Lets talk Body Styles…

These days, auto manufacturers are really unsure what to call their mundane body styles… VW made a big sedan called the “Phaeton” and luxury car companies are making 4 door curved roof fastbacks and calling them “Sport Coupes”. Audi, Jaguar, Nissan and Mini all offer a convertible model with retractable door glass they call a “Roadster”.  There was a time, take 1932 for instance, when Ford offered FOURTEEN real body types for essentially one car- Not including trucks!! Think about a big auto maker trying to match that sales concept today. To further the point, I’ve scanned in a 1930 Ford brochure (when they offered a measly twelve body styles that year), just to show you how many style choices a buyer had. Its an interesting side note that the least expensive models like the Standard Roadster, Coupe and Phaeton are now among the most desirable and valuable with hot rodders and collectors (not to mention the bitchin’ Victoria!). On the other hand, the more expensive, luxurious and lower production Ford offerings like the ‘Three Window Fordor Sedan’ (oddly, Ford is counting the 3 windows on each side of the car for the name) or the Briggs/ Murray Town Sedan don’t muster the same prices in many cases. As my dad used to say about collector car prices based on body styles, “Half the doors equals twice the price”, and “When the top goes, down the price goes up”… Still, ALL these body types look to have great hot rod potential to me! What’s your favorite, and why?