At first glance the ’56 Ford looks like a minor facelift of the ’55, but there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

Fairlane Sunliner 

Visually, the changes to the Ford passenger car line for 1956 were almost perfunctory. There were new parking lamps up front with a broader elliptical theme, revised headlamp bezels and tail lamp lenses, and restyled checkmark side trim for the Fairlane trim level. From that angle, the new Ford looks like your typical annual model change. But when we dig in a little deeper, there’s a lot to talk about at Ford for 1956.

Fairlane Sunliner 

At the formal introduction in Dearborn in September of 1955, the top story was Lifeguard Design, a new focus on safety driven by research by Cornell University and championed by Ford vice president Robert S. McNamara. (See our feature here.) The standard features included a deep-center steering wheel, breakaway rearview mirror, and double-grip door locks, while the extra-cost options included lap belts and a padded dash. There’s a Motor City legend that selling safety drove shoppers away from the showrooms, but the best guess is they probably didn’t much care either way. The padded dash was popular, but only one in seven buyers opted for the seat belts.

The mechanical improvements for 1956 included revised front suspension geometry with greater anti-dive, variable-rate rear leaf springs, and more boxing in the frame to increase torsional rigidity. The engine and body mounts were redesigned, the steering ratio was tightened up, and more rebound damping was dialed into the shock valving in the pursuit of improved road manners. A new Thunderbird V8 (the 292 bored and stroked to 312 cubic inches) offered up to 225 hp. “Call out the reserves with a touch of your toe!” the print ads exclaimed. “Instant go when instants count!”

Fairlane Victoria Hardtop Sedan

In January of 1956, Ford rolled out its first four-door pillarless hardtop, the Fairlane Victoria Hardtop Sedan. By fading the rear doors well into the C-pillar and dogleg, Ford stylists preserved the hardtop vibe—you have to look twice to recognize that it’s a four-door. The two-door hardtops were sporting a new look as well, as the Customline and Fairlane Victorias now shared the same low roofline as the Crown Victoria and Mercury Montclair. An all-new instrument panel was designed to accommodate the padded dash, while retiring the oddball ’55 radio in favor of a more conventional layout.

Customline Fordor Sedan

Ford’s top line in its ’56 ad campaign was “The Fine Car at Half the Fine Car Price,” using fashionable colors and trim and a long list of options to emulate more expensive cars. Ford also spun the price argument around the other way with its “Two-Ford Family” promotion, noting that for the price of one luxury car, a family could afford two brand new Fords. And in suburbia, that was the true luxury.

But as much as anything, it was the “$56 for ’56” campaign that propelled the Ford selling story that year. A 31 year-old assistant sales manager in the Philadelphia district named Lee Iaoccca hatched the plan, offering 20 percent down and $56 a month for 36 months, promoting the deal on potato chip bags. When McNamara saw the sales numbers, he ordered the financing plan nationwide. In a tough year for the auto industry in which total volume tumbled nearly 27 percent, Iacocca’s promotion was credited with selling an additional 75,000 cars. Four years later, he was vice president and general manager of the Ford division.

Atlanta Assembly Plant