57 Ford, as a 2nd Family Car?

[10thumbs]

Hello guys,

There's a discussion on a German Car Forum about a 57 Ford as being a choice for a 2nd family car, this back in the day.

I doubt this car was a choice as a 2nd family car. I was in Elementary School in '57 from an typical middle class all American suberb of a big city, and I don't remember there being very many 2nd cars back then for families anyway.

What are your thoughts about this?

Also, maybe a good hint about finding info about 2nd cars in an average type family in 1957, or say late 50's?

I remember 57 Fairlane 500's being around, but defo not as a 2nd car for a family. Also later, a buddy had a 57 Ford as a 1st car, but it was used and beat up already.

Anyone?

Michael

[bbowser]

No clue on where you would even begin to look for stats on 2nd cars. But i think you're right, not many people i knew growing up in the sixties had a 2nd car. Moms stayed at home and tended the house and kids, there was no need.

[10thumbs]

Hi Bruce, that's the way I see it too.

A forum buddy has a YouTube vid about a TV commercial that states "if you enjoy the 57 Ford Fairlane, why not get a 57 Station Wagon as a (2nd car) car for the Mrs.?" The commercial shows a "Doris Day" type lady at the kitchen sink looking out onto the driveway and seeing a 57 Station Wagon, all of this in front of a very nice ranch style house with a front yard as big as a football field. Not really believeable in my book. But this was in 1957. My Dad had just recently brought home a 56 Olds, there were a couple of 57 Fords in the neighborhood. No 2nd cars. One dude down the street had a 49 Ford as a thumper, but he was already about 20 or so.

I think this is where the, in the meantime, trouble has arised. The guy does not understand the TV commercial all that well.

My father bought the first, 2nd car in 1959, a VW Bug. No 2nd cars in 1957, am I right?

Michael

[MrObsessive]

I wouldn't know about 1957------but in 1967 I was in grade school at that point, and I don't remember any of my neighbors having a 2nd car even then. Funny I can still remember what most of my neighbors drove way back when!

By the time I was in high school in the mid '70's, second car families were quite commonplace as most of the neighbors I knew at the time, had a second car.

Nowadays, because of the economy, it's a nearly a MUST that there be at least two cars in a family.

My how times have changed!

[10thumbs]

Well I was in Florida in 1957, and life was pretty good in a big city.

I went to relatives every summer to the Great Lakes Area and am familiar with the surrounding areas there, not much different than what I was used to. I would say perhaps the northern areas in bigger cities had more income though in general. But still, a 2nd car in 57, or even late 50's was rather rare.

I've seen stats about income and costs of houses and cars and cost of living, but nothing yet about any 2nd car info.

Thanks for the input guys.

Michael

[Guest]

We didn't have 2 cars until I was in 11 the grade or maybe even just before I graduated in 79.

[Edsel-Dan]

We had 2 as long as I can remember

I was born in 61. We had a 49 Ford & a 54 Skyliner (Mom's)

In 65 My dad gave the 49 to a family member and bought a Wildcat a couple months later

in 70 we sold the 54 then bought a 70 Impala (First 4dr we ever had)

Now that I am the only driver, we are down to one!!!

But, There were 2 car families back in the mid-late 60's!

Neighbors 2 doors down had a 58 Chevy wagon & a 65-66 Fury

[John Goschke]

Two car families were relatively rare when I was growing up in the '50s and early '60s in our neighborhood. Mid-late '60s-early '70s they were much more common. Most of the homes, built in early '50s thru to mid '60s had a single garage.

However, in my collection of car ads I've got a Ford ad from model year 1955 touting the practicality of becoming a "Two-Ford Family," with sedan for Ward and wagon for June.

[10thumbs]

Two car families were relatively rare when I was growing up in the '50s and early '60s in our neighborhood. Mid-late '60s-early '70s they were much more common. Most of the homes, built in early '50s thru to mid '60s had a single garage.

However, in my collection of car ads I've got a Ford ad from model year 1955 touting the practicality of becoming a "Two-Ford Family," with sedan for Ward and wagon for June.

Excellent!

Is there a way that we could have access? Maybe a pic?

This is the drift that I've gathered, a commercial on TV that when you have one Ford, why not another?

I would really like a look at this kind of material.

Michael

Edited October 24, 2014 by 10thumbs

[Agent G]

We always had two cars as far back as I can remember. I came along in '55 and the first car I recall Dad having was a '56 Olds. I remember Mom having a '55 Chevrolet 4 dr and later a '63 Ford Galaxie. Dad later bought a '63 Chevy II for himself, a very basic car, and Mom got a '65 Wildcat shortly thereafter.

G

[Greg Pugh]

I'd be interested to see it as well. I love stuff like that.

[DrGlueblob]

I came along in '56. Dad bought Mom a second car in 1960.. Funny, it was a '57 Fairlane.

In Phoenix, you needed a car to get anywhere even back then. Dad was out hunting and fishing most every weekend, so Mom's car was a good idea.

[rmvw guy]

I was born in 1950. My family had only one car in the '50s, a 1950 Dodge and kept it until 1963. We then had a 2nd car, a '51 Chevy my Dad found for $300 with only 30,000 miles. The Dodge was wore out so, he gave it away for $1, then bought a '57 VW Beetle. We had two cars from then on. Most people had only a one car garage including us.

[10thumbs]

Hi Chip, good info. I can understand the needs for a 2nd car in this case.

I can remember cars from my relatives back till I was 4 yrs. or thereabouts. Cool ones. 55 Merc 2 dr., a Chevy with a sun visor up front, then a killer black 55 Buick with a flaming red interior! Others came around a bit later. Some folks had a good living also, but I just don't remember any 2 car families back in 1957/1958.

Good input.

Michael

[Rob Hall]

I was born in '70, my brother in '49 and my sister in '57...up until my sister was born, my folks had one car at a time. In '57, my Dad bought a Ford wagon for the family car and traded a '54 Ford fordor on a '58 Mercury Monterey 4dr for himself.

By the time I was born in '70, my brother was off at college w/ a '66 Mustang, and my Mom's car was a '67 Cougar, my Dad had a '69 Mustang and '69 Marquis...as I grew up, my folks always had 2-3 newer cars and 2-3 older cars and an RV.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Rob Hall

[10thumbs]

Thanks Gentleman,

This info seems to coincide with my views, that in 1957 having a 2nd car in the family was a rarity for middle class America.

Actually, I can only remember the VW Bug as becoming a 2nd car. Compacts came around later in the US industry....?

Michael

[Aaronw]

The US is a big place. It wouldn't surprise me at all if affluent car crazy California saw a fair number of 2 car families in the late 1950s.

The 1950 Nash Rambler is claimed to be the first domestic compact car

Some VW Beetles came home with US soldiers postwar but the VW factory wasn't in full production until 1949. VW produced it's 1,000,000th Beetle in 1955. Other imports seem to have started seriously targeting the US market after 1960. My parents owned a VW bug in California during the early 1960s and they've told me it was still considered unusual, but not unique. They also had a Citroen which was impossible to find parts or service for outside of a major metropolitan area. They bought a Toyota Corona in 1970 and had similar issues getting it worked on outside of a dealership.

I come from a long line of import cars and I don't think getting an import worked on really became a non issue until the mid 1980s.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Aaronw

[Ace-Garageguy]

1960 was the first year we had 2 cars. My father commuted 60 miles one way to work in NYC, and bought a brandy-new Falcon so my mother could keep the '55 Olds at home. In '63, the '55 was replaced by a new one, and in '65, my father replaced the Falcon with a Mustang. In '71, the Mustang went down the road, replaced by a Cougar, but my mother continued driving the '63 Olds. By that time I had my first car too...a totally clapped '62 Bug I'd rebuilt during the summer after high-school graduation.

We were not particularly well-off, but most of the families of my classmates prior to 1960 had 2 cars. We were kinda late to the party.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[Aaronw]

I wonder if this is the commercial that started this, it is a '56 but close enough.

So this is about 10 years later 1967-68 (Volvo 140 series came out in 1967, California changed it's licence plates from black to blue in 1969), and hits the two car thing and imported compact cars.

[10thumbs]

I think Aaron hit on something, obviously a more affluent area would probably show more 2nd cars in a family. The commercial is similar to the one a guy has seen over here, maybe the manufacturers were aiming at higher incomes. 1957 though is still pretty early for an average type American family to have two cars.

To get my memory working better for the time, I looked at some old photos of me and the family and I remember just becoming interested in cars, so I checked out driveways while riding by on a bike or with the family in the car. No second cars in driveways. I can remember when a neighbor got a new car. A 58 Impala and a 58 Ford and Dad's new 56 Olds, then a 59 Plymouth and my friends Dad bought a 59 Buick. These were the new ones I remember in the immediate neighborhood. So new cars weren't even all that common, so two new ones was probably very rare.

My Mom had a drivers license, but she would only drive for shopping on the weekends back in the 50's. So no use for a 2nd car until 1959 for my family.

This seems to be the average case from what I see here.

Interesting stuff, I like reading what you guys were up to back then.

Michael

[10thumbs]

Bill, you wrote that prior to 1960 most of your classmates' families had two cars. Would you say for the most part the second car was a used one, or a new car?

The guy on the German Forum maintains that in 1957 a second car for a family was common, especially a new 57 Ford was popular as a second car! I told him his info is incorrect. No way. I think he looked at one of those old commercials and took it for granted.

Michael

[1930fordpickup]

My Grandmother never learned to drive. A local Farmer bought a car for one of my Uncles to drive to get the kids in the neighborhood to the farm for work. Up until my grandfather could afford a 2nd car they had that car there for several years.

I remember in the 70's many family's still only had one car.

[1930fordpickup]

Bill, you wrote that prior to 1960 most of your classmates' families had two cars. Would you say for the most part the second car was a used one, or a new car?

The guy on the German Forum maintains that in 1957 a second car for a family was common, especially a new 57 Ford was popular as a second car! I told him his info is incorrect. No way. I think he looked at one of those old commercials and took it for granted.

Michael

Is he talking about in the United States ?

[10thumbs]

Andy, yes the guy thinks American families had a second car in 1957! He wrote a 57 Ford is what "Mr. and Mrs. America" chose as a second car as a "grocery getter"!

Well, there were none of those folks in my neighborhood.

Michael

[mnwildpunk]

Granted this wasn't the 50's but my folks had two cars I remember a impala wagon and a grand prix plus my dad had a scout with a plow for work and plowing driveways for $ and we even had a fordson tractor lol but my folks worked hard to afford them my dad had a job at the paper mill then a drywall business and plowing driveways on the side. My mom had a paper route and cleaned cabins at a local resort.