International Aspirations
It’s 1959. You’re a corporate executive or professional with a comfortable income and a taste for the finer things in life, and you want a new four-door sedan. America’s automotive market includes a wide range of six-passenger four-doors offering eye-catching style, stretch-out room, V-8 torque, and the casual driving ease of a soft suspension and fully automatic transmission. While you likely could stretch to purchase a premium-priced Cadillac, Imperial, or Lincoln, you could readily park a top-of-the-line Mercury, Oldsmobile, or Buick in your drive. All those companies build fine cars, but you’d prefer something altogether different — you want your next automobile to express tasteful restraint in its size and styling, to exhibit up-to-date engineering, and offer refined performance that connects you to the road, rather than isolating you from it. Where do you look to satisfy these unusual predilections? For the more adventurous consumer like yourself, the answer comes from across the Atlantic.
Exports to America were of utmost importance to British and continental European automakers in this postwar era, and buyers willing to spend more than $4,000 — representing around $35,250 today, when a contemporary standard Chevrolet or Ford could be bought for little over half that amount — had numerous options. Outside of the plentiful domestic choices, there were sophisticated imports hailing from England, France, Germany, and Italy. Among the better-established on these shores were the prestige marques of Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, and incidentally, both had recently introduced mid-sized sedans that combined technically advanced construction methods, premium material quality, and adroit handling.
