The most stylish "Cadillac of washers"?

[qsd-dan]

When mentioning Cadillac, I'm assuming it's referred to cutting edge styling with glamourous touches.

I'd say Frigidaire had that down from 1958-late 1960's. Like their autos, GM had styling down to a perfection from 1959- mid 1960's era (appliance styling held through to 1969, a bit longer than their autos). Everything they built styling wise was just bloody magical. I hope those in the styling and engineering departments were handsomely compensated during that time.

Late 50's TOL Whirlpools had a very nice cutting edge, elegant look to them. Whirlpool also had many features that others didn't at the time.

Late 50's- early 60's TOL Norge and GE has some beautiful consoles, even with unique automatic dispensers.

For the running gear, I'd say Maytag had that one down pat. Smooth, quiet, elegant. A very good suspension when properly adjusted, lubed, and working as intended. Reliability wise, I'd put that into the late 90's era Toyota category. Much more reliable than any Cadillac!

 

[agiflow]

The thing is Cadillacs can be fixed and keep running.... How many Toyotas are still on the road from the 1970s ?

 

[qsd-dan]

The thing is Cadillacs can be fixed and keep running.... How many Toyotas are still on the road from the 1970s ?

Well, I mentioned 90's era Toyota, not 70's. I've seen more 70's Toyotas (mid and especially late 70's) on the road driving around (not at car shows, actually driving around) than mid-late 70's Cadillacs. The 70's, particularly mid and late 70's, were not good to GM and that definitely includes Cadillac. Things got significantly worse in the 1980's. Parts were already getting hard to find for 70's Cadillacs by the 90's, not sure how one is "fixing them up" besides really basic parts like tune-up and water pump/fuel pump/alternator etc. It's not a Chevy/Ford truck.

I'd say there's probably more 70's Toyotas on the road in saltless areas than 1-18's pulsing away in laundry rooms.

 

[maytag85]

The thing is Cadillacs can be fixed and keep running.... How many Toyotas are still on the road from the 1970s ?

Well, I mentioned 90's era Toyota, not 70's. I've seen more 70's Toyotas (mid and especially late 70's) on the road driving around (not at car shows, actually driving around) than mid-late 70's Cadillacs. The 70's, particularly mid and late 70's, were not good to GM and that definitely includes Cadillac. Things got significantly worse in the 1980's. Parts were already getting hard to find for 70's Cadillacs by the 90's, not sure how one is "fixing them up" besides really basic parts like tune-up and water pump/fuel pump/alternator etc. It's not a Chevy/Ford truck.

I'd say there's probably more 70's Toyotas on the road in saltless areas than 1-18's pulsing away in laundry rooms.

The 1970’s were not a good era for GM or Chrysler. I’ve never seen a 1971 to 1976 Chevy Impala in person, let alone one from 1974/1975. Haven’t seen many Chrysler cars on the road from that era either. I’ve seen far more Fords from that time period on the road in the 2000’s and early 2010’s, my guess is it probably had to do with Ford putting their cars together with more care and stringent quality control around this time. Ford even had a commercial in the 1970’s that went along the lines of “The closer you look, the better we look” which pointed out how the body panels lined up and such.

Then again, the 1971 to 1976 GM cars weren’t very good since GM was cutting costs with that particular generation. A Ford LTD from 1972 essentially was a late 60’s car that was warmed over (that particular body shell dates back to 1969, easier to tell with Mercury Marquis made from 1969 to 1972), probably explains why they were still built pretty well around that time. In 1973, they were re-designed from the floor pan for the 5 mph bumpers but still were in the same mechanically.

Some Fords from the 1970’s are like cockroaches, they refuse to die and are impossible to kill.

 

[qsd-dan]

Ford wasn't immune to obsolete parts. I had to scour the junkyards in 1996 or 1997 for a working choke pull off for my grandparents 1982 Lincoln Towncar 'cause Ford in their infinite wisdom discontinued it around 1995. That was kind of a high failure part, too. If I remember correctly, this design was used until 1985. It's kind of a big deal not having a choke and fast idle during the winter months in Reno, Nevada. Using a choke and fast idle setup on a EFI design was pretty laughable, I didn't belive until I saw it. Of course, I was laughing at GM still using throttle body EFI in 1995 when I rasied teh hood on a '95 Chevy truck. Everybody else was using multiport FI for around 10 years. Then there was GM still using a fucking carburetor on their TOL Cadillacs in 1989

My buddy went to the Ford dealership in 1997 looking for a headlight vacuum motor for his 1979 Lincoln Continental. The parts department laughed him right out the door. Finding most of the gazillion vacuum motors for 70's GM or Ford luxury products hasn't been an easy task for nearly 30 years. Keeping 70's luxury cars on the road hasn't been a walk in the park for over 3 decades.

Edit: I forget to mention the Autolite 4300 and 4350 carbs. Those were definitely not good designs and angered many owners. The 4100 was a pretty good design though.

 

[frigilux]

Oh yes the '61 top of the line Hotpoint automatics should also be included in the running!View attachment 315756

I’d have to go with the ‘59-‘60 push button Kenmores. The 1961 Hotpoint shown is also gorgeous.
Sears really did set the foundation in terms of styling and pushing the boundaries for technology and learning what customers would tolerate. I'd tend to agree with Robert, but these certainly are a close second. View attachment 315598

 

[combo52]

If you’re talking about automobile longevity from the 60s through 2000 Chrysler would be a hands-down winner.

Chrysler had much more repairable automobiles and much more enthusiastic owners as a group and the other US makers.

Come to Carlisle Pennsylvania for the hundredth anniversary Chrysler show This July it’s being held on my birthday around July 11.

Normally, this show draws more than 10,000 people and thousands of Chrysler automobiles.

Throughout the 60s and 70s Chrysler made nearly all of the police cars in this region all of the taxi cabs from New York through Atlanta Their cars were just more rugged.

Even consumer reports found this out when they did an article many years ago about how to keep your car for over 100,000 miles and they commented that there was a disproportionately high percentage of Chrysler products among owners who had managed to keep their cars more than 10 years and over 100,000 miles.

John L

 

[gansky1]

GE deserves a mention, they always made my heart flutter a little..

 

[agiflow]

The GE timeline from the mid-60s is one of the more beautiful GE washers. Their top of the line machines weren't too shabby.

 

[bajaespuma]

If the 1957 Frigidaire Imperial Control Towers aren't displayed in MOMA, somebody's asleep at the wheel.

One of my many choices for runners up would be the other Automobile company's Philco "juke-box" washing machine that I saw in the display window of Bloom and Krup in the late sixties. I understand that this wasn't a champ in either performance or reliability, but it was an attention-grabber. And its insides were as jazzy as its outside.

If the 1957 Frigidaire Imperial Control Towers deserve a display at MOMA, the Philcos deserve a nook at Graceland.

 

[bajaespuma]

and thank you Greg! I'm glad somebody else said it... and that beautiful pink GE kitchen just screams Fred and Ethel Mertz.

 

[cadman]

The 1970’s were not a good era for GM or Chrysler. I’ve never seen a 1971 to 1976 Chevy Impala in person, let alone one from 1974/1975. Haven’t seen many Chrysler cars on the road from that era either. I’ve seen far more Fords from that time period on the road in the 2000’s and early 2010’s, my guess is it probably had to do with Ford putting their cars together with more care and stringent quality control around this time. Ford even had a commercial in the 1970’s that went along the lines of “The closer you look, the better we look” which pointed out how the body panels lined up and such.

Then again, the 1971 to 1976 GM cars weren’t very good since GM was cutting costs with that particular generation. A Ford LTD from 1972 essentially was a late 60’s car that was warmed over (that particular body shell dates back to 1969, easier to tell with Mercury Marquis made from 1969 to 1972), probably explains why they were still built pretty well around that time. In 1973, they were re-designed from the floor pan for the 5 mph bumpers but still were in the same mechanically.

Some Fords from the 1970’s are like cockroaches, they refuse to die and are impossible to kill.

*Some* 1971-1976 GM cars weren't very good, but the Cadillacs were an exception, in fact I'd put them up against a 90's Toyota any day (just ignore those panel gaps). While the rust-proofing was middling, they seemed to have outlasted the Corollas in the rust belt. The 1968-1979 drivetrains were right up there with 2JZ's. High nickel content & THM-400/425 trans', good for 200k-300k of abuse. Thirsty? You betcha. (How many gallons in that 806?) 5 MPH bumpers? Oh yeah. Dead reliable, but easy to service when the time came? Yes. Parts were (and still are) cheap. And there's still a ton out there for sale being passed down from 3rd, 4th, 5th owners being bought by folks who have no idea what they're doing. Sounds like a Maytag to me.

Now, are they as stylish as the 50's/60's models that this thread leans towards? Well, erm, not exactly. But then neither was an LTD II.

A '60 Frigidaire Control Tower set? That's a 1960 CdV all day long.