Weird and wonderful car feature names | Axon's Automotive Anorak

Led by the Detroit “Big Three” – General Motors [GM], Ford and Chrysler – the American car companies frequently applied corny marketing catch phrases to help sell their latest technical gadgets and novelties. Take the first, modern post-war Fords as a typical example of the marketing hype so commonly used in the era.

The then-revolutionary 1949 Ford Sedans featured ‘Picture Window’ visibility, for example, with a ‘Deep Deck’ luggage locker, ’Magic Air’ temperature control interior heating/ventilation, ‘Magic Action’ king-size brakes, allied to a ‘Mid-ship’ Automatic Ride Control, courtesy of an all-new chassis, aided by ‘Sofa-Wide’ seats and the ‘Mileage Maker’ six-cylinder engine.

By 1951 the moderately revised ’49 Ford, now named the Deluxe Sedan, was upgraded as standard with a ’Magic Lift Lid’ – a key release trunk (boot) latch – along with ‘Touch-O-Matic’ overdrive transmission, ‘Luxury Lounge’ colour-coded interiors and ’Tell Tale’ rear lights. Ford added ‘Lifeguard’ safety design features for 1956 on, with a dished ‘lifeguard’ steering wheel, optional dashboard padding and front seat safety belts.

Ford’s mid-range American Mercury brand was inevitably also equally prone to using tacky marketing terms for its many features. Just as Ford offered its optional Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission from 1952-onwards, for example, Mercury predictably had Merc-O-Matic, (later rebranded as Multi-Drive) for its own automatic gearbox. Ford’s disastrous and short-lived Edsel employed ‘Teletouch Drive’ for its one-touch automatic gear selection button, located in the centre of the large steering wheel.

Mercury also offered ‘Merc-O-Therm’ flow-through interior ventilation systems from the 1950s, plus ‘Econ-O-Miser’ carburation. The cringe-worthy ‘Safe-T-Vue’ name was used to describe Mercury’s instruments gauges, grouped under a single plexiglass panel, with Ford using ‘Safety-Glow’ for its similar feature.

For 1951, Mercury added new, more comfortable ‘Sea-Leg’ rear shock absorbers. Plus ‘Sea Tint’ tinted glass and a new ‘Monopane' curved single windscreen came for 1952, with a retractable ‘Breezeway’ rear window added for 1957. By the 1980s Mercury was still at it, with optional ‘WoodTone’ fake wood stick on body panel decals and improved ‘Liftgate’ tailgates for its station wagon models. ‘Laser Lightbar’ wrap-around headlamps first appeared for its 1986 Sabre sedan, and Mercury’s premium Lincoln partner added a ‘Carriage Roof’ padded vinyl roof option for its models, plus standard ’Turbo-Drive’ automatic transmission.

Ford’s larger arch rival, GM, with its multitude of North American brand names, was just as effective as concocting cheesy marketing names for many of its vehicle features. Automatic transmission was known as ‘HydraMatic’ for its mid-range Oldsmobile and top-ranking Cadillac brands, for example, as also sold to (and used by) competitors Hudson/AMC, and even Lincoln for a brief time.

GM sibling Buick named its own automatic transmission ‘Dynaflow,’ with ‘Powerglide’ serving the higher-volume Chevrolet make and the more sporting Pontiac featuring ‘Strato-Flight.’ By the 1960s Oldsmobile also used its improved ‘Jetaway DynaMatic’ two- and three-speed automatics. 

For its extensive engine programme (or ‘Power Team’ as Buick branded these), GM’s Chevrolet named its early six-cylinder Corvette motors ‘Blue Flame,’ with ‘Strato-Streak’ being Pontiac’s big-bore V8, with Oldsmobile featuring Rocket 88/98 engines. Buick named its famous straight eight engines ‘Fireball’ and Cadillac went on to call its later acclaimed V8 motors ‘Northstar.’

Chevrolet’s early 1950s model wore a wide chromed grille, marketed as a ‘Fashion-Front’ grille, along with ‘Reflector Guard’ tail lights incorporated into the blobs red wings (fenders) and a clearer ‘SafetySight’ dash. Later Chevy’s could be specified with the ‘Touch Down’ overdrive gearbox, often mated to a 265-cid ‘Turbo-Fire’ V8 motor. A ‘Sweep Sight’ wraparound windscreen debuted in the late 1950s, and ‘Positraction’ with 3:31:1 axle ratio chassis control appeared in the 1960s, when ‘Sintered’ metallic brakes also first became available.

In 1955 Buicks were given a ‘Wide Screen’ chromed front grille, with 1980s Buick station wagons offered with a ‘Swing Away’ side opening tailgate. One rung up for Buick, Cadillac came with a very long list of corny-named features and options, from a groan-inducing premium ‘Symphony Sound’ audio system, ‘Twilight Sentinel’ automatic lighting system, ‘Custom Cruise’ cruise control, and ‘Knife Edge’ styling, for the second-generation Cadillac Seville, which featured a classic traditional British-style sweep away rear end, a la coachbuilt Bentleys and Rolls-Royces, plus the Daimler DS420 Limousine, etc

GM’s now-defunct Oldsmobile featured ‘Pedal-Ease’ power-assisted brakes, plus ‘Air Scoop’ flanged brake drums for improved cooling ahead of this.’GuideMatic’ automatically illuminated the car’s lights when required and the personal coupe Olds Toronado had the added cost option of an ‘Astro Roof,’this being an electric sliding sunshine roof. Pontiac had ‘Comfort Control’ for its six-way adjustable front seats, plus ‘Safe-T-Track’ for its non-skid differential in its trend-setting mid-60s ‘Wide-Track’ GTO muscle car, along with a ‘Ram-Air’ induction system, ‘QuadraJet’ four-barrel carburettor, to replace its earlier ‘Tri-Power’ setup, and ‘Command Control,’ an in-car computer.

Despite being the smallest of the main Detroit trio of car makers, the Chrysler Corporation was no less innovative or inventive when it came to thinking up novel marketing names for its clever introductions. Chrysler pioneered adventures design when it appointed far out designer Virgil Exner in the mid 1950s. Exner introduced Chrysler’s distinctive ‘Forward Look’ design language, with its Dart Line styling for 1957, followed by Dodge’s extravagant Step Wing agitation-inspired styling for 1958. His daring ‘Control Tower Vision’ double compound, triple curve windscreen made its debut in the same year.

Chrysler also gave it extensive engines programme a set of memorable names, including its famous ‘Hemi’ V8, as later used in a number of desirable European luxury performance machines, such as the exotic Swiss Monteverdi GTs and the very British Jensen and Bristols. Chrysler also marketed its engines under the ‘PowerMaster’ tag for its six-cylinder motors, Dodge’s ‘Red Ram’ V8, the Plymouth ‘Power Pak’ V8, the Golden ‘Commando’ engine with ‘Electrojector’ fuel injection, and the ‘Hy-Fire’ V8, plus the Plymouth SonoRamic 383, these often being mated to Chrysler’s well known TorqueFlite automatics. It also offered a ‘Tip Toe’ hydraulic gear shift, plus ‘Fluid Drive’ automatic with ‘Giro-Drive’ for Dodge. Reassuringly, Chrysler also sold ‘Total Contact’ brakes, a comfortable ride ‘TorsionAir’ chassis, ‘Auto Pilot’ cruise control, with ‘Super Soft Cushion’ tyres for its range-topping Cadillac-rivalling Imperial models.

Not to be out done, the USA’s few independent automobile producers were not averse to adopting tacky marketing ‘handles’ for some of its automotive features. ‘Weather Eye’ was an early form of air conditioning, offered by Nash, with ‘SuperMatic’ being a Hudson semi-automatic option. This became the ‘Flash-Away’ HydraMatic system, with the ultimate Nash and Hudson custodian - AMC - later offered its ‘Flight-O-Matic' automatic transmission for its Rambler brand. This evolved into AMC’s ‘Select Drive’ 4WD system for the Eagle off-roaders. The Hudson Hornet, which found fame in the Dreamwork's Cars movie franchise as Lightening McQueen, was famous for its innovative ‘Step Down’ styling, the Hornet also being powered by Hudson’s ‘Miracle H-Power’ engine, (plus its pioneering ‘Airliner’ reclining seat backs). AMC also inherited Rambler’s ‘Torque-Flo’ V8 motor.

The Mad Men would have doubtless of had a field day dreaming up these cheesy marketing terms for the USA and its vast automobile industry in the latter half of the 20th Century. Thankfully these days with considerably safer and better equipped cars, we don’t have to rely on configuring groan-inducing catch-phrased marketed features on such as ‘Total Contact’ brakes or ‘Flight-O-Matic’ transmissions when ‘building’ our dream specification car on the makers website. Now, that’s what I call progress…