Image by canadiancatgreen at the Cohort.
Cohort Pic(k) Of The Day: The Corvair And The SUV – A Study In Contrasts
– Posted on July 21, 2023
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Curbside Classics Archives
Image by canadiancatgreen at the Cohort.
Both have 4 wheels, but that’s about it. I’d rather drive the Corvair but I’d rather crash the giant SUV.
Nice Ford pickup in the background too, and I wonder what’s in the fabric garage.
The Corvair was a compact and it’s just as long as that full-size SUV it’s next to. Modern vehicles got shorter but taller than the old 1960s mantra of longer, lower, wider.
I’m looking at that gray car too. Not sure it’s a”Hudson” though.
Or maybe a 60s Volvo P444 or P544?
Looks like a dead ringer for a Mark II Jaguar
The gray car is a Hudson. No doubt here. I remember them well. No doubt. Nice to see a Corvair sedan. They were as striking as my other model but got not much credit.
The Corvair was a compact and it’s just as long as that full-size SUV it’s next to.
Hardly. The Kia Carnival is 203″ long; the Corvair is 180″ long. Maybe spend 30 seconds on a Google search before you make statements of “fact”?
That’s just a trick of the eye due to the camera and perspective. I knew that they couldn’t be the same length, though the photo sure makes it look that way. I drove my Dad’s old Monza coupe many times.
There also is what appears to be a Hudson. Just the tip of its tail can be seen next to the tree.
Came in to say something similar but less accurate about the cars in the background.
Almost as if the SUVs have come from the future to meet the Corvair et al
Corvair was exceptionally low, at least in appearance, even compared to its competition, Falcon, Valiant or especially VW.
Even that ’67 F-250 is lower than the modern SUV’s.
I believe the 1st-generation Corvair was only about 51 inches tall — very low for a coupe or sedan. For comparison, a ’57 Chevy was 60 inches tall, and my 2015 Toyota Camry Hybrid stands 58 in. tall.
The Corvair was nothing more than a rear-engined Tempest, F-85 and Skylark. All of the latter three morphed into intermediates.
Falcon’s and Valiant’s competitor was the Chevy II
The Corvair was nothing more than a rear-engined Tempest, F-85 and Skylark.
You’ve got that backwards. The Tempest, F-85 and Special were front engine Corvairs, sort-of, more or less. The Corvair came first; Buick, Olds and Pontiac then took its basic body shell and turned it into a front engine RWD compact.
And the Corvair was very much a direct competitor to the Falcon and Valiant in 1960-1961, and then still somewhat so after the Chevy II came along in 1962.
Looking at different sources it appears that the gen 1 Corvair was between 51.1-51.5″ tall. The 1st gen Subaru BRZ/Scion FRS/Toyota 86 was 50.6″ and the 2nd gen is 51.6″ tall. All of them super low and all with horizontally-opposed engines to take advantage of the low center of gravity. While most older cars from the early 60’s drive like…older cars, the Corvair with the low center of gravity, 4 wheel independent suspension and the naturally rear-biased braking drives more like a modern vehicle than most people would suspect. And the Porsche-like growl from the engine just adds to the fun!
Nobody’s noticed yet that that’s actually a Kia Carnival minivan? I guess Kia’s gamble worked!
It’s a minivan. Kia Carnival, to be specific.
That’s exactly what I already said…
Sorry, I accidentally replied to your comment instead of starting my own chain.
GM tried the same thing with their U-vans (Chevrolet Uplander), they attempted to make a minivan look like an SUV by grafting on a long nose. It didn’t work, but years later Kia attempted this again. Although I’m not sure combining a SUV and a minivan is a good idea to start with.
It’s a way to sell a few more minivans, maybe, in a generally shrinking minivan market. Chrysler was the minivan leader and dropped shorty minivans for smaller SUV flavored vehicles. The Pacifica was a dud, but Chrysler read the market correctly: Minivans were over.
Wasn’t the extended nose on the GM U-vans also a reaction to abysmal crash test results for the originals?
Just a style change. The Trans Sport / Dustbuster didn’t have much long term appeal in the US.
GM kept building Dustbusters in the US for export markets that liked it.
Came here to say the same thing. My last rental car was a Carnival. First time I’d seen one. Perfectly satisfactory experience.
Seemed a little short in relation to the Corvair to be a Suburban.
At 203″, it is the longest Kia, longer than their largest SUV – the Telluride.
I would call it a “crossover” between minivan and SUV.
Kia desperately hopes everyone sees it that way, because there’s a huge market for crossovers, and a tiny market for minivans.
The Carnival lacks a few things I expect a minivan to have – folding or removable 2nd row seats, access between the two front-row seats, and walk-through access between the 1st and 2nd rows. The Carnival (and recent Siennas) have a huge console rather than the open space between the front and 2nd row seats. Really, it’s a CUV with sliding doors more than a real van.
In fairness the Corvair is covering the parts where being a minivan looks most obvious.
I figured commenters would direct me to which model stood behind the Corvair. While Kia is a popular brand where I live, the Carnival is not locally available, and I couldn’t place the model at all while getting this post ready. I searched online and Google Lensed the image, but nothing could help identify that generic backside.
I now see that Kia refers to it as an MPV. But as another commenter said, in the shot the Corvair hides away the section where the minivan styling is most obvious.
My Dad was one garage short of his fleet back when he had two Corvairs and I let them put one in my garage. At the time my ride was a black 1992 Mercury Capri turbo (I need to step up and do a COAL) and, for sure, there’s compact way back when, and compact circa 1995, and compact now with my Miata RF.
I housed the 1964 Spyder Turbo. He’d acquired it in the early 80s with the proceeds from buying a 62 Monza that was “sitting in that one guy in the neighborhood’s front yard for way too long” and adding some Corvair Sorcery (non Dad’s first) and a couple trips south to TJ for paint and upholstery. Supposedly it was the reason why I was never taught to drive a standard; but the Capri was where I decided “I’m gonna learn, or I’m gonna walk!!” The day he sold it he finally let me drive it the 8 or so miles to their house and I felt like I was sitting on top of my car, the springs were softer than any car I’d owned, and the weight distribution felt about 90/10.
I like that Corvair sedan very much .
-Nate
I came across a similar setting in the parking lot of a show I attended about a month ago. I expected the big Ford Expedition to dwarf the Corvair. I did not expect the Hyundai sedan to do so.
I dont know what model Hyundai, but I suspect Sonata, which is in the same class as Camry/Accord, full-size by today’s standards. What did an Impala look like parked next to a Corvair? Probably not that tall, but certainly wide.