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N0KFQ > TODAY 02.09.14 16:23l 51 Lines 2322 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 35001_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sep 2
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<IK2XDE<DB0RES<DB0ANF<CX2SA<ZL2BAU<N0KFQ
Sent: 140902/1421Z 35001@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Sep 2, 1959:
Ford introduces the compact, fuel-efficient Falcon
On September 2, 1959, at a news conference broadcast to viewers
in 21 cities on closed-circuit television, Henry Ford II
introduces his company's newest car--the 90-horsepower, 30
miles-per-gallon Falcon. The Falcon, dubbed "the small car with
the big car feel," was an overnight success. It went on sale that
October 8 and by October 9, dealers had snapped up every one of
the 97,000 cars in the first production run.
In 1959, each one of Detroit's Big Three automakers began to sell
a smaller, zippier, lower-priced car: Ford had the Falcon, while
General Motors had the Corvair and Chevrolet had the Valiant.
After years of building huge, gas-guzzling, lavishly be-finned
cars, American companies entered the small-car market because
European carmakers like Volkswagen, Fiat, and Renault were
selling their little cars to American buyers by the thousands.
(Foreign-car sales in the United States had jumped 1,060 percent
since 1954 and accounted for about 10 percent of the nation's
new-car sales.) Executives in Detroit hoped that cars like the
Falcon would "drive the imports back to their shores."
Mostly, people liked these smaller cars because they were
inexpensive. The Falcon cost about $1,900 (about $14,029 in
today's dollars)--still much more expensive than even the
priciest of the European imports (the Triumph and the Simca sold
for about $1,600, while a Fiat, the cheapest car you could buy,
cost about $1,000), but more affordable than any other American
car. In addition, more fuel-efficient cars like the Falcon also
saved their drivers money on gas.
Many people believed that the introduction of American compact
cars would permanently transform the automobile industry. The
"desire of American car buyers for sensible automobiles," one
industry executive told a reporter, would soon make big,
inefficient cars obsolete. Unfortunately, though the Falcon was
an immediate sensation--Ford sold more than a million of them in
the car's first two years on the market, and its design went on
to inspire the iconic Ford Mustang--this did not prove to be the
case. Today, small cars account for less than 20 percent of
new-car sales.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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