1946 Ford Super Deluxe Tudor Sedan
Image by Allie’s.Dad
Ford had a number of leftover 1942 body parts that went into 1946 Ford models. Henry Ford II got the first postwar car into production, and the very first one — a white Super DeLuxe Tudor sedan assembled on July 3, 1945 — went to President Harry Truman. Alas, only 34,439 more were assembled during the 1945 calendar year, but it was the quick return to production that put Ford ahead of Chevrolet.
However, there was no end of problems with the War Production Board, which controlled output and materials supplies, and the Office of Price Administration, which put many controls on the price of parts and cars. Henry Ford II claimed that he was losing 0 per car because he couldn’t achieve volume production, and indeed the company was hemorrhaging about million per month at one point.
The pent-up market created an unprecedented demand for new cars. Ford’s advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, created a brilliant teaser campaign: "There’s a Ford in your future." Until July, it showed only parts of the "new" Ford in a crystal ball; then there a publicity blitz culminating in "V-8 Day" on October 26, 1945. More than a million Americans flocked into showrooms for the public introduction, and nearly half a million promptly placed their orders.
