Mercedes ribbed tail lights! It keeps the lights visible even they’re covered in snow or dirt. That is brilliant!
Adam Ismail
aismail41
Staff Writer at Jalopnik. 2017 Fiesta ST. Wishes NASCAR was more like Daytona USA.
I came here to say this as well. LED lightbar across the entire trunk? In 2011?!? Saab was too pretty to die. Thanks, GM. Read more
Good one. It did the LED heckblende long before it was fashionable:
Yep, though at least in the U.S. the V60 didn’t arrive until much later.
Choosing between which faceless bureaucratic monstrosity has complete access to my life was how I wound up with an iPhone. I started having to work directly with Google and came to the realization that I wanted to dump my Pixel phone ASAP. I mean they have access to everything else... do I want them to have my… Read more
2nd on the Cadillac clear tails of the 1960's. I thought they were magical when I was growing up. Really available a short time. By 1969 they were gone. My mom’s 68 Sedan deVille had them and I took them apart to see how they worked. Simple but very smart. Others tried to copy this but not as successfully (68… Read more
Infiniti J30
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The Edsel. It is the first car I can think of that encompassed two pieces of body panel (quarter & truck) with the look of one lens. Very popular now, but in the 50's, they were mostly vertical, or sometimes weirdly, in the bumper.
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1962 Cadillac
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Everyone in Brazil then knew what was a “Lanterna Altezza”, even the ones who didn’t knew what was a taillight Read more
This is going to sound weird, but I’d like to think the gen1 XC60 somewhat previewed everyone’s race toward developing those ‘frosted’ style LED taillight signatures when it came out in 2008:
1971-78 Oldsmobile Toronado with their ancillary tail lights mounted at ‘eye level’ at the base of the rear window. These predated the government mandated CHMSL by more than a decade.
I nominate the last few years of the Lincoln Mark VII. That full width neon across the back end was very futuristic looking. The technology of using neon didn’t last, LEDs took that mantle... but it sure did look amazing.
The clear taillight covers on the late 90's and early ‘aughts Toyota Altezza/Lexus IS300, from which the “Altezza” style derived it’s name. It ended up making it’s way into everything from the Impreza hatchback to the 4th gen Altima (which is actually one of my favorite interpretations of this style, despite it…
Late 60's Mercury Cougar with those sweet sequential turn signals that are now commonplace on mustangs:
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