For a time, the Model A Ford was the most popular car in America, and the most popular Model A was the practical Tudor Sedan.
In its four years on the market from 1928 through 1931, more than 4.8 million Model A Fords were produced. And in 1929 and 1930, the A briefly became America’s best selling car, just like its predecessor, the Model T. In its quest to build a car for everyone, Ford offered the Model A in surprising variety: There were 30 factory body styles, from stripped-down Roadster to elegant Town Car. But by far the most popular Model A was the practical Tudor Sedan. Some 1,387,270 Tudors were produced, nearly 29 percent of the total.
1928 Tudor
The name Tudor, obviously, was a play on words, borrowed from the the English royal house of 1485 to 1603. Tudor = two-door. Like a four-door sedan in general configuration but with just two doors, the body style was often known as a coach at Chevrolet, while Hudson and others adopted the name brougham. At some point in Model T production (1923, it appears) Ford adopted the Tudor spelling, and it continued there for decades. In a similar way, for many years Ford spelled four-door as Fordor.
1929 Tudor
While Ford offered the Model A in numerous coupe body styles and there were six different four-door sedans, the Tudor was offered in just two straightforward flavors: the 55-A of 1928-29 and the mildly restyled 55-B of 1930-31. (They’re distinguished by their curved versus straight cowls.) Bodies for U.S. Tudors were manufactured by Ford or by Briggs of Detroit, which had a facility in the Ford Highland Park plant where the Model T was produced. The Ford River Rouge plant and the dozens of Ford regional plants took care of the final assembly.
1930 Tudor (early)
It’s easy to guess why the Tudor was the Model A’s best seller: room for the whole family at a minimum price. It offered the same bulletproof 40-hp engine and drivetrain as any Model A, and while the A was considerably more sophisticated than the T, it featured the same simple engineering philosophy. For the late 1927 introduction, the Tudor was priced at $550, same as the 2/3-passenger coupe. As the economic depression worsened, in 1931 the price was eventually lowered to $490.
1931 De Luxe Tudor
In June of 1931, late in the production year, a De Luxe version of the Tudor was introduced in an effort to revive flagging sales (above and below). De Luxe features included cowl lamps on the exterior and an upgraded interior with borrowings from the fancy Victoria: an overhead dome lamp, better fabrics, woodgrain paint on the dash and moldings, all for $525, $35 more than the standard Tudor.
Since it came so late in the production run, fewer than 24,000 of the nearly 1.4 million Tudors produced were De Luxe models. In 1931, Chevrolet once again passed Ford for number one in U.S. sales, and the company was soon at work on a new product to take back the top spot: the game-changing 1932 Ford V8. Ford’s best seller in ’32 was also a Tudor.
1931 De Luxe Tudor
From what I understand, the premium for a Fordor was quite substantial, around 10% again of the Tudor price.
When I moved to Colorado( 2018) our little town has a car show every 4th I attended. The 1st couple years, there was a rather large group of Model As. As the years passed, the numbers got less and less. About 3 years ago, I attended the show, there was only 1( one) Model A, and an elderly couple showing it. Nobody was looking at it, so I went over and said hi, very nice folks, they wanted to talk. I said, where are all the other Model As? The woman said, this was probably their last show, as the roads have gotten too dangerous for a Model A. She said they almost got hit on the way to that show. All the others gave up and no longer show their cars. Such a shame, the Model A was such an important milestone in our automotive history, falling on deaf ears today. I no longer attend that show partially for that reason, and I’m simply not interested in turbo charged Acuras.
Years ago, I had a neighbor who owned two As – a 1929 pickup and a 1930 or 1931 Tudor. They were his babies. He and his wife went on their honeymoon in the pickup. He took extraordinary care of them, drove them in parades, won awards at shows with them, etc. He gave up the shows and parades in the early 1990s when he was no longer able to drive, but he’d get them out and polish them on a regular basis. His wife sold them after he passed. The Tudor was purchased by a gentleman in Colorado; the pickup was packed into a shipping container and sent to its new home in Australia. Everyone in the neighborhood was sad to see him – and his Model As – go.
I think “Todor” was a play on two-door just as “Fordor” was on four-door and was not pronounced like the English royal family.