Stylish and Sporty for 1956

With the exception of the Chrysler New Yorker, Chrysler Corporation's most striking sedan for 1956 was from their Dodge division in the form of the Custom Royal Lancer 2-door hardtop or convertible. Not the clean front grille design of the New Yorker, but Dodge's more aggressive, detailed design works. It was a similar design carried over from 1955. Aside from Dodge's touted performance were the optional three-color paint combinations coupled with the one-year-only color accent design that began on the hood and continued to the fins and rear deck. It gave the model a sporty position in their lineup. Certainly out-classing the rather dowdy design from Plymouth's division. It all translated into style without being garish, something infamously in Chrysler's near future. 

Coupe de Trunk

 

The Ford Ranchero is a coupe utility that was produced between 1957 and 1979. Ranchero was adapted from a two-door station wagon platform that integrated the cab and cargo bed into the body. A total of 508,355 units were produced during the model's production run. It was variously derived from full-sized, compact, and intermediate automobiles sold by Ford for the North American market. The original Ranchero sold so well General Motors introduced the Chevrolet El Camino two years later as competition.

Note: The "station" wagon refers specifically to train stations, where people and their luggage were shuttled to and from train depots. The very first vehicles recognized as being station wagons were largely custom wooden-bodied variants of Model Ts which were known as "depot hacks." "Hack" referred to "hackney", a horse-drawn taxi. There are more than a half-dozen different names used worldwide instead of "station wagon."