Chevrolet was in no hurry to introduce its first post-World War II car, but consumers decided the wait was worth it.
When World War II ended in 1945 and civilian passenger car production resumed, the Detroit automakers were in no great hurry to introduce new products. There were material and supply chain issues everywhere, and besides, American consumers were happy to buy up all the prewar models the Motor City could produce.
But after a few years, the public was weary of warmed-over ’41 and ’42 models and ready for something new. So when a redesigned Chevrolet with fresh new styling was rolled out at the Waldorf Astoria in New York in January of 1949, it was greeted with genuine enthusiasm—even though the all-new ’49 Ford had been introduced at the Waldorf six months earlier
The product line was simplified for ’49, from three models (Stylemaster, Fleetmaster, and Styline) to two: the notchback Styleline and the fastback Fleetline. (See our feature on General Motors’ streamline period here.) Both were available in base Special or De Luxe trim, with the De Luxe receiving more exterior bright metal and an upgraded interior. Station wagons and convertibles were exclusive to the Styleline De Luxe line.
Chevy’s familiar torque-tube chassis was throroughly modernized for ’49, with tubular double-action shock absorbers on all four corners and improved center-point steering geometry. While the wheelbase was now one inch shorter at 114 inches, cabin volume was increased by moving the engine forward in the chassis. However, the trusty 216.5 cubic-inch stovebolt six with 90 hp remained unchanged. The cumbersome vacuum-shift mechanism for the three-speed gearbox was eliminated and the starter control was from moved from the floor to the instrument panel, providing owners with a more contemporary driving experience.
Prices started at $1,339 for a stripped-down Styleline Special Business Coupe, which featured a single sun visor and a manually-operated dome lamp, while De Luxe models were more generously equipped. The De Luxe Styleline Convertible listed for $1,857, but the priciest model in the lineup was the Styleline De Luxe Station Wagon at $2,267. At mid-year the wagons switched from wood to all-steel construction, though the price remained the same.
With exterior styling by the Harley Earl design crew at General Motors that followed the same general themes as the trend-setting 1948 Cadillac, the ’49 Chevy had a look that could sell cars. Despite a shorter production season, Chevrolet very nearly matched Ford in total sales for the model year at more than one million cars.
However, the streamliner fad was already fading, as sales of the fastback Fleetline models in ’49 slipped to less than a third of tthe volume. By the end of the ’49-’52 product cycle, only a single Fleetline model remained, a De Luxe two-door sedan. The hot new body style for 1950 was the Bel Air pillarless hardtop, when another powerful selling feature arrived: the Powerglide automatic transmission. From 1950 through 1953, Chevrolet stood alone at the top of the sales charts.
Learned something new today: That the ’49 Ford was on the market six months before the Chevrolet. And, given my childhood at my father’s Chevrolet dealership, it seems really odd that the Chevy wasn’t introduced until calendar 1949. I always remember November of the previous year as the time when the dealership windows got papered over and the big reveal was scheduled over a 3-4 day period. Of course, I’d get to see the cars about six weeks earlier, packed away on the second floor over the service department. Big bragging rights in grade school.
Chas, the first owner of my ‘49 Deluxe actually came into town to buy a new pickup. He had done without for 30 years and it was time he treated himself. Unfortunately the only pickup the dealer had was a one-ton. But he had a car, a Styleline Deluxe 4-door. Chas opted for that. It was October and on the 3-mile drive to the farm it started to snow. Chas put his prize in his brother’s shed and left it there until the following spring. He fired it up, drove over to the house, picked up his wife, and they headed to Great Falls for a few days. When they got home, Chas dropped off his wife, parked the car back in the machine shed, and left it until the next trip. There were several more trips over the years but only in favorable weather conditions. Chas quit driving it in ‘65 because the seat-to-pedal geometry bothered his hips. He passed on in ‘69 and the car sat until ‘73. A local enthusiast managed to talk Chas’ son out of it and pulled it out of the shed. It only had 19,000 miles on it. I’ve been the custodian of it for over 15 years and today, it has 43,000 miles and still runs great. Well, it burned an exhaust valve at 36,000 but that was par for the course for a lot of cars and trucks back then…
I never cared much for the GM fastbacks. They just looked out of balance, thick in front, slim behind. Somebody liked them though, because they sold a bunch of them.
The two door coupe was more to my liking. Not seen as often, they were probably delegated to traveling salesmen and contractors. But those wimpy engines! Ford had used the V8 flathead since 32, and was on the verge of introducing the Y block in 54. Chevy finally got on the bandwagon in 55 with the small block, a terrible oil drinking, underpowered V8. But thanks to Zora Duntov and the Chevy engineers, they turned that hunk of junk into one of if not the best small V8 ever produced. Just think how much farther ahead they would have been if they had released it in 49, by 53 when the new Corvette came out it would have had a real engine in it.
Easy to look back and see what should have happened, but didn’t!
Maybe I’m wrong here, but I thought that, for WWII, it wasn’t just production that shut down. It was the design studios. So wouldn’t it have taken them a few years to finalize a new design and prepare tooling if they were starting from scratch in 1945?
Officially, yes. Human nature being what it is, there’s no way all those designers were going to be happy figuring out the fender line of the next medium tank, so you know there was some ‘unofficial’ car designing going on in between the war work. That’s where all those drawings of cars straight out of Popular Mechanics and Astounding Science Fiction with radical streamlining, rear engines, and vista dome rooflines started showing up – only to be toned down by orders of Harley Earl (boo!) into what became the ’48-49 cars.
The GM line was basically slimmed down versions of the prewar cars, where the Ford was a completely new look that predicted the next trend in styling. My dad bought a ’49 Fordor and was the talk of the neighborhood.