Tom Griffey's Real Estate Market Watch and Beyond: The Beautiful American Cars of the 40s and 50s

Sunday, June 14, 2015

The Beautiful American Cars of the 40s and 50s

The classic American cars of the 40s and 50s will always have a place in the hall of fame of car manufacturing, and a place of honor on any shelf of a model collector. Lets look at some of the history and beauty of these early models.

After world war II, 1940s and 1950s cars became lower, longer and broader in look, as well as more massive and hefty. The semi automatic transmission was introducted by Hudson, and the driver could change between manual and semi-automatic with the push of a button.

The US-made cars offered huge trunk sizes, width and length. In the 1940s a new car cost about $800 and a gallon of gas was about 18 cents - not a bad deal.

In the 50s, chrome was introduced to more cars and also a more luxurious look in a country slowly getting back to its feet after the war. The 1950s saw a huge boom in American car manfucaturing, and during that time, the US made more cars than England, France, Japan, Sweden and many other nations put together - and many times over. The 50's was the decade of cars, and the huge demand saw both Ford and GM hit the 50 million car mark.