hole on car communications (i.e., mobile telephones. Stayed tuned.) and the options those have inspired. Options are all about customization and appealing to the desires of a multitude of consumers. Thus the permutations are many. I’m sure that most CC readers will have something to add about what you recall as popular our unusual in your time, and what stands out to your as a cultural high water mark reflected by car options. Let’s hear it.
All photos came from various places on the web. In particular, check out Old Car Brochures and Dezo’s Garage for a rich collection of automotive sales literature.
It’s also useful to see a number of CC posts that cover various car options. Barry Koch’s discussion of in-car electric shavers as well as his discussion of Rear Widow Wipers are good places to start. Tom Halter also offers an excellent history of car air conditioning…a subject I didn’t tackle since Tom already did, and besides, my family history indicates that automotive air conditioning is a bourgeois bridge too far. So what do I know?
Oh, and it turns out that Sinatra’s 1957 Brougham probably only cruised around New Jersey – and not Los Angeles – since it was his East Coast car. But it’s a much better image thinking of Old Blue Eyes on the mid-century streets of Los Angeles versus the streets of Newark. At least I think so.
One of my more amusing car stories involves an accessory I bought for my 1989 Mercury Tracer. Nothing particular odd about the item itself, which was an OEM center armrest designed to fit the car perfectly, available in three colors to match your interior – mine was blue. Actually, Ford, or Mercury didn’t sell the armrests, but Mazda had one in their accessories brochure for the 323 which of course was almost the same car so it would fit the Tracer too. The dealer who sold me the car wasn’t aware they existed.
Anyway, I had that car for a long time before trading it in for a 2007 VW, by which time the 18 year old Tracer had several major issues. The dealer initially told me it was worthless to them as a trade-in, but later to help convince me to buy a car from them offered me $100 for the Tracer. I had considered parting it out which would yield well over $100, but I didn’t have the time or inclination for that. I made an exception for one part though which I removed before trading it in – the armrest. I figured any other part for a 323 or Tracer could be found on nearly every one in the junkyard, but only a tiny percentage of them would have the OEM-accessory armrest in it making it a rare item since Mazda didn’t sell them after this generation of 323 was dropped after 1990. I auctioned it off on eBay, where it sold for about $130. The armrest was worth more than the entire rest of the car!
Armrests are mundane, but I did recently learn of an oddball Ford accessory. Actually “accessory” is a stretch since it seemingly has little to do with cars. Pictured below is a Ford barbeque grill, and a box of Ford charcoal briquets. Why on earth was Ford in the backyard barbeque business? Well, way back in the 1920s when these first were sold, the Model T had numerous parts made of wood, which required a sawmill to supply and cut the wood to fit, which resulted in lots of scrap wood to haul away. Rather than pay to have this done, Henry Ford wondered if the scrap wood could be put to some other use. The solution: chop up the excess wood and use cornstarch and other materials to turn it into little charcoal cubes, then sell them along with grills at Ford dealerships and hardware stores. These became very popular, but by the 1950s there wasn’t much wood needed to make cars anymore so the charcoal business was divested and became Kingsford, which today has about 80% of the market for charcoal briquets in the US.
More here: https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/expert-sets/101417/
I totally understand your story about the Tracer armrest. Until the relatively recent climb in Volvo 240 prices, one could buy a whole 240 (sometimes more than one) for what that Volvo CB was selling for on eBay. I think that’s part of the hidden (after)life of car accessories.
Also, that’s a great story about the origins of Kingsford charcoal! Some time ago I came across a mention that Kingsford had its roots with Ford (hence the name…), but I had assumed that it might have had something to do with Ford’s whole development of Fordlandia in Brazil in the late 1920s. The story about making charcoal out of manufacturing scraps makes more sense. Thanks!
In keeping with the non-automotive products made by car companies theme, I’ve always liked full-size Chryslers (well, except the fuselage ones they were ugly 🙂 ), but I don’t have the space or funds for another car. But I can still have a touch of Mopar at home with a Chrysler thermostat. No, not the kind that attaches to the radiator, but the one in your house. I do covet these Chrysler Airtemp thermostats:
Excellent! Yes, I was always fascinated by the automotive manufacturer connections to home appliances such as Airtemp, Kelvinator, Frigidare. As an adult, it makes perfect sense how automotive companies would want to have subsidiaries that made things like refrigerators, but to me as a kid this just blew my mind.
Your comment reminds me that the very first window air conditioner my family ever had was in the early 1970s in Raleigh…in the very first house my parents had ever purchased (everything before that was a rental). a house in Raleigh (early 1970s). A window air conditioner AND a dishwasher were included in the sale. We’d never had a dishwasher or an air conditioner before that.
The air conditioner was an avocado green Airtemp that had the Chrysler Star logo of course on the front. This was shortly after they also had purchased the 1971 Town and Country. I was fascinated with the idea that the same people who made our station wagon also made our air conditioner.
Hummmmm….looks like I could still find one of those Airtemps….
I own this GM Frigidaire window a/c from, I’m guessing from the logo, the late ’50s or early ’60s, which a neighbor didn’t want anymore so it was free. It works, though it’s very heavy and probably not very efficient. The four square vents each have a knob in the middle, and you can pull on these and rotate each of them 90 or 180 degrees in either direction, which changes the airflow direction.
My parents had a Chrysler Air Temp natural gas furnace in their house. The tag on the gas pipe said that it was installed in 1965. My father changed the filter and lubricated it every year. After about 50 years there was a major problem that made its replacement inevitable. The technician, who was about 35 years old looked at the label which read “Air Temp by Chrysler Corp.” He then asked Dad if that was the Chrysler car company. Dad said yes. Technician told Dad you need a new furnace. There are no parts available to fix this one. Had there been parts it may still be running.
Another design.
A townhouse I once looked into buying had a Chrysler Airtemp water heater in it. I have no idea whether Chrysler actually made it or if it was made by another company and rebadged, but it’s the only one I’ve ever seen; can’t even find any references to these online.
Kingsford just coincidentally has “Ford” in the name; it’s named after Henry Ford’s cousin-in-law Edward Kingsford who was involved buying the land where the sawmill was located.
It’s fun to see what “marketing” majors can come up with. I mean no disrespect; I got a BBA in Marketing from Adelphi U. in 1966.
A dear (now deceased) relative had a 1969 Cadillac CdV with ostrich leather seats. The “leather” had lots of little holes in it that I guess was for the feathers (?).
Also, Chrysler (and a few others) offered 45 rpm vinyl record players in the 1950s. Not sure how they worked on rough or unpaved roads.
I think Chrysler Corp was the only purveyor of the mobile phonograph – the Highway Hi Fi. There were two different generations, the first in 1956 played special 16 rpm discs and the second (from 1958 or 1959) played standard 45s.
I remember those cassette players/recorders in Chrysler brochures of the era – I think that unit was offered for several years. I thought it was cool because I had my own little portable cassette recorder/player. I always wondered about the utility of the recording function, but as an adult who dictated letters and memoranda into cassette tapes I could see the attraction. Now we just use an app on our cell phones.
My father ordered the AM/FM/Stereo/CB in his 1978 Lincoln Town Coupe. Dad got into the CB craze pretty hard in the mid 70s and probably avoided a lot of traffic tickets that way with the portable unit he used in his 76 Mercury Monarch. But I don’t remember him using it so much in the 78, as I think the fad was starting to die down by then.
The tent reminded me that it was an option on the early Oldsmoble Omega hatchback. My memory is foggy but I think I recall seeing one displayed on a showroom car at an Olds dealer when my mother was shopping in 1974.
The tunnel-mounted cassette recorder/player seems like an offshoot of the old 1967-68 Imperial Mobile Director. Chrysler was getting a reputation as the preferred choice for up-and-coming, hustling company executives, and the cassette player fit right in with that ethos. The problem was, it was a limited market, and having ‘anything’ hanging off the transmission tunnel (unless it was a console) was a tough sell. As mentioned elsewhere, the old vinyl disc players from the late fifties (whether from the factory or the JC Whitney catalog) didn’t go over, either.
Frankly, the biggest drawback might just have been appearance, as in-dash radios that incorporated some sort of playing device, whether it be an 8-track, cassette, CD, USB port, or GPS unit, have a much nicer, integrated look and have remained popular to this day. In fact, I’m not sure that it’s even possible to find a new, old-school radio that ‘doesn’t’ have some sort of playing device. Even the lowest, bottom-feeder car has at least a CD player in the radio. That, or the ability to operate Carplay and/or Android Auto.
I hear you about the tunnel-mounted audio. In general, I never favored devices hanging below the dash. Although one of those Chrysler phonographs would have been a cool thing to have; even if it probably wasn’t all that fun to use.
Your comment about the lowest bottom-feeder cars reminds me a rental experience I had just this past weekend. I rented a SUV (2020 Nissan Pathfinder) to drive 3 people and a dorm-room of stuff to college 400 miles away…and I of course simply assumed that something this luxurious would have some kind of way of integrating my iPhone. CarPlay has indeed become expected in nearly everything right? Nope. The phone integration still talked about an “iPod” (huh? 😉 ) and didn’t even have Android integration. Total miss. This left using the built-in Nav system which was also right out of 2015 (with its entirely inscrutable user interface). I hear that Nissan has finally corrected this for 2022. But sheesh. You’re right, better audio options are found in the Chevy Spark.
That sucks about a 2020 Pathfinder having such out-of-date radio features.
The Chevy Spark’s radio is, indeed, a great example of recent radio integration on an entry level car simply because it (and others at the bottom end in GM’s lineup) eschewed any kind of factory GPS in lieu of smartphone integration with a nav app (i.e., Waze). TBH, it was probably a smart play and I’m actually rather sad that GM discontinued cars like the Spark and Sonic.
Hoiden offered a Hatch Hutch on the similar-era Torana Hatchback.
Thanks JP! I too had a vague recollection of there being something like that offered by Oldsmobile, but I think I was looking for it in the 1980s, and therefore missed the 70s.
Great post Jeff – you’ve struck a rich vein of automotive gold, to be sure.
I believe the bar set (like everything else), was standard on the Eldorado Brougham. The car was famous for having no options and coming fully equipped.
I came of age during the CB craze, and can’t recall ever seeing a factory CB radio, except maybe on a dealer demo car. Everyone I knew had a hang-on underdash radio. If you had a pickup and really wanted to be authentic, you could mount the radio to the roof (like the big rigs) and have the cord dangling down obscuring your vision.
My father installed a CB in the ’82 Honda Accord for his trips between NY and Florida on Interstate 95 because he wanted to watch out for “Smokies”.
I smile every time I think about him saying that.
He put the magnetic antenna on the front hood so he would know if it fell off or was stolen.
More smiles.
Thanks! Yeah, I’d forgotten how all of the Brougham options were included (therefore not really making them “optional”).
The story that I link to in the post about how the CB went from a device used professionally by truckers into what we would now consider “viral” with the general public is really a great deep dive into how things went viral back before the Internet. It’s also just a great story about advertising.
https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring/2022/05/c-w-mccalls-convoy-became-a-trucker-protest-anthem
When I was selling Hondas the strangest OEM accessory I sold, was an outside temperature gauge.
A lady was purchasing a Honda Accord LX which didn’t come with an outside temperature gauge; The higher level EX did. I knew that it was available in the accessory catalog, so I offered to install it in the LX. It was only $100 or $200. Once installed, it showed the temp in the gauges just like the higher models and you would have no idea it didn’t come from the factory like that. The service tech that did the install was really pissed that I had sold it, because the front bumper had to come off to install the sensor.
I DIY installed one of those on my Accord LX. Worked like a champ.
Matthew, your story about the temperature gauge reminds me of the connection between accessories, trim packages, and how it’s theoretically possible to pick options a la carte if one knows enough about the car to do that. AND (this is the key, I think in many cases) one finds a sales person who is willing to do what you did for your customer.
I think that trying to figure out all of those puzzle pieces and permutations as part of the fun for me as a kid in looking at and learning about accessories.
Of course, nowadays, when we have access to a wide world of used auto parts, it’s even more fun to look for desired accessories and to consider collecting them for our current cars. Or (given the availability of funds) to at least to spend time thinking about how something like that might work.
The virtual disappearance of a la carte options is sad, but it’s just a business decision. It’s way more profitable to package a bunch of options to be installed as a unit, rather than piecemeal down an assembly line.
Ironically, Honda was a master at the options as a dealer-installed feature. I don’t know if they still do it, but Honda seemed to specifically design and engineer their vehicles with the dealer-installed accessory in mind. But, man, are they salty; the above story about the dealer-installed temperature gauge seems like something of an exception.
Really, the manufacturers are all going the route of installing virtually ‘all’ accessories in every car. The key is the customer has to pay an extra charge to ‘activate’ them. So, your stippo, base car techinally has everything already in place; they just don’t work until activated. I know for a fact that’s how it is with Chrysler radios. They all have GPS integrated into them; the customer just has to pay an exorbitant fee to get the activation code.
I think that you’re absolutely correct about the movement to “activation” options. I know that it’s just a logical extension of technology and therefore it makes no sense to rail against it; but man, it would irk me to be harassed by whoever made my car sending me messages urging me to pay to “upgrade” my car over the air…something you know will happen.
OK, I’ll go back now to yelling at kids to get off my lawn.
I love these accessories, and it was always quite a treat back in the 1980s to get my hands on an Accessories Brochure. All carmakers seemed to publish them – many of their offerings seemed neat, some cheesy, some questionable, but they were always fun to read.
The Aztek cooler is amusing. First, it did seem kind of old-school by then to feature just an ordinary cooler built into the car. But what also strikes me is the entire page you posted here from what I presume is the Aztek brochure describing just how to properly handle and manage your cooler. Can you imagine being the GM staffer tasked with writing details about how people should use an everyday… box??
I vividly recall shortly after my father bought a 1984 Plymouth Voyager, we took a trip to Pep Boys to select accessories for it (only rich and/or naive people buy accessories from the dealer, said Dad). Among his purchases was a cooler – it had a base with two cupholders, and a removable cooler box. And since it was beige/brown, it even matched the Voyager’s interior. This cooler served our family well, and almost inconceivably, I still have it. The base got lost or tossed long ago, but my wife and I still use the cooler box regularly. Whenever we use it, I think how amusing it is that this is the sole remaining keepsake from my parents’ Plymouth. I just took it out of the basement for this picture below:
Great write up. I, too, have never seen a factory CB/Stereo unit. I imagine the take rate next to none, as just a plain AM push button radio was ridiculously stupid money back then for what you got. Any wonder the aftermarket explosion of car stereo in late ’70 and ’80s?
I remember one of my friend’s parents in 1978 or 79 had a Buick LeSabre with the factory CB radio. It was the only one I ever saw, and I don’t remember them actually using the CB part.
The AM radio was often ordered just so you wouldn’t have to install an antenna and wiring harness. Later, some manufacturers offered “radio prep packages” catering to buyers who wanted an aftermarket stereo.
I’ve seen those car tents at the auto shows, but never in real life. I’m guessing the need to buy a new car and a new tent never coincided.
Those selections about how to properly use a plastic box are actually from the Aztek owner’s manual. And absolutely…I think there will ultimately be a whole article written about some of the tortured text and dire warnings that goes into owner’s manuals, and how they have changed over time. That Aztek manual, from 2001, weighed in at a hefty 433 pages. The one on my Honda (from 2015) is about the same. The one on my Volvo (from 1976) is 92 pages and mostly pictures.
My Dad said pretty much the same thing about auto accessories. If Manny, Moe and Jack (although I always thought it was “Mack”…or at least it should have been) didn’t sell it, then you probably didn’t need it anyway.
And yes, the cooler I purchased in 1979 for an ultimately aborted cross-country road trip has outlasted all of my cars, and still provides constant and consistent passive cooling services to this day. 🙂
Ha! We also have a similar vintage Igloo Playmate that originally belonged to my wife’s family. We used to bring it to our daughter’s softball games since we figured it was so durable it could take a beating.
Fun read! I’ve never been a motorhead in the way of speed and HP, etc. But I’ve always been a motorhead when it comes to any cars in general. The era I personally appreciate the most (due to my age) is the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s cars. I appreciate your story because of two things: First, there has always been something about the accessories that intrigued me too. Second and most important, I’ve always and still am a car brochure nut. There’s just something about flipping through and looking at those beautiful pictures (cars and models both!), feeling those silky pages on the thick paper and reading about the newest features. Maybe that’s why I became the dealership sales training manager when I got into sales back in 1988! Even today I still enjoy pulling some out and drifting through the pages as if I was back in those days.
Thanks! I too did love those “silky pages on the thick paper” (perfect description!). I can still smell that unique smell of whatever ink and varnish was used on that stuff. And while I guess the environment is better off with less of those things (produced and then disposed of), I mourn the loss of those brochures…and the loss of the jobs of the printers who produced them.
Jeff: I wouldn’t call myself a “tree hugger”, but I take climate change very seriously and feel it’s every one of our responsibility to do what we can to help. With that said, I sure do miss those beautiful brochures! Way WAY back (about 1989), I was working at the Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Honda store. The new models were now out and we hade just gotten the shipment of new brochures. Later that day, I noticed one of the porters with a dolly loading boxes (maybe 10 or so) and was taking them to the dumpster in back. I almost lost my mind and that day I saved as many of them as I could. Over the years, I ended up the person who took care of the ordering and disbursement of those expensive brochures. I would keep the rack full and had to make sure those pesky little kids (like I was!!) weren’t coming in and taking them by the dozens. haha. At one point I think I had about 30 boxes of brand new brochures at my house and over the years I gave them away or sold a few. Then when I moved from the mid-west to the west coast, I couldn’t justify hauling them and some ended up in the recycling bin.
Record players wouldnt work here we dont have enough smooth road and a bar wouldnt impress police at a checkpoint,
As a Former Certified Volvo 240 Nut™, I’m glad you brought up those radios and other accessories. AFAIK, no 240 arrived in the US with a radio, they were all dealer-installed. I made a fair chunk of change by junkyard-sourcing rare 240 accessories and reselling them.
I don’t know as much about other European models, but the Volvo 240 had an *incredible* amount of dealer-installed accessories available, from R-Sport performance upgrades to dog fences. You can see lots and lots of 240 accessories brochures here:
http://www.volvotips.com/index.php/240-260/volvo-240-260-brochures/
“Former”… You finally ran out of parking space?
Old Volvos being Lays potato chip of the automotive world.
Funny from the text it’s mentioned that it is a stereo cassette player, but it is only a mono recorder. Since it already had a stereo head, cost cutting the rest of that circuitry is almost as funny as the idea that its a recorder at all. I also remember that the JC Whitney catalog had a dual deck with recorder available, I’m sure of minimal quality.
I noticed that about the mono recording as well. That’s a strange thing. Although if I recall correctly, nearly all of the compact cassette recording devices that existed back then were mono.
Perfect opportunity to ask about an OEM accessory that I recall vividly but can’t find documented anywhere. Dad was a thrifty guy who bought base models with few options. But one of the handful he got on his 1965 Valiant was a gizmo called a “hook antenna.” We lived in an urban area where parking was on the street, and a standard antenna tended to get broken off as an act of random vandalism by bored teens. The hook antenna telescoped fully into the fender, with only a tiny nub sticking up. The nub had an angled hole cut into the top; the driver carried a small tool on his keychain shaped like a small hook, to extract the antenna and allow it to be fully extended before driving.
I haven’t found mention of this accessory in any period brochures or online forums – does anyone else recall this?
Excellent question…waiting for Daniel Stern to respond to this with the correct answer 🙂
I do recall the constant concern about “teens” breaking off antennas. It happened to more than one of my parents’ cars. I also recall reading a book in the late 60s that explained that what those teenagers were doing was making “zip guns” from the antennas. Naturally, that inspired a flurry of research by this 10 year old as to what a “zip gun” was, and how to make one. Not something I could find out a lot about in those pre-Internet days. Which is in retrospect probably a good thing.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1022866.Run_Baby_Run
I had a lock-down antenna on my ’74 Cortina, an aftermarket replacement for the Ford antenna (broken in an eagle strike!). You’d insert the tool which would pop the antenna up an inch or two, enabling you to grab and extend it, Same thing?
Yes, Peter, that’s exactly how it worked! I can’t say for sure that ours was truly a Chrysler OEM part or if the dealer sourced it from someplace else, but it was definitely part of the original sale (from Dursi Chrysler-Plymouth in Bronx, NY).
There were various antennas offered by Chrysler Corporation in the US and Canada as factory- or dealer-installed items or accessories, but the type you describe was not among them. Those were available in the aftermarket, and it’s entirely possible a dealer would’ve offered them, but they were not OEM items. I’ve not previously heard them called “hook antennas”; the ones that passed through my ownership over the years (I might still have a few) were packaged and promoted as “anti-theft”, “anti-vandal” or “security” antennas. The one I’m thinking about right now—might’ve been a Motorola-branded item—differed a little from this what you describe: the release tool was a little fork which, when inserted into the two slots of the antenna’s nub surround, caused the antenna to pop up a few inches under spring tension so it could be grasped and pulled the rest of the way up. To stow it, one simply pushed it all the way down into the nub until it click-locked in.
(update: Peter, thank you for confirming at least that particular sector of my memory hasn’t gone faulty)
Daniel, I consider yours to be the definitive answer. The antenna’s purpose was clearly anti-vandalism. I distinctly recall the salesman using the term “hook antenna,” so perhaps that was the proprietary name of this particular model. It wasn’t spring-loaded though, and the tool – about the size of one of those thin apartment-style mailbox keys – had a C-shaped hook at the end. The idea was that you couldn’t easily pull it out without the tool. If you had tiny fingers, like little 7-year-old me, you could extract the antenna without the tool, much to Dad’s amazement.
Well, if one wielded a house key or a toothpick just right, one could operate those security light switches they installed in gradeschool washrooms—the ones that supposedly required a special tool only given to custodians.
Anyone remember the Chrysler Visorphone from the early ’90s, a mobile car phone built into the driver’s sun visor when flipped down? Shown in this brochure, and I see these have been discussed previously elsewhere on CC too. Never seen one IRL, and the analog networks they ran on were shut down years ago so you couldn’t use it today (at least in North America or most other countries).
I’ll want to take that up in the next piece…on mobile phones.
And indeed, those networks are gone. Hence my inability to use my Motorola Bag Phone. Which was actually a much better phone than my iPhone. It sounded better. Was easier to use and overall a much less potentially distracting device. This goes to the issue of how in some cases technical advances have actually resulted in our having worse (from the users’ perspective) technology; but we consumers don’t really have any choice about that…and the vast majority of consumers don’t know or care and therefore no one protests.
I had one of those Motorola bag phones back in 1988 and recall what a hoot it was when I called in on the way to work one morning to say I was calling from my car, in a traffic jam, and would be late.
Luckily, I was able to sell it back to the local mobile phone store right before the first handheld cellular flip-phones (like the popular Motorola Star-Tec) took off.
Rode in two of those GM cars with the built in “CB”. One had the “requisite” big, business like antenna. Was a “79-80ish” Caddy, as I recall. Would a been around 1986-87.
The other was a big “Olds” , again about a “79 model.
It was being passed down to a family member from an elderly grandparent.
Not sure if the “CB” still worked at that point. ((about 1994)).
The Caddy was maroon, the Olds was gold. Remember the vinyl top on the “Olds” was cracking, pulling up form the edges.
Can’t forget the awesome VW Westy tent. Steel poles and heavy canvas with a rubberized floor. It could be set up freestanding or the back had a flap with a rubber piece on it that would slide into the driprail. Once that was done you unzipped the back for access right into the van.
Looking back several decades it is interesting to see the lack of integration of these optional devices and their controls into the dash or central control areas before they became standard or commonly ordered accessories. In the “Options and Accessories” page from the 1966 Ford brochure you see that if the car was equipped with the tape player, cruise control, and “Safety Convenience Control Panel” you would have a lot of stuff hanging below the dash in a kind of haphazard fashion. Understandable considering what a low percentage of these cars were ordered with these features at the time. At least Ford had stopped hanging a factory air conditioner unit below the dash by 1965!
The interesting thing about the “Safety Convenience Control Panel” is that it includes emergency flashers. While researching this piece, I did find a number of mentions across manufacturers of flashers being an option or accessory…which leads me to wonder if this was perhaps one of the last “options” that ultimately became mandatory.
Us old-timers can recall a time before emergency flashers when the driver’s manual recommended using the turn signals when stopped on the side of the road for an emergency (like changing a flat tire, something that has been virtually eliminated from all new vehicles, too).
Honestly, the built in microphone/ tape recorder likely had the most use as a “fart/ swear words/ funny sounds” entertainment system for kids in a vehicle before TV’s and things like that were in vehicles. I have never fully grown up, and when I saw a microphone built into a car here, you can bet that the first thing that I would do is fart into it and then play it back on the tape.
Well then, hopefully you don’t own a Tesla…where the NHTSA recently forced the removal of essentially that option for broadcasting fart sounds. 😉
My favorite form the 1989 Land Rover catalog was the cat guard. This was a mesh screen around the radiator fan shroud to keep out warmth seeking critters so that they didn’t get minced by the fan at startup. Being Land Rover you could also get a PTO fo rspecialist machinery or old school winches, various window guards etc.
Wow, that’s a good one! I wonder what about the Land Rover’s design particularly encouraged heat-seeking-critters; or why no one else offered this option.
I’ll just add that I personally could have used something like that on an Isuzu Trooper that I once owned and that resulted in one of my most ignominious automotive stories (one that I’m still not ready to tell in its entirety).
Yeah, don’t count it dead yet. Most of the automakers, especially the luxury brands, are—even as I type this—falling over themselves to offer in-car “fragrance” systems. The claim is that these will improve vehicle occupants’ moods and alertness blah blah blah, and create a brand-specific feel of exclusivity blahbitty blah blah.
I detest perfume by whatever name. Call it “fragrance” or call it “brand-exclusivity drops” or call it whatever, just keep it the hell out my car (as if there’ll be any choice in the matter).
Well, if Ford could sell you a barbecue, then Volkswagen will provide the sausages. Apparently, it’s a real product, part number 199 398 500 A!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_currywurst