25th Apr 2016, 02:46
The Cutlass sedans from '80 - '87 were good sellers. Higher sales than any of the import brands you mentioned. I remember seeing them all over the place. It's not like they were bad cars either. We had an '81 with close to 300,000 miles. Even today you see a few here and there. So what if they had column shifters, the bench seats (especially in the Brougham) were very comfortable and vinyl tops with opera lamps gave them a formal look... Opinions vary I guess.
25th Apr 2016, 18:12
A shifter belongs on the floor by the transmission; the US was really the only country to hang onto this gimmicky ridiculous fad for decades and decades. Almost no one rides 6 to a big sedan anymore. Some reasons column shifters and bench seats have been done away with:
To comply with safety and crash test ratings. It is more expensive to manufacture lap/shoulder restraint systems for a third center passenger in front.
Bucket seats, when bolstered properly, are far more comfortable than bench. The "lazy boy couch" mentality of "oh I'm so comfortable I'm sitting on pillows riding in my underpowered 1983 cadillac" is actually quite bad for your back and posture. Buckets that are not too firm but still supportive will keep you much more alert and less fatigued.
Modern technology. Some people bring electronic gadgets just to go shopping, they need room to plug them in. A third passenger in front gets in the way of useful storage.
Like it or not, bench seats have gone the way of the mechanical typewriter. Even the cheapest pickup trucks today are pretty much bucket designed though they still seat 3 on the "split bench" part.
24th Apr 2016, 21:39
In fact column-shifters were far superior to the silly between the seats shifters one sees nowadays. Obviously they allowed for a larger more comfortable bench seat, or even in the case of two large chairs in the front, there are better uses for the space between, like cup-holders, armrests, storage, etc.
Who knows what people are thinking nowadays with these between-the-seats-deals? Maybe they think they're being sporty or that they're going to shift the automatic wildly while driving.