Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

One factor hardly anyone remembers is the vicious battle between Ford and Chevrolet for sales leadership in the fifties.

Ford started the war when the postwar seller's market reached saturation in 1949. Some Southern dealers started using every dirty trick in the book to keep up sales. The Ford company took up the idea and refined it into "the system". Dealerships that used it were called "system houses".

Ford's goal was to regain the #1 sales spot they lost to Chevrolet in 1927.

Chevrolet did not take this lying down. They soon copied "the system" and added refinements of their own.

This is when GM's captive finance arm GMAC began offering low, low down payment deals and lower payments for longer and longer times.

The system became general in the industry except among the independents. Maybe they couldn't follow suit, or maybe their old time dealers refused to become swindlers. In any case, the independents' sales fell off a cliff about this time.

The public eventually got wise and lodged so many complaints the law clamped down. This was when the Mulroney sticker or window sticker with MSRP information became law and a lot of reforms in consumer lending were enacted.

It is also the time when car dealers got their reputation for being crooks.

Then the sales drought of 1956-58 hit. The independents, already on the ropes, took it the worst. Only Rambler seemed to thrive in the new climate.

It still surprises me how quickly such well established firms as Packard Studebaker Nash and Hudson went under not to mention Kaiser Frazer which was backed by 2 industrial giants and seemed to be doing so well.

But, I guess in the auto industry the overhead is so high a few bad years can cripple or kill a company that is not a giant.

The hyper competitive marketing of the early 50s did a lot of damage. The independents were weakened just at the time the market for cars hit a slump and that made a lot of difference in their chance for survival.

Quote: by Rusty O\'Toole on 2010/7/27 10:28:59

Ford's goal was to regain the #1 sales spot they lost to Chevrolet in 1927.


Um... I think Ford held the number one spot well beyond 1927. Especially with the A's and V8 cars. I don't know when it switched over but I'am guessing closer to postwar time '47ish.

Giz

by Rusty O\'Toole Maybe they couldn't follow suit, or maybe their old time dealers refused to become swindlers.....

Part of the problem of low sales in the early 50's that dealers maybe not wanting to be swindlers might have some truth. From several articles written in assorted places though, various authors seem another and maybe the bigger part was a considerable number of dealers refused to deal at all. If Packard (or Stude) said the price of a car was $4000.00, that was it and not a penny less -- whereas the Cadillac (or GM) dealer next door might let his almost identically equipped same priced car go for 3900 and give more for the trade in as well.

Ford was unquestionably the best selling car in the world right through the Model T days. They stopped producing cars entirely for several months in 1927 while they changed over to the Model A.

This was when Chevrolet pulled ahead in sales. Ford was second until 1941 or 42 when Chrysler corp outsold Ford for the first time, making Ford Motors 3d in sales.

To clarify this, Plymouth never outsold Ford. But Chrysler Corporation was very strong in the medium price field with Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler. Total sales for all Chrysler products was greater than total sales for all Ford cars including Ford, Mercury and Lincoln.

It was not long after this that the US government got so concerned about Ford's lack of management, that they pulled Henry Ford II out of the Navy and put him in charge of Ford.

He brought with him a group called "The Whiz Kids" who revamped Ford management from the top down.

It was HFII and the Whiz Kids who were ambitious to put Ford at the top of the hit parade.

They finally succeeded in 1957. That year Ford outsold Chev for the first time in 30 years, maybe. Ford says they did, Chev says they didn't. It all depends if you count calendar year or model year sales, it was that close.

In the meantime the independents took a beating. I don't know quite why but the public seemed to turn against them for some reason. The one overlooked factor could be the massive advertising and sales campaigns undertaken by Ford and Chev. The independents generally did well in sales until the early 50s then dropped like a rock.Granted the big 3 offered strong competition but the independents had faced competition before. The Ford-Chev battle may be the overlooked factor with the independents being collateral damage.

Dealers often quoted HIGHER than normal prices then made it up by giving the buyer an inflated trade in.

It worked like this. If the new car was worth $2000 the salesman might quote a price of $2400. Then, if the buyer's jalopy was worth $500 he could give him up to $900 as a trade.

This did 3 things. It made the new car seem more valuable, it made the sucker feel he was putting one over on the dealer, and it made it easier to finance the car because of the higher down payment in the form of the trade in.

This overcharge on the price was called "the pack" and the salesman was supposed to give away as little of it as possible to make the deal, the balance being extra profit for the dealer.

Tricks like this were the reason laws were passed to put the suggested retail price in the window where everyone could see it. Car dealers and salesmen had loads of such tricks, this was far from the worst.

Obviously Im out leaged by Ol'Rusty as a automotive historian. Than explain the modern day existing numbers, why are there thousands and thousands of A and V8 Fords around than same time frame Chevrolets even more 55-7 Chevrolets than Fords now. I know the reproduction industry is kicking them out but... were they more keepers than the top sellers???

Expand my knowledge base.

Giz

Quote:

Rusty, I believe it was when Henry Ford died towards the end of WW-II that the government released Henry Ford II from his navy military obligations so he could take over running the company that was vital to the country's war effort.

(o{I}o)

From the Ford Motor Company's official web site:

"When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Henry II resigned from the company to join the Naval Reserve. But when his father, Edsel Ford, died in 1943, Henry was dismissed from active duty so that he could return to the company to aid the war effort.
Stepping Into Big Shoes

When Henry Ford retired in 1945, he recommended that Henry II succeed him. Henry II was young--only 28--but he proved from the start that he had the authority to run the company and hold his own."

Henry Ford passed away in 1947.

The complete page is here.

ford.com/about-ford/heritage/people/henryfordii/654-henry-ford-ii

On the question of comparable car sales, I thought it was well known that Ford was the best seller in the Model T days, and Chevrolet after that. The figures are published in many old car books. I can't point to a specific web site but I'm sure if you want to search around, that the info can be found online someplace.

By the way Ford did not invent the automobile, or the assembly line, or the V8 engine either. Sorry.

This should be too obvious but.. new car sales do not necessarily translate into long term survival.

Ford Model T had the advantage of being produced in large numbers, and was one of the first cars to be preserved in large numbers. If you go back to the early days of antique car preservation in the 40s and 50s you will find the most popular antiques are Ford T and believe it or not, Maxwell.

So there was enough demand for pars that businesses could specialize in Ford T parts where they couldn't make a living off any other make.

The popularity of Ford continued as time went on, to include the A and flathead V8.

Chev had the disadvantage that their cars used wooden framed bodies and their engines had splash lubrication and babbitt bearings. The cars were nicer when new but did not stand up as well. More of them ended up in junkyards before they got to be antiques.

Another factor was the popularity of Fords as hot rods. Many were preserved and rebuilt in modified form when other cars were scrapped. This also helped the aftermarket parts business.

The first Chevrolet to take the lead from Ford in terms of performance, was the 55 V8. It was a honey and proved more popular than the Ford Y block as a hot rod.

The hot rod crowd snapped up good 55, 56 and 57 Chevs off the used car lots because of the V8 engine the same as an earlier generation snapped up the 32 Ford.

58 and newer Chevs were a bigger heavier car with a more sophisticated suspension that was not as good for performance.

So, the 57 Chev may not have been the greatest car in the world but as far as the hot rod crowd was concerned, it was the greatest Chev ever made simply because the 55 56 57 models were the best hot rod material and the 57 was the newest and best looking.

The demand for parts for these cars led to a huge demand for parts which was the backbone of the reproduction or restoration parts business.

By comparison, the 55 56 and 57 Fords even though they were popular when new, quickly made their way to the junkyards and were not preserved. They just didn't have the following that Chev did in the hot rod field.

So, even if more Fords were made than Chevs in 1957 far more Chevs have been preserved and revived. There is a feedback loop here as well. At a certain point, the fact that repro parts were available for Chevs and not for other makes, meant a bad condition Chev would be chosen for restoration over an equal condition Ford and the Ford would be scrapped. In other words Chevs were more popular because parts were available and parts were available because they were popular.

I thought all these facts were well known but maybe not.

Not that it matters anymore but if you were in the market for a new car in the low priced field in 1957, and wanted the sharpest best performing car, the Plymouth was the outstanding buy.

All new "Suddenly it's 1960" styling, new torsion bar front suspension, 318 V8 that was larger and more powerful than Ford or Chev, 3 speed Torqueflite transmission vs 2 speed Powerglide and Fordomatic. Plymouth was better styled, better handling, better performing and got better gas mileage than its main rivals.

This accounts for Plymouth's huge sales increase over 1956, nearly double. The limiting factor for sales was factory production capacity. They could not build them fast enough.

So where are they now? Well they were also notorious rust buckets with bad quality control, possibly related to the hurried production. They had their day and were quickly discarded for something newer and better.

Today you will see 100 57 Chevs for every Plymouth at the car shows. Yet in 57 they were struggling to sell a 3 year old body against brand new offerings from Ford and Plymouth.