57 Ford, as a 2nd Family Car?

[unclescott58]

I'm a child of the year of the Edsel, 1958. In my family we almost always had 2 cars growing up. Nothing fancy, but two cars none the less. My mother always drove the new or newer car. My dad would have an older car just for going back and forth to work. Normal family stuff, even with father driving, would be done in the newer car. But, in the early 60's we seemed to be somewhat of an exception in this. I remember the neigbor lady living behind us never learned how to drive. And not thinking that was odd at the time, even though my mother did. By the mid to late 60's it seemed like everybody had at least 2 cars in there family. Part of it was we moved to slightly more affluent neighborhood in 1966. But, you could see the change going back to the old neighborhood at the time too. By the way, we were very close to the neighbors who lived behind us in that first house, that when my folks built their new house in the new neighborhood, those neighbors built a nearly identical house next door to us. Yet the wife never learned to drive a car, ever.

The Volvo commercial shown above, has to be from the early 70's. I have not watched ad yet. But, just looking at the begining still there, you see a couple of GM wagons with the clamshell tailgate. Those cars came out starting in the fall of 1970, as '71 models.

Scott

[Art Anderson]

During WW-II and for a few years after, both Dad and Mom worked, at separate jobs, clear across the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette (Mom was helping to support her elderly mother during that time frame) and so they had three cars (a '42 Desoto -- the one with hidden headlights), a '40 Willys 2dr sedan, and Mom's '32 Chevrolet Confederate coupe that she'd bought new in 1932. I rode in all three cars, in a manner of speaking: Got taken to Home Hospital here in Lafayette to get born (July 12, 1944) in the Willys, my first ride as an air-breathing kid was coming home to Battle Ground IN in the Desoto, and then as a Kindergartener, rode to school in the '32 Chevy--the envy of all the other kids on nice days, when Mom would open up the rumble seat, let me ride back there!!

From 1950 to 1954, our's was a one-car family, then Dad bought a slightly used 1953 Hudson Hornet 4dr (with the 7X Twin H-Power engine and Hydramatic, along with a new '54 Plymouth (Mom got the Plymouth--by then she was a stay-at-home mother with three school age kids) while Dad drove the Hudson for work. From that point forward, my parents always had two cars.

Of course, West Lafayette IN, due to the presence of Purdue University and being the upscale side of our "twin cities" was a hot bed of multiple car families pretty early on--but in all of that, there were still couples (mostly older) who didn't have even one car--neither husband nor wife had ever learned to drive!

Art

[10thumbs]

OK, these two car families had acquired the second car out of necessity, meaning both parents working. This was true in my case also, but the VW came along in 59, before that just one car.

So I think I can safely say that a 2 car family in 1957 was still a rarity, and by no means normality. You guys from the northern states, would you day this is pretty much the case?

Michael

[unclescott58]

OK, these two car families had acquired the second car out of necessity, meaning both parents working. This was true in my case also, but the VW came along in 59, before that just one car.

So I think I can safely say that a 2 car family in 1957 was still a rarity, and by no means normality. You guys from the northern states, would you day this is pretty much the case?

Michael

My mother didn't work when I was young, and we had two cars. It interesting to go back and look at info from before World War II on both car and home ownership in this country. Especially if you lived in a city before the war, you more then likely did not own a car or your own home. Less than 50% of the population of this country before WWII owned a car or a home for that matter. Car and home ownership are really postwar concepts. The government discovered during the war, how important a stable work base was to the war effort. And encouraged things like this after the war with the GI bill and FHA. And notice, with that stable work base the country prospered. To the point that not could a family now own a car, but by the 1960's many families could afford to own two or more cars.

Scott

[10thumbs]

Scott, thanks. In 1960 2 cars, OK. What about 1957?

I've gathered that 1959 or 1960 the 2 car family thing really picked up. I just don't think it was common until then. Would you agree? I see you're in Minneapolis, that's an industrial city, isn't it? Meaning work and prosperity. 2 cars in 1957? Whats your take? Also for the rest of the country in 1957. Average America?

Michael

[unclescott58]

My folks had two cars in 1957. A 1950 Oldmobiles 88 and '55 Super 88. Again, I'm not so sure this was "normal" in 1957. But it wasn't uncommon either. I think you maybe trying to read too much in to this. Some people had one car 1957. Several had two or more. Some had none. It depended on needs and money. My parents were not rich. My dad had a blue collar job. My mother worked up until I was born.

Their first new car was a 1961 Comet. Six years later they replaced that with a 1967 Comet 202. Both Comets were basic, cheap, stipped 2-door sedans. We thought we lived in lap of luxury because the '67 had a radio and carpeting! My dad drove used beaters back and forth to work. Mainly late 50's Fords with no floors in the back because of rust. For safety reasons we weren't allowed to ride in those cars too often. He did have a fairly nice early 60's Studebaker Lark in the late 60's. Then a very nice '63 Beetle. Finally he got a new Toyota Hi-Lux pickup truck for himself in 1971. Again, the only option was a radio. In 1975 the '67 Comet was traded in on a new stripped Mercury Monarch. Pop replace the Toyota with a new "stripped" Mustang II in 1977. Oh, the Mustang II did have an automatic transmission, besides a radio and carpet. Boy, we were moving up in luxury now! By when I owned my own cars. My sisters would follow shortly there after.

Finally my mother decided in 1980, she wanted something different than a stripped compact Mercury for "her" car. She had been back working for several years by then. So she had me take her out to buy a new car. She like the Oldsmobiles my folks had back in the 50's. So she wanted another big Olds. And she wanted a few goodies. Mainly air conditioning and bucket seats. The local Olds dealer had the perfect car for her. A beautiful new 1980, Delta 88 Holiday coupe. It had power steering and brakes. Air conditioning. And the Holiday package gave the big two-door bucket seats with an automatic transmission on a console. Two-tone gold paint paint on the outside. Gold cloth buckets. Wire wheel covers! But still had hand cranked windows and an AM radio. And no cruise cruise control. But it was a big step up from the Comets and the Monarch. She drove that car for twenty years. And loved it more than any car she had own before or since. Even the 2000 LeSabre, which I now have, that she replaced it with. Her last car.

But back to the basic question at hand. What was "normal" in 1957? My over all point is there was no real normal in 1957. Some people had one car. Others had two. Talking with older guys who could drive at the time, their family may had more than two cars. I think rarely did people then or now, have two brand new cars at the same time, of the same year.

Scott

Edited October 25, 2014 by unclescott58

[10thumbs]

Wonderful, thanks Scott for the insight.

The cars you mentioned, I'd like to have that 50 or 55 Olds today! My dad had a 56 4 dr. I remember him saying it ran well.

Good stuff here.

Michael

[unclescott58]

Interesting thing about the '50 Oldmobile my folks had. It was titled as a '51 Olds. And for years it was talked about as a '51 Olds. Here's where a problem comes in. As I grew older and got to know cars better, I noticed one day that Oldsmobile did not offer a model in 1951 like my folks Olds. Their '51 was an 88 two-door fastback. The last year Oldsmobile offer the 88 in any fastback body style was 1950. When discovered this I asked my dad about it. He said he bought the car from a guy who repaired wrecked cars. So the guy may have put a '51 front clip on a '50, and somehow got the state title the car as a '51. So my folks had a '51 Oldsmobile nobody else had (as far as we know). By the way, up until I asked my dad about it, he always assumed he had a true '51 Oldsmobile.

Scott

[Ace-Garageguy]

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

First let me say that I was a car enthusiast almost from the first day I opened my eyes. My parents used to joke that my first word was "Ford". I noticed cars, and who had what, from an early age.

I think the answer to your question all depends on the particular class-level you're looking at, and all I can offer is my particular experience. During the 1950s, we lived in a neighborhood that was solidly middle class (though we were probably at the lower end if it, income-wise), in a two-story brick apartment building, across the street (lined with mature hardwood trees) from mostly brick, fairly large and comfortable houses. The apartment dwellers typically had only one car. I remember we traded new cars fairly regularly (from a '48 Ford convertible to a '51 Studebaker, then a '53 Stude to a '55 Olds convertible, etc.).The families across the street typically had at least two.

Upward mobility and striving for the appearance of material success (they called it "keeping-up-with-the-Jonses" then) were as prevalent then as today, though most middle-class wives still were primarily home-makers. Most people who could afford two cars had two, so the wife could do the shopping, have coffee with the girls, transport the kids, etc. and not be stuck immobile all day, carless. And families who couldn't comfortably afford them often stretched to have 2 cars, just to keep up appearances. I recall many of my parents' conversations about just that.

Whether the second car was new or used would of coarse depend on the specific family income. Our family doctor, who still made housecalls, drove a new Thunderbird every year, but sometimes would show up in his wife's Ford wagon, which was not replaced annually. The family of another doctor whose son was in my grade got 2 new cars every 2 years, but the family of the insurance guy down the block (who had a great HO train layout) had two cars that were more than 5 years old, though they looked like new. The family of another classmate whose father owned a small construction company, had at least 4 cars in 1960 or so (the one that stands out was the dark-green-repainted-from-white '57 T-bird that the parents were later killed in).

We never quite got beyond the low end of middle-class, as my father's income kept up with inflation, but not much more, apparently. We moved around the country fairly regularly (he was a construction engineer), so I probably got a fair idea of who our peers were. From my experience, I'd have to conclude that two-car families were common in the mid-1950s middle class, and became more common as the years progressed.

Edited October 25, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[10thumbs]

Thanks a lot for this info, it makes sense to me. Also about the neighborhood as being important for families with second cars.

I can imagine as well, incomes further up north were higher than in my home state of Florida, cost of living is an important factor.

I think I have a good overview, thanks guys for the participation, everyone made for an interesting read.

Michael

[Aaronw]

I think you need to think about suburbia vs city as well. Even today you will find people who live in large cities who find they don't need a car. If you are in the suburbs or father out, a car or a second car is more of a necessity.

The Volvo commercial shown above, has to be from the early 70's. I have not watched ad yet. But, just looking at the begining still there, you see a couple of GM wagons with the clamshell tailgate. Those cars came out starting in the fall of 1970, as '71 models.

Scott

Kind of weird, the license plates on the cars are all pre-69 black and yellow, but taking another look the Volvo in the ad has the 1971-74 style grill, so you are probably right more like 71-72 ish.

Edited October 25, 2014 by Aaronw

[rmvw guy]

Okay, so born in 1950, Mom and Dad never had a second car until 1963 This is because my Dad graduated from College and took a teaching job the great distance of 35 miles from home. Seemed like a long way to go to work back in those days. He purchased a '57 VW Beetle to save on gas money since gas was almost 25 cents a gallon. Also probably felt he would be gone too long to leave my Mom without a car. In 1964 they purchased their first ever new car, '64 Dodge Dart and immediately took a Summer vacation across the country to California where my Mom's brother lived. Him and his wife, by the way, had two cars, a Pontiac Bonneville beater convertible with no top, and a VW Beetle, new at the time. The trip was a little like the movie Cars driving down Route 66 making numerous stops. Or maybe more like Family Vacation. It was the trip they had waited for and probably felt this required a new car.

I carried newspapers in my neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods in those days. This supported my model car hobby by the way, after all kits were $1.49. I do remember almost every house had one car and either a one car garage or carport. The houses with more than one car, usually the second car belonged to a teenager old enough to drive. More often than not it was the family's old car, that a new one replaced. Not very many Moms worked around our neighborhood but, the ones that did usually had a second car. The Wife almost always got the newer car to drive.

Edited October 25, 2014 by rmvw guy

[ChrisBcritter]

I imagine quite a few second cars were the result of "That's all you're giving me for my trade-in? I might as well keep it!"

My folks were similar to many others here; only had one car until I came along and we moved out to the suburbs; Dad had the six-cylinder go-to-work cars ('61 Dodge Seneca, '64 Chevy Biscayne) and Mom had the V-8 family car ('65 Impala four-door hardtop).

[10thumbs]

Aaron, I think the suburbia vs. city just about decides the case, especially from 1960 on. Like Bill stated, with a longer commute the 2nd car was then a necessity.

Ron and Christopher, you guys described the situation as I knew it also. I can still remember very well my mother complaining about the gas mileage of the Oldsmobile, and my dad was not one who drove economically. 1959 he bought his 1st VW, gas was cheap, case closed. Mom had the Olds, but still took a bus to work downtown. Dad had VW's till I was out of high school, the family ride was often traded in with low mileage. My first car was Dad's VW, so he could get a new one.

But in mid and late 50's, there were not many families with a 2nd car. Maybe a reason though was that I lived in a big city suburb and other than the city and surroundings, there was no where else to work. So no one needed to commute much of a distance.

Michael

Edited October 26, 2014 by 10thumbs

[Greg Myers]

My family had a '57 Ford as a second car in 1964. It was my Dads "road" car. Oh yeah, 312 Thunderbird Special.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Greg Myers

[VW93]

The first second car in my family didn't happen until 1970. I bought a '62 Impala in April of my junior year in HS. I didn't have my learners permit yet but my folks registered it and my father used it until I got my license in September. After I got my license I'd take him to his job before school and would pick him up if he wasn't working OT. My mom would pick him up at 6PM if he was working OT when she left her job at 5.

Our other car at the time was a 68 Falcon wagon that my mother used to commute to her job.

During the 50's and through most of the 60's most of our neighbors were a single car family. Of the 50 homes in my neighborhood there were probably only 5 or 6 that were a 2 car family. There were a few older guys in my neighborhood that had their own car in the 60's but I wouldn't say they were a 2 car family.

[Tom Geiger]

America had a rush to the suburbs in the early 1950s onward. Companies like Levitt started building developments in NY, NY and PA on former farmland in the late 1940s, due to the benefits of the GI bill for veterans and the VA backed home loan. A veteran could buy a new home with no money down. Levitt, a master of marketing, included all the necessary appliances with the home package so they would have one affordable payment. My first home was one of the little Cape Cods and my next door neighbor was an original owner who said the original payment was $60 a month in 1950. So the American dream of home ownership was within reach of the millions of blue collar veterans. Levitt didn't just build homes, they built 'planned communities, including building the schools as part of their cost. They would also build the adjoining shopping centers, the birth of the strip mall and supermarkets. Major highways were being built at the time, for instance the Garden State Parkway linked Central New Jersey to the big cities of Newark, Jersey City and New York City. So many families took the plunge to the suburbs and fathers commuted into the city.

This also necessitated two car families since the suburbs were spread out. There often wasn't local transit, so wives needed to drive to ferry kids to school and do the weekly shopping. As said in this thread, car manufacturers saw the need for second cars and the compact car was born. And as said, a lot of families had the hand-me-down second car, where the old car was kept when a new one was purchased. I don't believe that cars were considered as costly then as they are today, as many families upgraded fairly often. A normal car note was 24 months back then. And it's fair to say that cars were not of the same quality as we have today. Manufacturers aimed to fulfill that 2 year payment plan and hoped to sell you a new car when that one was paid for. It was common that a five year old car would be rusty and an eyesore. Rayco made a fortune replacing torn seats, many didn't last the payment plan! And when was the last time you saw a car with the entire floor rusted away? That was common in the 1950s and 1960s but wouldn't be tolerated today!

My family was unusual since my father was an army officer and was often away for a year at a time. My mother always had a car, and we only had one family car in the 1960s, up until we went to Germany in 1969. My father bought a used VW Beetle to supplement our family car, a 1966 Valiant 2 door sedan. When we returned to the US in 1972, this was actually the first time we owned a house in the NJ suburbs. The Valiant did travel back to the states with us, where it became the second car. My father bought a used 1971 Chevy Belair 4 door sedan as the family car. Once planted in the suburbs, we always had two cars.

My wife's family made a similar move from New York to the New Jersey suburbs when she was 4 years old. They moved there with a 1953 Chevy and eventually bought a 1964 Chevy wagon as the primary family car. The '53 became the car her father drove to the train station, where he parked and took the train into New York City daily. In 1971 they got another Chevy wagon and the '53 sedan got junked. When I met my wife they had a 1978 Toyota and the 1971 wagon. My father in law bought Toyotas after that but they always had two.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Tom Geiger

[lordairgtar]

When I was young, I went to live with my grandparents. Before that, my dad and mom had an old 49 Ford Tudor. I remember it had three on the tree and a flat head six. Not even the cool VG flattie. My dad and mom divorced and he kept driving the old 49 til he picked up a 54 Ford Tudor powered by a similar six, but it had a Fordomatic trans in it. I went to live with my grandparents when I stated 3rd grade in 1963. He had a beautiful 1960 LeSabre he bought new, and the neighbor had a 1960 Invicta, both two door hardtops. Gramps' car was metallic silver and the neighbor's car was white. Grandparents only had one car at a time and grandma did not ever drive, though she had a license. In the neighborhood we lived in most people worked for big firms like AO Smith, Briggs & Stratton, Harley, Harnishfaeger, Falk, Allis Chalmers and all the breweries. Some of the families in my neighborhood had two cars and some pretty high end ones at that. Chrysler Imperials, Buicks, Oldsmobiles. One friend whose father was an auto mechanic had two cars, his wife who was a very attractive blonde drove around in a hotrodded 59 Olds convertible. There were the assortment of Fords and Chevys and the odd Pontiac or Olds. One kid had a 56 Olds with a big engine and loud pipes painted a very bright red. Us younger kids used to sit on the curb as he fiddled with the triple carbs and cleaned or replaced plugs.

[10thumbs]

Interesting stories from back in the day, thank you gentleman.

I've been doing some internet searches for statistics. From 1950 to the end 50's, the average American family with a car had 2.9 persons per car. In 1960, this lessened to 2.2 persons per car. The second car started to kick in. As Tom Geiger wrote above, the suburbs were already booming. In 1960, 60% of American families owned 1 car, 20% owned 2 or more, and 20% owned none.

FoMoCo started already in early 50's to try to get families attuned to the idea of a second car. In 1957, the year I'm focusing, a strong recession was clearly at hand that hit the car sales already towards the end of 1957. Chevy and Ford both sold 1,5 million units, whereas the 58 Ford only sold 900k, the Chevy was still decent with 1.2 million.

As far as I've been able to find, in 1957 the Big Three would have loved to have sold a second new car to a family, but it just didn't happen. After 1960, the compact car was on the move and gaining momentum.

This coincides with what I remember, and seems to be about right according to the answers here. We've had lots of replies from the northern areas, left coast, the South and right coast. Folks who made good money could afford a second car, even then, it may not have been a new car, but the existing car had become the main driver. Women in the late 50's had become the most important factor in car sales (safety, convenience and looks as well) as well as every day convenience purchasing.

So, folks who could afford a new car bought one, but it's always been that way, bigger homes, more luxury, etc.

The average was rather toward one car in a family.

Michael

[unclescott58]

I'm enjoying the personal stories people are leaving on this tread. It sounds like most of us who grew up here in the U.S. lived pretty typical American lives. At least car wise at least. I hope more people continue to share their stories here. And it would be fun to hear more about those who did not grow up in U.S.

Scott

[Tom Geiger]

I think it's also fair to mention that the entire US economy was different in those days. In the 1950s through 1960s, people lived pretty well working jobs that are low paying today. When we lived in Dayton, Ohio our next door neighbor sold suits at Sears. He had a home in the new Huber Heights subdivision, two cars (I remember one was a Beetle), had two kids and his wife was home full time. Today you couldn't live on the salary for that same job.

College degrees were more the exception than the rule, and not having one didn't keep a man from supporting a family. My wife's next door neighbor was a bank teller. He left the house every day in a suit, and took the train into the city. He had a suburban house, two cars and his wife never worked. My wife said people in the neighborhood (okay, maybe the kids!) thought he was important since he counted all the money! Today that job pays around $10 an hour. He lived better than a bank branch manager does today!

Entire towns were born in the rush from the cities. I lived in the town of Hazlet, NJ which was a sleepy little farming community in the 1940s. Starting in the early 1950s when the Garden State Parkway was built, opening up these areas making a commute to the city easier, there was a building boom. Much of the town was built in the 1950s, and the final developments were finished up by the late 1960s. There is no downtown Hazlet, town hall is just on one of the main roads, surrounded by development houses. If you look at the aerial photos of the town in the 1940s and then the same photo in the 1970s the difference is amazing. When I wanted to build a house in the 1980s there literally wasn't a single building lot to be had. The town was completely built up at that point.

I recently read a post on the Facebook page , "I Grew Up In Hazlet, NJ" where a man who was one of the original occupants of the town in the new developments wrote that he was a construction worker and he had 5 kids and his wife at home. They had 2 cars and he said his pay was spent this way each month: Week one was his house payment. Week two paid for his cars, gas and utility bills. Week three paid all the family's other needs like food, clothing, entertainment. And Week four? They put that into savings for vacations and the future! Can you imagine? Today most 2 income households cannot save an entire week's salary! Times were indeed different.

[rmvw guy]

I found this photo taken in 1964 of our second car in front of our one car garage. The family car protected inside the garage. This was my Dad's work car but, I loved rideing in it. I would enjoy seeing more pictures of your memories if anyone has any.

[Tom Geiger]

Ron, here's the only photo I can find of my father's work car VW Beetle we had when we lived in Germany. This is a photo of his unit offices in Pirmasens, Germany around 1971. His Beetle is the dark one to the right of the entrance. It was red, note the US spec bumpers which were really unusual in Germany. The story was that a US serviceman bought it new in the US and had it shipped over when he received orders for Germany. Other cars are the typical family cars of that era that Uncle Sam paid to ship for servicemen. The two company vehicles were the Econoline van and if you look to the far left, that's a AMC Ambassador staff car in Army green.

[rmvw guy]

Tom, I remember seeing your photo in another thread, thanks for posting it again. Your story is pretty cool. My Dad was a career Navy man but, we never got to travel abroad. We always lived near a Navy port. We came back to Indiana when he retired. He then went through college starting at the age of 40 and got the second car when he gradiated, the Beetle. The car in the garage in the other photo was a new, at the time, '64 Dodge Dart. I have a picture of it in front of the house at a later date.

Edited October 27, 2014 by rmvw guy

[ZTony8]

My Dad was the family's only driver in 1957.I think Dad still had at that time our 1949 Buick Super sedan(the one with my "special seat" which was the rear seat armrest folded down.That way I could see over the back of the front seat and out the windshield when I sat on it.Imagine doing that today-the nosy busybodies would have you in court in 5 minutes).

Early in 1957 Dad had also purchased the Old Bus,a 1927 Chevy woodie.I still have pics of it as he bought it,missing the rear of the roof and without tires.He partially restored it,traded it away in 1967,and I bought it back in 1982.I still have the hulk(it was damaged in an accident about 8 years ago)and I'm gonna restore it when I find some cash.