Riviera, Thunderbird, Eldorado, Toronado, Or GT Hawk: Which 1960s Personal Luxury Coupe Is *Your* Favorite?

Almost every car fanatic, no matter how many cars they own, has a favorite genre of collector car. Maybe it’s the big prewar classics, or the pony cars of the 1960s, or JDM cars of the 1990s. Mine has long been American personal-luxury coupes of the 1960s. I’ve collected images of the big names, but I’ll leave out the full-size bucket seat models such as the beautiful Pontiac Grand Prix or the Chrysler 300; to count for this list, the basic body can’t be shared with anything else in the model lineup. So, which American personal-luxury coupe is your favorite?

1963-65 Buick Riviera

I’ll start not only alphabetically by make but with my personal favorite car, the 1963-65 Buick Riviera. This is my ’63 street-parked on a date night with my wife, and nobody will ever convince me that it isn’t the best-looking American car of the 1960s. It took me too long to buy one (I got mine in 2022), and it’s still one of my “rightest” decisions, even though I had to put in a metric ton of garage hours to get it reliable. While many prefer the clean grille and clamshell headlights of the 1965 Riviera, I have long preferred the rear-end treatment and, yes, the exposed headlights of the 1963-64 cars. Bonus for me? The 1963 Riviera is a little less expensive than the others because nobody wants a Dynaflow (Turbine Drive) transmission. It’s not that bad, folks…the big 401 up front has more than enough power to pull a torque-converter gearbox, and besides, just look at the thing. I do often.

1966-69 Buick Riviera

Because the first-generation Riviera was (and is) almost universally admired, a lot of people forget that the second-generation Riviera (1966-70) is not only more modern but within a coin flip of being just as attractive. It’s hard to argue that the new-for-1966 body wasn’t the smoothest of the E-body trio, but stylist David Holls’s design carried over the Riviera’s front “W” motif in a way that made the car look not only like a Riviera but also completely fresh and new. The lines were still creased yet softer, and the hidden headlights from the 1965 cars were updated to fit the grille’s horizontal themes. I’ve pictured the 1966 model above because while the 1968-69 cars are very attractive, most enthusiasts feel that the heavier front bumpers ruined some of the litheness of the 1966-67 cars. The 1970 Riviera is and always will be polarizing: They look pretty good in the flesh, but pictures don’t seem to flatter their heavier rear styling. No matter—they’re not 1960s cars anyway.

1967-69 Cadillac Eldorado

The 1967 (to 1970) Eldorado was Cadillac’s first crack at a personal-luxury coupe, and as most CC readers know, it shared front-wheel-drive components with the Oldsmobile Toronado. While the Toronado was aggressive and sleek, the Eldorado wore a formal cut, with Bill Mitchell’s favored creases channeled through designer Chuck Jordan’s eye. If the Eldorado isn’t on your list of prettiest Cadillacs, it’s like saying the Beatles are overrated; everyone will immediately think you’re being unnecessarily controversial for the sake of iconoclasm. The big debate is whether the 1967 or 1968 looks best; many prefer the 1968 model’s fender-cap-mounted parking lights rather than the bumper-mounted affairs on the 1967. Unlike the Riviera and Toronado, whose post-1967 editions perhaps lost a bit of their luster, the 1969 and 1970 Eldorados with their exposed headlights were nearly as sharp as the originals.

1960 Ford Thunderbird

It’s generally accepted that the four-seat Thunderbird founded the personal-luxury-coupe category in 1958, and the Squarebird (1958-60) sold spectacularly well, even though its styling is perhaps among the least universally loved of this whole group (save for the 1967-69 Thunderbird). Be that as it may, it looked great for its time, and more importantly, it was comparatively small for a luxury car at 205.3 inches. The best styling was saved for the interior, whose high console and plush bucket seats were only matched by the space-age dashboard. Ford sold over 90,000 T-Birds in 1960, a staggering number that set the standard right at the start of the 1960s for the personal-luxury field.

1961-63 Ford Thunderbird

Next came the third-generation 1961-63 “Bullet Bird,” which should have picked up where the Squarebird left off, but somehow, sales never quite lived up to that tremendously successful 1960 model year. Today, however, this generation is widely considered one of Thunderbird’s best. My 1963 T-Bird is pictured above, and while several cars on this list top my glitzy Ford in my personal esteem, I’ve long held an affinity for this styling cycle; it’s my favorite Thunderbird, although another specific T-Bird (see below) is climbing the charts. If you want a Bullet Bird, it’s a good time to buy the best one you can afford; they are almost criminally underpriced in the collector car market, especially coupes. But as you might have figured out from my experiences with this car (if you’ve kept up with them here on CC), the 1961-63 cars are no fun at all to work on. Still, they look great, ride very well, and have some of the best interiors in automotive history, even if they are a bit lethargic when it comes to accelerating, turning, and stopping.

1964-66 Ford Thunderbird

The fourth-generation “Flairbird,” which ran from 1964 through 1966, brought back some of the Squarebird’s sales success, and my personal favorite of the bunch is this 1965 Special Landau painted in Ford’s beautiful Emberglo Acrylic Enamel paint. Underneath, the Flair Bird was little changed from the previous generation, but its squared-off styling fit the mid-1960s zeitgeist a little better than the Bullet Bird did. Also, the interior might be Ford’s best ever, especially considering the coved rear seat and aircraft controls on the dashboard (and the 1965 model got Ford’s excellent front disc brakes as standard equipment). This Special Landau sold on Bring a Trailer for a ridiculously low $11,750 back in 2022, and when that happened, I immediately wished I could have a do-over in buying my 1963 T-Bird. While I still like the styling of the 1963 model better, this particular car is very close. I’m still envious of whoever ended up with it.

1967-69 Ford Thunderbird

Perhaps the most misunderstood car on this list is the fifth-generation “Glamour Bird,” which was in production from 1967 through 1971. This 1967 Four-Door Landau might be a big reason for that, as it’s not a personal-luxury coupe at all; however, the styling of all models is not uniformly appreciated among fans of this type of car. The fifth-generation T-Bird reverted to a separate body-on-frame design based on the Galaxie, but it still maintained a much nicer interior than most other Fords, in addition to styling that looked like nothing else on the dealer lot. In my opinion, Ford lost the plot a little after 1966, but this particular Landau that I spotted on the side of the road a few years ago changed my mind a bit, and I’ve softened on the styling over the years. Furthermore, sales were fairly strong, at least for 1967 and 1968, but I’d be surprised if this car got the most votes.

1966-69 Oldsmobile Toronado

My vote for second-best personal-luxury coupe is the first-generation Oldsmobile Toronado, the 1966-67 models in particular. In total, I’m certain I’ve spent days of my life ogling these Oldsmobiles, fascinated by every surface detail. The 1968 and the 1969 cars still looked good, but they gained GM’s aggressive chrome front bumper that stylists latched onto in the late 1960s. The 1969 Toronado also lost those unique shoulder-less quarter panels of the earlier cars, so it loses marks for that in my notes. We’ve said a lot about the Toronado over the years here on CC, and the general consensus is that its main selling point is its completely unique styling, as the front-wheel drive layout was not dynamically a game-changer (although it undoubtedly helped in snow and ice). Like most of the other cars in its field, it is big and inefficient, but a lot of artwork is.

1962-64 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk

The final entry on our list of 1960s personal luxury coupes is the Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk, which was produced in fairly limited numbers from 1962 through 1964. This is my bronze medalist, and it’s in a virtual dead-heat with the Toronado for silver. The famous Loewy styling of 1953 barely shows through in this startlingly successful update by Brooks Stevens; it looks right at home as a 1960s piece of industrial design. Being a little shorter and narrower than the rest of the field helps in terms of maneuverability and storage ease, which might sway my high opinion of it as well. Although the original 1953 coupe is a knockout, this is my favorite Studebaker. I’ll take any of the 289s with a four-speed, please.

There you have it. We’ve presented nine 1960s personal-luxury coupes for your consideration:

• 1963-65 Buick Riviera
• 1966-69 Buick Riviera
• 1967-69 Cadillac Eldorado
• 1960 Ford Thunderbird
• 1961-63 Ford Thunderbird
• 1964-66 Ford Thunderbird
• 1967-69 Ford Thunderbird
• 1966-69 Oldsmobile Toronado
• 1962-64 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk

I like them all (with some reservations about the Glamour Bird), but which one of these glamorous coupes, from an era we’ll never see again, do you like best?

Related Reading

1963 Buick Riviera: All The Maintenance The Factory Recommended (And My Modern Maintenance Schedule) (by me)

CC Outtake: 1967 Buick Riviera GS – Stunning (by Don Andreina)

Vintage Car Life Review: 1967 Cadillac Eldorado – “A Classic Made In A Modern Manner” (by Aaron Severson)

1960 Ford Thunderbird: The Last T-Bird Until 1983 With A Stick-Shift (by me)

Deciphering The Build Sheets Of A 1960s Ford Thunderbird And Lincoln Continental (by me)

Car Show Classic: 1965 Ford Thunderbird Special Landau – What Might Have Been (by me)

Curbside Classic: 1967 Ford Thunderbird Landau – Am I Mellowing With Age? (by me)

1966 Oldsmobile Toronados In (Almost) Every Color: A Masterpiece In Any Tone (by me)

1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk: A Supercharged Example Of One Of Studebaker’s Most Elegant Cars (by me)