Ford Ranchero
The Ford Ranchero has one of the most iconic designs in automotive history, for better or worse. Its ½ car ½ truck design makes the Ranchero a must to include on our oddly cool cars list. Car and truck drivers must have agreed as it remained in production from 1957 to 1979 selling over 500k units.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The famous 1st generation Ranchero (pictured above) was considered more of a truck than a car, with a reinforced bed, the Ranchero was sold through Ford’s truck division. Initially marketed for outdoor activities and ranching the Ranchero was heavily aimed towards farmers with the slogan: “More Than A Car! More Than A Truck!”. That slogan was fairly accurate, the Ranchero has 50 sq. feet more cargo capacity than the F-Series at the time, with the comfort of a sedan. By 1959 the Ranchero was so popular the Chevy launched the El Camino to compete with Ford. If you’re lucky you’ll still see an old Ranchero driving around in the summer, but most of these remaining car/trucks are sitting in car collections.
1959 Lincoln Continental
Source: ShutterStock
The Continental Line has been in production since 1939 as a full-sized luxury car, but in the 3rd generation the Continental grew from 2 doors to 4 doors and we had to include this model in our oddly cool cars article. This 3rd generation Continental was known for its excessive styling, with gigantic jet-aged fins & “breeze away” rear windows that retracted into the trunk.
At the time the Lincoln Continental has the largest unibody production car ever made, weighing over 5,000lbs! This boat of a car was one of the longest Continental ever produced, at 229 inches, almost 20 feet end to end! When this model of the Continental launched in 1958, drivers had another great reason to buy it, the price was dropped from $10k from the 2nd generation to $6k (approx. $50k today). Although this helped increase sales for this beauty, it came at a big loss to Lincoln as production cost was significantly more than the sales price and cost Lincoln over $60 million during its run.
Regardless of that, we still love the look of the old Continental as one of the most stylish luxury cars of its era, and there are still a handful on the road today.
