In the 1950s, Sears was America’s favorite department store, marketing everything from hog feeders to wedding dresses—and a spiffy little automobile called the Allstate.

It makes us a little sad here at Mac’s Motor City Garage to watch the ongoing troubles of Sears, which declared bankruptcy last October and in recent weeks, narrowly escaped liquidation. More than a century ago, the former retail giant was helping to civilize the American heartland with its vast and reliable mail-order network. Home appliances, auto parts, cabin cruisers, even complete home kits could be found in the company’s thick sales catalogs, and we still treasure our American-made Craftsman hand tools. The Chicago company even tried its hand at the retail automobile business a few times, first with the 1908-1912 Sears Motor Buggy and finally with the 1952-53 Allstate.

Formally unveiled to the public on November 20, 1951, the Allstate automobile was the product of an impressive-looking partnership between the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, then America’s newest volume automaker, and Sears, Roebuck & Company, the nation’s largest retailer. K-F boss Henry Kaiser saw the giant department store chain as the ideal selling theater, but the automaker’s existing dealers were reportedly less warm on the idea. As the alliance was hatched, K-F was planning an Allstate-branded model in the full-size Kaiser line, but efforts soon focused the carmaker’s compact Henry J.

And as we can see above, the Allstate was indeed a Henry J sporting a very modest facelift, with a restyled grille and Allstate badging created by Alex Tremulis, the noted Tucker designer who later headed Ford’s advanced styling studio. Tires, battery, spark plugs, seat covers, and other items also bore the popular Allstate brand. The engines were the same four and six-cylinder Willys-built flatheads found in the standard Henry J, but with the word ALLSTATE cast into the cylinder heads.

The Allstate appeared on the market around 14 months after the introduction of the original Henry J (read the intriguing story of the Henry J AMP prototype here) with a full lineup of five models: four-cylinder Base, Standard, and Deluxe, and six-cylinder Standard and Deluxe. Prices started at just $1,395, undercutting the ’52 Henry J by a few bucks and annoying the K-F dealer network a little more.

But while the Kaiser-Sears combination looked powerful on paper, it never really got off the ground. Though the Allstate received a full page in the beloved Sears mail-order catalog, sales were limited to the retailer’s larger stores in the Southeast and Southwest. And while the Henry J parent model had moved reasonably well in 1951 at 82,000 units, for 1952 the volume tumbled to barely 30,000—and only 1,566 examples of the Allstate version. There was little demand for the underpowered, underequipped little sedans with either Kaiser or Sears branding, it would seem.

For MY 1953 the Henry J received a minor restyling with the tail lamps moved up to the top of the tail fins, and naturally, the Allstate followed along (below). But sales continued to slide with approximately 17,000 Henry Js shipped from the Willow Run, Michigan plant, along with only 797 Allstates. At that point, Sears, Roebuck & Company quietly pulled the plug.