NOT TRUE. Click on the link I provided in my above post about sales figures by make. It list top sales from 1899-2000. Here's another link, that covers 1946-2000. http://hughwilliamson.hubpages.com/hub/The-Ford-vs-Chevrolet-Rivalry-Post-World-War-II Chevrolet production in '59 was 1,462,140 and Ford's was 1,450,953.
Are your figures including (pickup) trucks? My 'claim' is based on passenger car sales..........not trucks, which I neglected to specify. I may be incorrect, but that claim has been around for a very long time and I think it is accurate. Ray
Pretty sure those numbers do not include trucks...Chevrolet produced some 422,832 trucks in 1950. See http://www.1954advance-design.com/Web%20images/1950-production-numbers/Chev-truck-production.html
Some sales figures get mixed up because one source will use calendar year while another will use model year. Then you can throw in Corvettes, Thunderbirds, etc, and whether they are counted. Some figures count exports, others don't. The 57 Ford was a more modern car than the Chevy, but was rust prone which killed off a big percentage of them. I've read that Ford was almost put under the control of another automaker by the government early in the war, but never heard which one.
I get upset, to say the least, when I hear someone uphold the "Greatest Generation" while disparaging the current or other generations. I've had the privelge to stand face to face with members of our "Greatest Generation" while they thanked me for my service as we stood as men on battlefields of the past, namely the drop zone in Normandy after I jumped in. I've had a beer or many with them at countless "All American" week celebrations at Ft. Bragg NC and listened to their stories of their war as they in turn lintened to ours. The "Greatest Generation" had the backing of the press, the populace and Hollywood as well as Coporate America. My Father, who served in Vietnam,fought for his country and lost friends, came back from war a Black Sheep. I came back from my wars to an America that was a little bit better in treating its soldiers, but otherwise preoccupied with something else. Needless to say, the greatest generation does not belong to a time frame, rather to those that answer the call of their country. The rest of you are just along for the ride. Ah, I feel better. The Henry Ford Documentary on PBS answers a little of this but as usual, the HAMB has a wealth of knowledge. I feel that I learned a little more.
Great thread, really interesting history !! Now, not to digress or go OT, but - "The "Greatest Generation" had the backing of the press, the populace and Hollywood as well as Coporate America. The greatest generation does not belong to a time frame, rather to those that answer the call of their country" Wow so very well put. Corporate USA, the Media, the Govt, and the Manufacturing Elite and therefore Joe Public WERE totally behind this Generation we call the Greatest generation. Simply put there was a war own and war means profits for corporations. Remember the War bond drives? Victory gardens? Car pooling? Fuel rationing ? Even Hollywood got into the act sending stars to entertain the troops/keep up morale. The psyche of the time was permeated by the war/this thought process, cleverly I might add. Not to detract from this generation as I have the utmost respect for what they endured and anyone who knows me knows this all too well. But alas, history is also written by the victors is it not? In the context of the time 1939-45, it was considered unpatriotic to not be in uniform. We've all heard the stories about young guys being distressed for being knocked back form joining the service, some even taking their own lives in shame. So moving forward to current times and in the current climate we live in (me me me), should we not be honouring those who choose to sign up and sacrifice just as much or even more? How will history "judge" the current generation of servicemen/women ? And indeed if the subsequent "skirmishes" our countries have been involved with since WWII had the same level of support from the same institutions/parties/public, I wonder if we'd still be calling then Greatest Generation just that ? Rat
So Ford was a mess after WW2 .....And if the new 49 Ford didn't sell very well,Ford was out of the car business ?
http://video.pbs.org/video/2329934360 Here's the link for the American Experience Documentary. In it, they try to explain how Henry and Edsel disagreed on whether or not to update body styles. Henry insisted that the T was just fine while his competition was introducing newer models. Also looks into the relationship between Henry and Harry Bennett.
Ford was going down hill BEFORE WW2. Henry Ford II (Henry Ford's grandson) was taken out of the Navy by the government, and sent to take over his grandfather's company in 1943 because the company was in bad trouble. He, and his "Quiz Kids" or "Whiz Kids" turned the company around. The 49 Ford was the first all new car that owed nothing to the previous management (the 49 Mercury and Lincoln were basically designed before HFII took over). They were not in danger of going broke but in 1948, their products were 10 or 15 years behind the times in some ways, especially chassis and suspension design. One Ford fan said "In those days you bought a Ford because of the motor and nothing else. The brakes, suspension, steering, body, heating system, were inferior to their competitors". So the 49s, while a radical change for Ford, basically put them on an even footing with the rest of the industry.
I might add that Ford actually wanted to debut the "new" Ford in '48; to be the first "new" post-war car, the part numbers for most '49 stuff has the prefix; "8A", for 1948 Ford. They couldn't do it, and the '49 suffered a lot from teething pains of being rushed into production too quickly! They were changing things constantly and by '51 they were a lot better. I know the '49 to '51s, the "Shoeboxes" are very popular, but man the later stuff is so much better.
"50 improvements for 1950" was the Ford advertising slogan for the much improved '50 models............. Ray
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