<VV> Car History Question -- No Corvair

[W Halsey]

During the 1950's (my teen and college years) I had in turn, a 1947 Ford
Coupe (six cylinder),a 51 Ford Victoria, a 53 Ford Taunus (German), and a
1955 Williys Custom six cylinder. The Taunus was a 1200cc four cylinder, 3
speed and could get better than 40mpg on the highway. The Willys got about
25 highway mpg, and the others got about 16-17.

Cars with four cylinders did exist but were not big sellers. Henry J,
Allstate, Hudson Jet, Metropolitan, and Willys  to name a few. Styling, V-8
power, automatic transmissions etc were the attractions for new car buyers.
Your single Momma would have ridden the bus in those days. They were
actually in use in much of the country back then.

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Steven J. Serenska
<corvair at serenska.com>wrote:

> VVers:
>
> The Corvair, Valiant/Lancer, and Falcon were introduced in 1960.
>
> Just prior to that, say, between 1955 and 1959, what would people have
> used as an economy car?  By "economy car" I don't mean a car that got
> good gas mileage, I mean one that would have been a lower priced vehicle
> that could be purchased by most anyone.
>
> I also don't mean cars like an older Volvo or a Saab (or even a VW), as
> I don't think that most Americans of lesser means would have sought out
> a relatively exotic vehicle like that.  I'm trying to get a handle on
> whatever was the low-cost family vehicle of choice in the mid- to
> late-50's before the manufacture of smaller, cheaper vehicles (e.g.,
> Corvair, Chevy II, Falcon, etc.) that were priced lower than the biggest
> cars in the product line
>
> Would it have been a 10-year old whatever (e.g., a 1950 Nash Rambler)?
>
> Maybe another way to ask it is: If you were a single mother with 3 kids
> in 1958 in the rural south who cleaned houses for a living, what was
> your ride?  Were there any 4-cylinder vehicles that would have fallen
> into this category?
>
> I tried Googling this, most references to vehicles from this era are for
> models that would be of interest to collectors today.
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> Steven "my Mom drove a 1954 Chevrolet Belair, but that was in 1967"
> Serenska
>
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