The Year in Cars: 1949

The 1949 model year was a big one for the American automakers, with major product changes nearly across the board. Here’s a review.

 

When the Second World War ended in 1945, the American auto industry fell into the biggest boom it had seen since the roaring ’20s, as 15 years of pent-up consumer desire combined with unprecedented middle-class buying power. The automakers sold every car they could pound out.

Studebaker was first to launch its line of postwar cars in 1947, with truly fresh styling and the slogan, “First by far with a postwar car.” Kaiser-Frazer also entered the passenger car market that year with a new if totally conventional design. But for the most part, the automakers pushed on with updated and facelifted versions of their prewar products. They still sold like the proverbial hotcakes.

By 1949, the seller’s market for automobiles was softening, consumers were ready for something new, and the Motor City had its answers ready. Ford introduced the car destined to ultimately save or sink the company, the all-new 1949 Ford, while the companion Mercury and Lincoln lines were totally redesigned as well.

The General Motors B bodies—Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile—were thoroughly  modernized for 1949 as well. The design trend was clear. Across the industry, vestigal running boards and clamshell fenders had all but disappeared and now, flow-through fenders and full-width, envelope bodies were the new normal. In America, anyway. In Europe, especially in Britian, more traditional looks would remain popular for nearly another decade.

This was also the year for a GM innovation in body styles, the hardtop convertible. Product planners had discovered that while convertibles were solid sellers, many owners seldom if ever took down the tops. They simply liked the convertible look, which featured a clear, open greenhouse with no B pillar and a low, sporty roofline. The company responded with the fixed, pillarless hardtop, first on the 1949 Buick Riviera, Cadillac Coupe DeVille, and Oldsmobile Holiday. Pontiac and Chevrolet got their own production hardtops with the same one-piece steel roof design (and three-piece backlight) the following year.

It was also in 1949 that GM introduced the Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s, the first overhead-valve, high-compression bent eights in volume production. Fair to say these two engines were game changers in the world of horsepower. On a more trivial note, ’49 was also the year Buick introduced its familiar fender portholes—proper name in Buick PR lingo, “ventiports.” You’ll find all these wonders and more in the slide show gallery below.