The gurus of automotive design history will tell you that the 1960 Imperials are unclassifiable, an intermediate step between the Forward Look of 1957-’59 and the neoclassic look of 1961-’63. These people have surveyed with amusement or pity the baroque esthetics of the ’60s. For if the chassis and drive train of the 1960 Imperial derive from earlier years, the restyled body prefigures the ’61 model, just as the rear bumper stayed in service for two years following ’61.
The grille and tailfin treatment give a startling appearance to the car, in particular the heavy front bumper in the form of a shallow "V" rising at the ends to meet the body, and the trapezoidal grille.
 

 The tailfins, inspired by those of the 1959 Plymouth (themselves suggested by the "613" prototype of 1957), break the pure lineof preceding years with their upward thrust. They surmount a new taillight that is even more extravagant, looking something a gyroscope or the device that gave them the nickname of "microphone taillight." Calligraphic emblems on the flanks of 1957 and ’58 Imperials come back into service, and so does the style of the dashboard, with big round instrument clusters lit by "electroluminescence" (as on the AstroDome Chrysler). The interior rear-view mirror returns to a rational place on the dash, while the steering wheel becomes nearly rectangular.

The hardtop’s "landau" roof is available with inserts sweeping in a curve from front to back, either painted or done in stainless steel a $62.40 option except on the LeBaron, where the decorations were standard. The LeBaron comes with a small back window to protect its owners from the gaze of a curious public. Those decorative roof panels, alas, soon experience problems of opened seams and rust.

There are no significant engineering changes from the 1959 models. Among options a new record turntable is offered, this one following RCA design and playing regular 45-rpm discs.
Ghia continues to produce a small number of Crown Imperial limousines, on which almost all Imperial options are standard. Only 16 of them were sold in this model year.