"Economy seems to be the fad right now," trumpets this ad for the plucky little French Renault Dauphine. Economy has been the 'fad' for a long time now, and I don't see it fading away anytime soon as talk of peak oil and climate change continues. And in the United States, a lot of manufacturers toss the magic 40 MPG number around when advertising their compacts. The Dauphine claimed to be able to do that back in the early 1960s - and had the Mobil Mileage Rally numbers to prove it.
This ad appeared in the January 20, 1961 issue of Life magazine.
