Export or Die.
That short but powerful post-war British expression blazed through my mind upon seeing this exported Ford Consul, a product of Ford of England. While the economic conditions in Great Britain subsequent to World War II are known to have been harsh, it was more than just a war that led up to it. Or maybe it was a war; one just needs to consider which one as Great Britain had been involved in no less than two during the first half of the 20th Century.
Examining this history also helps explain how a modest, base model, left-hand drive Ford from the UK could be found for sale in the middle of North America in 2021.
Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205087151
The ravages of World War II were tremendous for all countries involved, especially those in Europe and Asia. When studying all the events surrounding the war, it doesn’t take long to realize Great Britain had the unenviable outcome of being a victor who lost much.
The repercussions of the war lasted in the UK for a very long time. With severe military losses between 1940 and 1942, such as Dunkirk, and the dire need to change their trajectory in this conflict, the British economy had been focused almost exclusively on production of war material for quite some time when the war concluded. But these events still don’t fully explain the genesis of the bleak conditions the British were enduring subsequent to VE Day.
World War II frequently overshadows many things, due to it being more recent and the horrors being more widespread than what had been endured in the prior war. Thus it’s easy to overlook the lingering affects World War I had on the British economy. Shortly after World War I several observers noted how Britain did not seem like a country having just experienced a military victory as due to the upheaval being experienced in their new, postwar world.
1930s London. Source www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
The challenges in Britain subsequent to the Armistice were also societal and political, not just economic. In addition to all men over 21 and women over 30 being given the right to vote in 1918, the work force was quickly transitioning to more white collar jobs, while unemployment hit a record high (for the time) 11.3% in 1921 as manufacturing related to war goods, such as steel, contracted with the transition to peacetime.
Economically, the war had cost Britain the equivalent of 136% of its gross national product and Britain’s place in the world economic hierarchy was slipping.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
The Great Depression experienced by the United States during the 1930s was not an isolated event. Reflecting how national economies were intertwined even then, the Great Depression in the United States played a part in Britain experiencing what is commonly called The Slump or The Devil’s Decade. The Slump hit the British shipping industry, as one example, quite hard, with ripple-effects throughout the British economy. Unemployment was high, exports were down due to depressed markets, and it is reported that at one point around 1931 roughly one-quarter of the British were going hungry.
In short, Britain’s economy had never fully rebounded from World War I by the time World War II came along.
In addition to their economic woes, the British Empire had experienced internal unrest during the second war. It was in 1942 the Empire had declined the desires of Mahatma Ghandi and the Indian National Congress for the British to “quit India”. While India did ultimately gain independence in 1947, India’s exit from the Empire was a huge blow in terms of economics and defense, an exit that British sources have described as a hasty, face-saving retreat to prevent further losses within the Empire.
It was also after the end of World War II when many British industries, such as the steel industry, where nationalized. The need for foreign currency to help salvage the economy was paramount, with this foreign currency coming primarily from exports. That’s why the mantra of “export or die” had such magnitude; it was far from being superficial. It was a rallying cry for British industry to produce and continue to stay vibrant as the alternative was obvious, bleak, and quite near.
The mantra was definitely taken to heart by the British automotive industry. While Britain provided 15% of the world’s vehicle exports in 1937, this figure had increased to 52% by 1950. All this discussion of exports leads us to our featured, and exported, Ford Consul.
In what was most likely an expedient move, Ford introduced the Pilot in 1947. Helping to fill the profound need for new cars subsequent to the war, many elements of the Pilot, such as the 2.2 liter flathead V8, were reflections of Ford’s prewar parts inventory.
But Ford was planning for another car, one that was initially displayed at the 1950 Earls Court Motor Show in London. It was ultimately one of three cars Ford used in the family sedan category in the UK. Technologically, it was vastly different than the outgoing Pilot.
Production of the base model Consul and the higher trimmed, six-cylinder Zephyr began in January 1951. The Zephyr Zodiac would be introduced soon thereafter.
The Consul represented many firsts for Ford of England. It was the first Ford having hydraulic brakes (the Pilot had mechanical ones) and the first Ford having a unibody structure. The Consul was also one of the first cars to make use of a McPherson strut front suspension.
Yet other elements of the Consul were quite mundane – although, perhaps, traditional might be a better descriptor. The transmission was a column shifted three-speed manual and the rear suspension was the tried-and-true leaf spring system.
Power for the Consul came from a 1.5 liter overhead-valve four-cylinder making 47 horsepower and 72 lb-ft of torque. With this engine being expected to move 2,480 pounds, the Consul was not a fast car by any metric. However, the highway system (in both the US and UK) was vastly different in the early 1950s. That this Consul took 28 seconds to reach sixty miles per hour, and topped out at 72 miles per hour, wasn’t of tremendous consequence as travel speeds were significantly lower than in present times.
What was important was the Consul returned approximately 26 miles per gallon (Imperial) according to tests of the time.
Some sources have stated the body of the Consul was designed in North America. Whether it was or not, one thing is apparent…
The Consul certainly shared some DNA with the North American 1949 Ford.
Regardless of who designed the exterior, keeping the then current Ford family resemblance was no easy feat for the much smaller Consul, a car just under 13’9″ in overall length. Translating design elements onto a much smaller car is often a recipe for disaster (think 1980 Ford Thunderbird or Lincoln Mark VI) but it was reasonably successful with the Consul.
For perspective, this Consul didn’t appear to be too vastly different in size than the Chevrolet Cobalt parked behind it.
Externally, there is nothing to really distinguish a Consul manufactured in early 1951 from one built at the end of this generation’s production in February 1956. However, the interior gives us a clue.
Early Consuls had a flat dashboard. The instrument pod, as seen here, came about in September 1952 and was incorporated to mimic what was being used on the six-cylinder Zephyrs. So if one were to use model years similarly to what has typically been done in the US, this would make this Consul a 1953 to 1956 model.
But we have one more indicator, literally, that has been quite difficult to pin down for period of use. It hasn’t been impossible, but it has not been corroborated.
This Consul came with trafficators. According to this source for parts numbers, trafficators ceased being used after 1952/1953. So between the instrument cluster and the trafficators we are going with this being a 1953 model!
Incidentally, the vast majority of Ford’s press photos of Consuls, particularly the earlier ones, do not have any visible trafficators on them. So it would appear these were either very well integrated into the B-pillar or an option for some period of time.
A Ford Consul of any iteration is a car I had never had occasion to see at any prior point in my life and I knew nothing about it. Frankly, finding it provided a weird adrenaline rush. This Consul was found in a location that at first blush would not be a haven for old, imported Fords However, like with the “Export or Die” mantra, we ought to look beyond the mere surface.
This Ford was found near the small town of Doolittle. Renamed for Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, who led the 1942 Allied bombing mission on Tokyo, Doolittle sits along I-44 in that twenty-five mile gap between the U.S. Army’s Ft. Leonard Wood and the reasonably well known engineering school formerly named the University of Missouri-Rolla. So between military personnel and college professors, finding this English Ford in the middle of North America isn’t quite so mystifying.
For its home market, this Consul helped turn Ford into a major player in Europe due in part to being economical and sized right. For its export markets, specifically the United States, the Consul provided a distinct alternative to the larger cars indigenous to this Consul’s adopted home.
This particular Consul is remarkably solid and complete. Let’s hope it finds a loving new home.
Found June 2021 near Doolittle, Missouri
Kinda dumpy looking to me .
I remember these in New England as a young boy .
-Nate
I knew of these cars before this write-up but wasn’t sure any were ever imported to the U.S., Canada seemed a bit more likely a market.
To me, with that very plain grille, this looks like it would almost have been more at home as a ” junior ” Mercury. But then, Lincoln-Mercury dealers would probably have resisted a small car back in the 50s, too.
Would love to be able to buy this and update it with newer Ford engine, transmission, and rear axle, though I would generally just tidy up the interior and exterior. Retro Ford magazine has featured one or two of these Consuls over the years, usually fitted with a V8. Oddly, it’s the bigger Zephyr and Zodiac that attract restorers while these Consuls are currently languishing. But I am starting to see 1 or 2 in the background of those PBS period detective dramas.
Ford sold the smaller (and still prewar until 1954!) Anglia and Prefect in the US.
Those are the English Fords I remember seeing prior to the Cortina.
Thanks for some good insight into post-war Britain. My dad lived there in the 30’s and through WWII (as an adult; I was born when he was already in his late fifties and had been in the US for almost 10 years) and we lived there twice, briefly, in the early sixties. Quite a contrast to the US even 20 years after the war. As modest as it looks, the Consul and its Z-car siblings seemed quite upscale compared to the more ubiquitous Prefects and Anglia’s. And although my dad never drove, perhaps it was loyalty to his former country that inspired my parents to buy a Hillman as their first car in 1953. I’ve only seen a few of this version of Consul here; the replacement model was a bit more common I think. I’m pretty sure they were sold by the small independent “import” shop that also sold Citroen/Peugeot, not the local Ford dealer.
Try as I might, I never could find anything in regard to numbers exported to the US; for that matter, the overall production volume was elusive also.
One Consul related website was a bit vague, stating it suspected about 2100 to 2500 were exported to the US while this generation of Consul was built. It didn’t generate enough confidence for inclusion into the article.
Supposing that many were sent to the US, it’s hard to believe many still exist, especially in as complete a condition as this one.
The numbers were quite small. The fact that both UK and German Fords were imported to the US makes the whole story of European Fords in the US even more arcane, although the German ones didn’t show up until a bit later in the 50s.
Amazing find. I’ve never run across one of these, virtually or in the flesh.
All of Europe suffered to various degrees during the interwar years. WW1 was the most idiotic, self-destructive and utterly unnecessary war ever, since it not only took a huge toll on lives and economic activity, but set up the circumstances for WW2.
FWIW, it appears though that the Depression hit America proportionately harder then the UK and a number of European countries. And the US essentially exported the Depression to them.
Much of the UK’s decline was secular; it was just part of the inevitable passing of the baton to the US as the greatest industrial nation. That was inevitable, and WW1 just hastened that.
While I had always known the years between the wars were times of true ugliness in Europe, I never gained the full magnitude of it until researching for this article. Inflation, political turmoil, etc. were rampant. Having read Toland’s biography of Hitler a few years ago, just the German experience was horrible between the wars and it did indeed show how WWI set everything up for WWII. Somewhere I’ve read the suggestion it was simply one war with a twenty year intermission.
WW1 destroyed the old order in most of Europe, in an incredibly wrenching way. The dissolution of the Austo-Hungarian (Hapsburg) and German empires created a gigantic political void. Initially it opened the way for some quite modern and progressive governments in Germany (Weimar Republic) and Austria, among others. This brought about huge social and political changes. But the grievances of the conservative/military class in Germany, who had never actually accepted the Armistice as real (not very unlike the US election in 2020, actually), agitated to build up the military and continue the war, essentially. It was in this environment that Hitler found his traction.
WW1 brought about a lot of positive change in the UK, in that the very rigid class structure was considerably loosened. There was much more informality and mobility between the classes afterwards. It was the beginning of the great social changes there that came to fruition after WW2. Social welfare programs, health care, etc. The working class rightfully felt that they (as always in war) had suffered disproportionately in a war that the elites/nobles had unnecessarily started, and now they were extracting payback. It’s a fairly common experience after a war. The working class realizes they’ve been exploited once again as cannon fodder, and want the elites who got them into it to compensate them, at least to some degree.
Yet another reason why I so enjoy this site, Paul. The wide-ranging scholarship (not just you, everyone!), the setting of vehicles within their historical and cultural context, the recognition that not everybody reading will be of the same ethnic background – all that AND the most amazing variety of cars to be found on one site.
Vielen Dank for all your hard work.
But the grievances of the conservative/military class in Germany, who had never actually accepted the Armistice as real (not very unlike the US election in 2020, actually), agitated to build up the military and continue the war, essentially.
Never thought of this parallel before, but cannot unsee it now. The Spanish Flu on top of it all makes it even more uncanny. Frighteningly so, in fact.
There’s a very good book on this, The Lost History of 1914: How the Great War Was Not Inevitable by Jack Beatty.
Incredible find! If I saw this car by the side of a highway, I would have no idea what it was. So I’m glad you stopped and documented this car.
I know very little of this era of English Fords, but I do remember reading at one point that exports were hampered due to steel shortages. If true, it would be doubly frustrating that the UK needed durable goods exports, but lacked the steady supply of raw materials to make it happen.
And seeing your pictures here really got me curious about who bought Consuls in the US during the 1950s – both from a demographic and geographic standpoint. Very interesting stuff.
And I figured I’d include this US ad here too:
If I were a betting man, I’d lay odds this Consul was purchased from the dealer in the ad you show. Springfield is only about 100 miles away from where I found this Consul.
Oddly, I didn’t eve see the car at first. The coworker who was with me pointed that direction (we were on an outer road) and asked what kind of car this was. I knew it wasn’t American immediately but was astounded to realize what it was. He had no clue Ford even had a presence in Europe, let alone had ever exported cars here.
This Consul may get the award for Smallest Tail Lights Ever.
Believe it or not I found two ads — here’s the one (for a later Mark II) that has the dealer’s name/location in Springfield.
Speaking of dealers (and having read Art’s comment below about sparse dealer support), I wonder what proportion of US Ford dealers actually picked up the English Ford product line?
Growing up in Toronto i remember seeing many of the Mark II, but not the the original. In the mid-sixties my high school Latin teacher drove a Zephyr and she incorporated the origin of the name into a Latin class.
The car my parents owned when I was born was a green 1956 Consul. My Dad told me he bought it because his father used Ford trucks in his business, and he expected support from Ford dealers. That support was spotty at least in the Philadelphia area, and finding parts and service for English Fords here was problematic by the late ’60s.
My Dad survived a head on crash which totalled the Consul. But he was happy enough with the car that the replacement was a 1959 Zephyr. He told me he upgraded to the Zephyr because the higher torque I6 engine was easier for my mother to drive. I drove that Zephyr for a few months when I first got my license until the transmission failed, and we couldn’t get it repaired or replaced.
I didn’t know Consuls were sold in North America either, i thought it was just the Anglia in the 50s, Cortina in the 60s and Capris in the 70s.
On two tangents, the need to export in order to guarantee a steel ration was one of the main reasons for making the Land Rover since it used aluminum which wasn’t rationed to increase the steel ration for Rover, who also exported cares to the US.
The other tangent is downsizing 50s US styling which is also evident on the Vauxhall Victor FE which clearly borrows form the Tri Chevy.
No, Vauxhall followed Oldsmobile styling for the F series Victor and PA 6 cylinder cars not the Chevy.
I read that Alfred Hitchcock used UA imported English Fords for his street scenes in the movie Rear Window because their 2/3 size of a US Ford made the film’s set of apartment buildings look like correct size scale.
Checking my April 1958 ‘Measham Used Car Price Guide’, which has a very handy listing of UK market model alterations, it confirms that the dash and steering column were changed in September 1952 and the flashing indicators (and a restyled front bumper) in October 1953.
It’s a very long time since I saw one other than at a show.
The semaphore indicator switch on the steering wheel centre confirms this cars age but the last time I pointed out what that switch was for was on a Hillman and an argument with someone ensued it is not for dipping the headlamps.
Guess it is so long since the trafficators were around most people would have no idea now. Didn’t Hillman normally have the headlight dip on the floor? I certainly recall it was there on the ‘Arrow’ cars (Hunter, etc.).
American models did .
The trafficator / horn push on my Nash Metropolitan FHC confuses many .
Flashing turn signals stopped in America mid way through the 1955 model year for *most* imports, of course in those days there were plenty of gray market and direct imports being sold that still had semaphores .
-Nate
Jason, thank you so much for your explanation of early 20th century British history. Their national psyche really took a hammering.
These were very common cars in Australia when I was growing up, though the six-cylinder Zephyr was the more popular. While a lovely-looking car, the Consul always seemed very plain. Like the Vauxhall Wyvern (in the same size class) it seemed that the four cylinder model was base trim only and that if you wanted a bit of chrome on the outside, or a bit nicer upholstery – sorry, that only came with the six. Like they were penalising you for choosing the four. (Meanwhile, Morris had no qualms about selling you a one and a half litre sedan with a nice interior.) A deluxe version came later, but still wasn’t as nice inside as a Zephyr, let alone a Zodiac – but who ever saw one of those? Not me.
Nominally Ford was selling the Zephyr against the Holden here (same size engine), but despite the Holden looking positively Jurassic alongside the Zephyr, Ford couldn’t get the price down low enough to compete. Off the top of my head I think the price difference was something like 15-20%. That would have meant a lot in fifties Australia. The Consul would have been closer in price but few seemed to choose the British four against the Aussie six. I’ll have to get my fifties magazines out of storage some time and check.
What struck me straight away when I saw the photo was how rust-free the subject car seems to be. They even rusted here in Australia – how on earth did one stay this clean in middle America?
These tubs were still about even when I was a young kid, all in the hands of white-gloved old ladies, it seemed, and always powder blue. Well, in the mind of a little kid, anyway.
The Zephyrs have only the grille to truly sperate them, but they do look much better for it. With the toothy Nash Airflyte-style grille and weeny wheels, these look a bit too much like an over-padded couch for me. And note the weight – 400lbs more than a six-cylinder FJ Holden, for a smaller car! Why?
That would be the Holden’s famous “Aerobilt Body”!
Seriously, that weight disparity is rather startling. I’m guessing Ford way overdid the body strengthening when figuring out the load paths for that newfangled MacPherson strut suspension.
No wonder the Zephyr made a good rally car.
Monte Carlo MK1s were fitted with Raymond Mays cylinder heads and overdrive gearboxes, they were a long way from factory stock and the new fangled Mac Phearson strut front suspension was a weak point on MK1s the strut is located fore and aft by the sway bar and they break and the result isnt pretty from inside the car at speed trust me. Consuls handle better than Zephyrs and Zodiacs and were less prone to breaking halfshafts less power is usefull when the rear axle is underbaked that was the other major issue with MK1s axles made from carrots all hoons carried a spare or two and the tools to change them
When I left Tassie for NZ in 03 there were still several daily driven MK2 Zephyrs around the Huon and Channel districts and parts were available at Margate tipshop several MK3s turned up the during a car amnesty when dumping cars became no charge, old cars would pile up at the rubbish dumps during those periods as people cleared their lawns and paddocks, truly amazing what was laying around down there a friend and I found hundreds of old classic when we went hunting Morris minor parts around the backblocks.
Outstanding find and riveting post!
These English Fords are hit and miss – the Zodiacs were a hit in my book, but I’d rather give the antiquated Popular a miss. Never thought much about the in-betweeners like this Consul, but they look sleeker than the Austins, Standards and Hillmans of the day.
Small nitpick: the Pilot never had the V8-60 – it was planned to, but they ended up going with the 3.6 litre instead. The V8-60 only survived the war in French Fords.
Ah, the British family cars. Unlike the US Big Three (and independents), in Britain at that time you were talking about a Big Six (and independents). The Hillmans weren’t too bad-looking, but a size smaller (1200cc), unless you went to a Humber Hawk which was in a bigger class again (1944cc, later 2267cc) and had a Prestigious Name (with pricing to match), so not direct competition. The Consul was certainly sleeker then the Austins (1200cc A40, 2199cc A70, but they didn’t use not quite the same body) and Standard (Vanguard, 2.1 litre four only).
And Morris too, mustn’t forget them; they used to be independent. Well, more like Lord Nuffield’s own private automotive empire, with Morris, MG, Wolseley and Riley. Dad’s first new car after the war was an MO series Oxford, the one that looked like a Minor blown up 20%. To think if he’d waited a year, he could have got one of these Consuls…..maybe. Back then I believe you put your name on a list and waited, and waited.
That leaves one. You could throw Vauxhall in there with the other un-sleek British cars, maybe; their new Wyvern (4) and Velox (6) that came out around the same time and competed directly with the Consul and Zephyr looked like a ’49 Chevy (not such a bad thing, but no Consul) that had crashed head on into a wall (oops!). Just enough bodywork ahead of the windshield to cover the greasy bits.
I’m so glad Ford developed the new OHV six for the Zephyr. I can imagine somewhere in the hierarchy there would have been a bean-counter wanting to use that old V8-60 instead: “But we have an engine in that size class and power bracket already……” I’m so glad he was overruled. 🙂
Helluva find in Missouri, and remarkable condition too. It just doesn’t appear rusty, and they were rather skilled at oxidizing even in a dry climate.
For some trivia, with the six as an otherwise-practically identical Zephyr, one of these won the 1953 Monte Carlo rally.
As a sidebar, sadly, Australia played a part in the long-term seeds of WW2, at the Treaty of Versailles. Our PM of the time, Billy Hughes – rightly called a ‘pestiferous varmint” by Woodrow Wilson – wanted at total 24 billion pounds in reparations from Germany (with 500 million-odd for Australia): it was eventually 6 billion, still far too high, so much so it was only finally settled in 2010! Worse, Hughes insisted that the no racial discrimination clause that Japan wanted in the concurrent League of Nations charter was excluded, as Australia feared Japanese labor and had the dreadful White Australia Policy in place. He leaked this dispute to the US press, knowing that it would whip up similar fears in California, and this was ultimately the cause of the US Senate blocking ratification of the Charter. America could hardly play policeman/peacekeeper in Europe when it hadn’t ratified the League, another factor leading to WW2.
(Sadly, and embarrassingly, an Australian who also fancies himself as an upstart iconoclast – and one for whom I might use far less polite terms than “pestiferous”- owns Fox News today. So the world turns).
The Zephyr did get a four inch wheelbase stretch to fit the six in, and they gave it a different grille while they were at it. Impossible to tell from behind if you couldn’t read the badge though. At least I could never tell them apart…..
Fascinating piece, Jason. I especially liked the historical context you had provided regarding England’s economy and the two World Wars as related to setting the stage for a car like this one. I also had to look up “trafficators” and am pretty certain that today was the first time I recall having learned about them.
This car’s model name of “Consul” was also pretty fitting, given the definition of that word.
Bravo, all around.
Glad I made it back to this one today. I will join the chorus of appreciation for the historical context. One underappreciated fact about the postwar order is that it was the vanquished countries of Germany and Japan (which received much support for rebuilding) had the “nothing to lose” mentality which permitted them to pursue policies of low marginal tax rates which contributed quite a lot to their growth (and which were pursued despite the advice of the economic experts of the times. Meanwhile, countries like England and France pursued more conventional-for-the-period economic policies that made growth challenging. The US followed some of these high-tax-rate policies, but had the advantage of having come out of the war undamaged and the combo of a large home market and very little world competition for the first 15 years.
As for the car, this is the first I have seen here, so good job on the find.
The US, hardly came out of the war “undamaged” Sure, the homeland was fine, but many of the returning GI’s were not. PTSD was not yet known, and many had nightmares and took their rage out on loved ones. I know. I was one. My dad got drafted in 1942 as a 19yr old kid and served in the Army thru 1945 in Germany. Somewhat decorated (I have his medals,and even the letter he received telling him when and where to be ) He related tales of things no 19-20 year old kid should see. Point is, yes America was damaged, just not in a physical way.
My Dad was in WWII also, although as he joined the Navy in ’44 at 17 he likely suffered less than your Father, but rarely spoke of it.
However, not to diminish US losses, when I visited England and Europe in ’67 I realized the war wasn’t as far in the past as I thought. Prior it seemed ancient history to me as a 13 year old, but it wasn’t. England didn’t have as much visible damage, but it was still clear somehow it wasn’t far in the past. And Germany, wow, a study in contrasts, lots of bombed out buildings, still, semi standing, often next to new modern ones. With some old ones still intact. While they were making progress a bit over 20 years later, it was obvious they were the ones who lost the war.
So Europe/UK, got hit very hard in the war and the cars showed it. Lots of pre war stuff to a large degree, they didn’t have the money for engineering and people didn’t have the money to pay for new engineering. A little updating, maybe some new sheetmetal, but old bones so to speak. Which is why the US auto industry, with no bombed out factories, modest human losses at least on a percentage level, at least compared to Europe, thrived and was the envy of the world in the 50s and early 60s, even as they were building these huge consumptive cars.
The Consuls and Zephyrs were extremely popular in NZ not as popular as E series Vauxhalls but there were plenty on the roads, Consuls now are the absolute rarity now, Interesting or not I was on my way to undercoat a replacement tailgate for my wagon last week when I realised the car I was following along the horthern motorway was a MK4 Zephyr wow not many of those around so I followed it and it turned out to be the Auckland Zephyr Zodiac club out for a run several MK2s including a ute. Plenty of MK3s Zephyrs and Zodiacs and 4 MK1s Zephyrs only and 3 of them were the early models like this consul with the small tail lights and semafore indicators the other was a 55 with larger tail lights and flashing indicators, Zephyrs have gone from being everyones car or hotrod to being very rare and MK4s are seldom seen full stop they were crap with a feeble 2.5 V6 that was deleted from NZ production after the first year too unreliable and prone to overheating breaking oil pump/distributor drives and gutless all our MK4s from then till the end of production had the 3.0 Zodiac engine or got converted to V8, the owner told me he also has a MK3 ute ex Shell oil company they had a fleet of them and they are real rare as only NZ had the ute 151 were made very few survive.
That 2.5 V6 had similar problems to the 2.0 V4 as used in Corsairs and early Transits. I had a Granada Ghia with that “Essex” 3.0V6 . Built proof.
As for the USA “English Ford” cashed in on the late 50s import craze with the “Dollar a Day” Prefect compact.
Unfortunately for Ford UK the MK4 Zephyr was the end of their large Fords on the NZ market they had a poor reputation and by the end were being discounted to move them off the yards unheard of here where new cars were hard to get join the list items Luckily the Australian Falcon was becoming popular and kept the customers coming thru the door,
Missed this first time around. Fascinating find Jason, and has to be one of the most unlikely models to survive all this time in the US. Like Bryce said, Consuls/Zephyrs/Zodiacs were super-popular in NZ. My parents had a Mk II Consul through the late 60s, before switching to Cortinas. Still see the odd Consul around, although they’re usually under hedges disintegrating into the ground. Anyway, very well-written piece Jason, thank you!
This 1953 Ford Consul model was very popular in Brazil in the early 1950s. It was the favorite car of driving schools. My father used to say that he learned to drive in one of these
It was imported from England. The first passenger cars entirely manufactured in Brazil only appeared in the beginning of the 60s. Before that, some models were only assembled in Brazil
The suspension was McPherson !
“Export or Die.” To me, this never meant much about cars, as British non-sports cars were incredibly rare in my part of Pennsylvania.
However, what it did mean was the beginning of serious motorcycling in the United States, as the most successful motor vehicle exporters at the time were BSA/Triumph and Associated Motor Cycles (Norton, Matchless, AJS).
This is the movement that showed Sochiro Honda his corporation’s future.
This 1953 Ford Consul model was very popular in Brazil in the early 1950s. It was the favorite car of driving schools. My father used to say that he learned to drive in one of these
It was imported from England. The first passenger cars entirely manufactured in Brazil only appeared in the beginning of the 60s. Before that, some models were only assembled in Brazil
The suspension was McPherson !
This photo was taken from internet:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ford+consul+1953+no+Brasil&tbm=isch&chips=q:ford+consul+1953+no+brasil,online_chips:zephyr+zodiac:5a-VnwNzMFQ%3D&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNwYDkhZH1AhUVA7kGHeI0D00Q4lYoAnoECAEQFg&biw=1360&bih=630
My husband recently acquired a 1953 Consul. He saved it from being hauled off to the car crusher. It is in rough shape, but in tact, and has an engine. He is not sure if it runs yet. We would like to sell it to a good home to someone that values the car for its history. Any ideas on how we can find out a reasonable price to sell this car? Due to there being so few of them in the US we are not quite sure where to start. We live in Oregon. This historical article was very interesting ~ Thank you.
I own a 1953 Consul and will be selling it soon if anyone is interested. It has been restored interior and exterior, and engine rebuilt (hasn’t even been run in yet). When I parked it ten years ago for storage, it was running but I have not attempted to start it up in all that time. It’s just sitting there and needs a good home as I have other projects to keep me busy. If anyone is interested get ahold of me through this post. I’m located in Kansas.
1953 ConsulMy first car, passed down from my father in 1966 when I was 16. It didn’t run. I could get my driver’s licence if I could get the car running. Success, but barely. It lasted only eight months before the engine blew up. Unlamented, but we always remember our first of anything.