Since we’re visiting our North American neighbors, let’s also do another Canadian, this one being a Meteor Country Sedan. Dad has quite a load of kids in there; just how many are there anyway?
Vintage Brochure Shot: 1959 Meteor Country Sedan – Dad Has A “Wonderful Capacity For Work Or Play”
– Posted on March 29, 2023
Seems to be nine kids plus their hockey gear presumably. Seems to contradict the capacity stated below the illustration.
I had young boys that played hockey and judging by that experience the gear smells terrible (and thus the popularity of pickup trucks to separate the gear from the people). With nine sets in there that car would smell extremely ripe.
Wouldn’t a lot of the gear still be wool in ’59 for that matter? No wonder the windows are down in winter.
Ford of Australia built 1959-style full size models (nicknamed the “tank” Fairlane) through 1962 and reused the ’59 Meteor grille as a midcycle facelift.
Driver is not considered a passenger. Nine passengers plus the driver.
Nine kids in one car? That man needs a drink.
It’s 1959; he’s probably already had at least one. How else to explain his smile in those circumstances?
Not familiar with that year’s Meteor, am surprised as to how attractive it looks. Usually Meteors got the styling that you assumed was the third or fourth place runner-up to what was used on that year’s Ford. Wildly, overly brash to say the least. This is actually subtle by comparison.
Too bad Ford couldn’t get Art Fitzpatrick to draw up some Meteor ads; then they’d be wide enough to seat 5 kids across…
Looks like dad has 3-4 inches clearance for his homburg.
Can anyone of you explain why this one-year model has a raised rear roof? Or why the car is overall lower in height? I look forward to your input.
It was originally intended that the ’59 Ford body would be used for two years, including 1960, hence the investment made in certain changes. But when Ford heard about the radical ’59 GM cars in the works, they became very concerned about getting left behind, so they rushed an all-new 1960 model into production. That turned out to be something of a mistake.
Full story here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1960-ford-starliner-haste-makes-waste/
Ford never really grasped brand identity. Ford decided to fill the American grille with Meteor stars in ’59, so the Meteor had to switch to rectangles. Should have been the other way around.
I often hear grumblings these days about 4-door cars being called “coupes”. But well into the 70s, FoMoCo called their basic station wagon a “sedan”, and nobody complained.
Barely detectable at the top of the ad is the phrase:
HARDTOP styled station wagon.
I note this because Ford sold a hardtop station wagon in 1959….it was branded as a Mercury in the U.S. Seeing as how Meteor cars were a sort of ” mix and match ” of Ford and Mercury parts, a Mercury wagon styled as a Meteor would almost make more sense. Though I guess that really wasn’t possible since the Meteor brand was a sort of ” bridge ” between Ford and Mercury.
Yet, even this car’s grille looks like a subdued version of the 59 Mercury grille.
Our US Fords came from Canada but I dont think Ive ever seen the Mercury edition Mercury vanished here in 49 though NZ got the annual model changes Australia missed out on.
Yes, in Australia from 1959 through to 1961 Ford Australia sold the Fairlane as its top of range luxury cars. They were the following.
RHD 1959-61 Ford Fairlane 500 sedan
RHD 1959-61 Ford Fairlane 300 sedan
RHD 1959-61 Ford Fairlane Ranch Wagon (300 trim)
The above, vehicles were essentially identical. All had V8 engines. The 300 models had a lesser level trim, but these Australian CKD assembled RHD Ford Fairlanes in Australia were sold as high end luxury cars
Too bad my books are packed for moving. I have a book that details Canadian Mercury models and collection of others that list CDN prices. The Country Sedan would be a very low production model back in the day and almost impossible to find now.
What source I do have on the 1959 Meteor line says nothing about station wagons.
This is beautiful .
-Nate