DMAGZ101986 — 030

September 4, 1957, is a day that will live in automotive infamy. E-Day, as it was touted at the time, marked the introduction of the all-new Edsel. By the time production mercifully ceased two vears later, the Edsel had been enshrined alongside the St. Louis Browns and Elmer Fudd in the pantheon of all-American losers. Conventional wisdom holds that sheer ugliness killed the Edsel. Not so. Sure, the horse-collar grille was hideous, but look at the competition; look too long at most cars of the era and you risk turning to stone. No, what killed the Edsel was its inability to meet expectations fostered by Ford’s ambitious pre-release publicity campaign.

In the Fifties, the introduction of new cars was a Big Event, widely covered by the media and eagerly awaited by the general populace. Those days, alas, are gone. Today, the unveiling of new car lines is a business-as-usual affair. And perhaps fittingly, most of the domestic offerings for 1987 are little more than updated versions of 1986 models.

The most striking-and expensive-exception is the all-new Cadillac Allante. The lovely two-seater with a price tag estimated in the $50,000 range represents the first domestic production car to compete in the “ultra-luxury market.” At the other end of the spectrum is Chrysler’s America series. With base sticker prices of $5,499, the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon are the least expensive domestically built cars on the market. Other all-new offerings for 1987 include the Pontiac Bonneville, Chrysler LeBaron coupe and convertible, Dodge Dakota 4 * 4, and the Plymouth Sundance and sister car, Dodge Shadow. Although little specific information has been released, Chevrolet also plans to introduce two all-new compacts-the two-door Beretta and four-door Corsica.

For the rest of the field, the two most popular catch phrases are “performance package” and “international styling.” The former refers to more powerful engines, many of them turbo-charged, and suspension options to upgrade performance. The latter refers to cosmetic surgery performed to produce a sleeker appearance. Perhaps most important, they both serve to distinguish your ’87 model from your neighbor’s ’86.