To ask if cars that would have been on the road in 1960 would have had a wireless/radio?

[Hormonecure]

I would love someone to help me with this. Would a character be able to listen to music on a car radio in 1960? In England. Thanks x

Why don't you google it?

My first car was registered 1979, and had a radio that had been retro-fitted. Didn't have one originally. I think it would have been rare.

Google says ‘maybe’.

It might depend on the wealth of the character? I do remember my father saying that in those days it was a common mistake for young couples to park up somewhere and have the radio on then find that the car didn't start because the battery was drained, unlike modern radios which used very little power.

@Echt. I have googled it. If I had found the answer I needed, I wouldn't be here.

Thanks, @Treaclesoda

I think it wouldn't have been standard at the start of the 60s.

This 1964 MG has one, I can see it in the photos

www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1057337

Get in touch with this magazine, they’d know straightaway!

Growing uo in the 70's I can confirm the radio, there always was one, drained the battery. We'd be left in the pub carpark with pop and crisps but definitely NOT allowed the radio on.

That's a great idea, @EESheWasThin. I will. I'm on a final final final draft of a book and all out of research ideas. Thanks. x

You could retrofit radios but they wouldn't be standard equipment. My dad's car magazines from the mid 60s show plenty of aftermarket radios for sale. The mini was launched in 1959 without space to fit a radio as the designer disapproved of car radios as ge felt they distracted the driver.

Cars were sold rifht into the mid to late 80s without a car radio fitted. My parents brought a base model car manufactured in 1986 and it wasn't fitted with a car radio and there was a blanking plate where you could fit your own. It also lacked luxuries like a passenger side wing mirror and a heated real screen

Lots of people asking questions on minor details of history recently... everyone must be writing books at the moment!

Not sure how standard it would have been in s British car, but it certainly seems to have been in America from what you see on 50's and 60's films.

Good luck with the research and the book! Hope it’s a bestseller 😀

Echt. I have googled it. If I had found the answer I needed, I wouldn't be here

I did and there it was.

Biff from Back to Future had one in his car in 1955, so I'd assume cars in 1960 would have them too.

In 1960 the only UK radio stations were BBC, might be worth researching what would be played by the BBC Light Programme

From memory, no, they weren't fitted as standard in the 60s. But by the 70s were becoming more popular.
Top of the range cars had them as an option in the late 60s and of course some were fitted by enthusiasts into cheaper cars.

It wasn't a "thing" to have music blasting out as you drove around, that came much later.

my dad had a 61 triumph Herald and that had a radio, it had to warm up iirc and as pp said would flatten battery if left on with engine off

I think John Lennon had a record player in his car. It must have skipped like crazy.

My first car was a 1992 reg Mini and like a op said, it came without a radio or a passenger side wing mirror. It also had a manual choke.

But Back To The Future is an American film. I imagine that American cars were more luxurious and had 'extras' that would be considered normal in the US but were not fitted as standard in the UK.

Just asked DP (bit of a car nut and who was brought up in N America during that era). Pre-fitted car radios were commonplace over there, but definitely not in the UK. As PPs have said, you'd have to get one fitted.

Also treacle has a point. If the car owner was wealthy and owned a top-end car, maybe they'd started to be fitted in luxury cars by then. But if you're talking a bog-standard type car, then maybe not?!

Many things we now take for granted in a car were extra until I believe the 70s - relative used to run a garage.

No heating, no radio, no seat belts, cars were more expensive than now but far lower spec.

Things improved when the Japanese cars arrived

Just had another thought, Hormonecure. Do you have a specific car in mind? If so, you could contact the manufacturers to ask - they must have reasonable archives.

Or ask Honest John www.honestjohn.co.uk!

Yes - some models would have had radios 😊 family member is into vintage and classic cars and has a small collection.

Many did BUT it would depend on the make and model. Once you’ve decided on the car I would contact a classic owners association for that marque and ask them. You will have eleventy billion middle aged men rushing to answer your question. And as pp have said a radio could be retrofitted.

You could also have the driver use a bent coat hanger as an aerial after the original one snapped off

I dknt kjow about now, but a even only couple.of years ago radios were optional extras on some new Dacias.