Cars In The 1950s – The Manufacturers

Cars in the 1950s really captured the public imagination. They presented a style and design which has rarely been captured since.

A plethora of American and European manufacturers created some amazing motor cars during a decade of innovation and classic cars design.

Take, for instance the German company Mercedes Benz.

Mercedes Benz's tooling survived the allied bombing during the Second World War and they took some of their designs from the 1930's pre war era into the 1950s.

A good example of this was their convertible 170S Cabriolet B, This was based on the pre war 170V, but the 1950 version was built with an all steel structure rather than with the previous wooden frame. The result was a beautiful car which typified the style early 1950s luxury motor car.

By the mid 1950s Mercedes Benz had also started production of their 190SL. A change of design for the German company, and a prototype was put on display at the 1954 Motor Show. The 190SL received a good reaction from the New York public and a modified version appeared at Geneva Salon a year later.

The 1950s also saw a new lease of life for Britain's Ford car production. Prior to the 1950s, low priced British Ford cars, which were produced in Essex, gained the nickname “Dagenham Dustbins.”

This was to change in the 1950s as Ford's Consul and Zephyr models rolled off the production lines These cars were designed at Ford's home in Detroit, United States, but they were renowned as an excellent British car.

Ford sales of cars in the 1950s rocketed and during the first six years of the decade almost a quarter of a million of the Consul and Zephyr models were bought from the showrooms.

But of course it was in Amercia and that cars in the 1950s really made a huge impact with a host of manufacturers including Ponitca, Lincoln, Dodge and Chrysler producing some fantatsic cars.

Among American manufacturers of cars in the 1950s Studebaker was a key player. Studebaker cars were some of the biggest sellers in the States during this period.

Studebaker were far sighted enough to see the upsurge of sales after World War II and adopted the slogan “First by Far with a post war Car.”Studebaker cars, with their bullet nosed fronts were hailed as the “New Look.”

This flamboyant and ultra modern new look was exemplified by the Studebaker Champion Starlight which hailed a change of styling from the company's pre war cars.

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