Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

The author mentions a center armrest as somthing, that was special. My wife and I would wish a bench seat instead of a center armrest in modern cars. And it reads that "the hydraulic windows are remote-controlled". How else than remote-controlled a hydraulic window can be? Attached an artistic impression of a direct-controlled hydraulic window.

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  passenger door.jpg (73.15 KB)


  hydraulic is nothing without control.jpg (77.28 KB)

Believe it or not there are still a few passenger vehicles you can get today with a front bench seat, but they are virtually all pickup trucks, with a few full size SUV's in the mix. Either the middle seat permanently replaces the center console, or the center can flip back to reveal a seat.

Of course, many box trucks and flatbeds have bench seats but no one is going to daily drive those.

As far as I know, the most recent American car to have a front bench seat as an option was the 2013 Chevy Impala.

That's a pneumatic window. :)

Another way to deal (not handle) the hydraulic windows, Gerd (Guscha), is to connect them to the brakes. Then to lower or raise the windows, all you have to do is hit the brakes. I think that arrangement would add to the smoky joy of the experience depicted.
For those of us neither hydraulic nor pneumatic, we have little kids who can't keep their hands off the window cranks. They think it's AMAZING.

I wonder if remote control in the ad was referring to the fact the driver could control any of them from his seat.

Funny when you mention cranks being an attention getting item to little kids because I have fond memories of the first time I saw hydraulic windows.

First time I ran across them was in the early to mid 50s in an uncles new to him Lincoln -- one of the slope eyed models so probably a 49 or 50. He took my brother and I and a couple of friends for a ride where it did not take us long to discover the fact if one of us wanted to lower a window anyone else -- including my uncle driving the car that none of us knew controlled them all -- who pushed a button to raise theirs would over ride the window that was lowering. Soon became a game to see who could manage to get a window all the way down. That one trip probably took 5 years off the life of the windows.