Duesenberg luxury automobiles were so obscenely glamorous and over-engineered in the 1920s that they single-handedly injected the phrase it is a doozy into the modern American lexicon.

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Duesenberg luxury automobiles were so obscenely glamorous and over-engineered in the 1920s that they single-handedly injected the phrase it is a doozy into the modern American lexicon. These cars were the absolute pinnacle of roaring twenties excess, favored by Hollywood royalty and wealthy tycoons who wanted supercharged engines capable of hitting a hundred miles per hour when most dirt roads barely accommodated a horse. Owning a Model J was the ultimate status symbol, essentially the equivalent of driving around in a private jet covered in chrome and mahogany. When people saw something incredibly impressive, they would compare it to the car by calling it a doozy, completely warping the English language forever. It is a linguistic legacy that comfortably outlived the actual car company, which famously went bankrupt during the Great Depression!