Stripped of chrome and devoid of accessories, the Mainline was Ford’s bare-bones, plain-Jane price leader from 1952 to 1956.
1952 Mainline Tudor Sedan
When the Ford passenger cars were completely redesigned for 1952, the model designations received a makeover, too. The old Deluxe and Custom names were scrapped and the trim levels were increased from two to three. The Crestline was now the premium product, while the Customline was the midrange model. And at the bottom-most rung, stripped to the bone, was the Mainline, where it would remain through 1956.
Like the base models from the rest of the Motor City, the Mainline tended to get short shrift in the product catalogs, and it was seldom if ever seen in the automaker’s national print advertising. Actually, there wasn’t a lot to boast about. The floormats were black rubber: the upholstery fabrics were drab. The exteriors were stripped of exterior chrome and small dog-dish hubcaps were standard. There was just one sun visor for the driver’s side, and there was a coin-sized metal plug in the dash where the cigarette lighter would ordinarily be. Body styles were limited to two-door and four-door post sedans, and in ’52-’54 a two-door Ranch Wagon. No hardtops or convertibles here.
1954 Mainline Tudor Sedan
No, where the Mainline and other cars of its class, including the Chevrolet One-Fifty, were most often seen in print was in the full-page auto dealer ads in local newspapers. Price leader ads, they were called, though cynics might call it the old bait-and-switch. The Mainline could be advertised at a miraculously low price in the hope of attracting customers into the showroom—where they could then be upsold into the more attractive (and profitable) Customline and Crestline trims. Or at the very least, some dealer accessories could be tacked onto the purchase order.
The practice may seem shady, but in truth, it was downright mild compared to some other dealer shenanigans at the time. It’s been said that dealer upselling was the primary reason for the existence of Detroit’s stripped-down base models, but there was a real market for these cars in fleet sales to police and fire departments and to companies that bought vehicles in volume. The ’52 Mainline Business Coupe listed at $1,389, while the Customline Two-Door Sedan was $1,570. When you’re buying 10 or 50 cars, the difference amounts to significant savings.
1955 Mainline Tudor Sedan Dearborn Police
In the car collector world nowadays, bare-bones base models like the Ford Mainline are less commonly seen than the flashy and well-equipped upmarket cars. Maybe that’s because they were less cherished when they were new and less carefully maintained. But they’re refreshing to see, as cars of the ’50s tend to be overdecorated anyway, and there’s something neat, clean, and dare we say it, elegant about a well-preserved car from the bottom trim level. The Mainline was discontinued for 1957, but the concept was continued with a model name last used in 1951, Custom.
1953 Mainline Ranch Wagon
If there’s a weakness in the antique car hobby (I’m talking factory-spec restorations, not restorods or fugitives from American Graffiti) it’s that very few collectors give any time to the base or mid-line models. Most likely primarily because they cost just as much to restore as the top-of-the-line cars we all remember from our high school days, but don’t bring in the bucks at resale time. Which is a shame, because it gives a very biased view of what people drove at the time.
And gives moments like I overheard a few years back when a thirty-something father was explaining to his young son that, “Yes, that’s really a Pontiac. They made other cars besides the Firebird and GTO.”
Thank you for a look at a model that’d very unfairly ignored in the car collecting hobby
The base model is the perfect sleeper. Not flashy, equipped with the biggest engine available at the time, you had the perfect performance car for short money.
My dad bought a new 54 Ranch Wagon , 223 six and three speed. He had it for eight years and it was cherished. It took stuff to the dump, hauled stone for the wall he built in the back yard, a half ton of newspapers my friend and I collected that he took to the scrap man. We took trips all over New England and it hauled my model airplanes to the local flying field. I learned to drive in it. In the end though, it was just an old looking car standing tall in a parking lot among all the newer, lower cars.
Neighbor down the street had 1956 two door sedan Mainline in light green. Other than having oversize tires it was very blase’, until you saw the rear end and heard the sound (dual exhaust with Smitty’s my dad told me). It had the biggest engine you could acquire from Ford when he bought it new, it had the trailer towing option rear end, originally with a three speed on the column with overdrive (script across the trunk). By the early sixties the three speed was sitting on his garage floor and had been supplanted with a four speed on the floor. The guy was old, probably in his thirties by then, but he would stomp the crap out of the local youngsters with their Impala SS’s, Pontiac SD’s, and MoPar RB’s. Can still hear the sound in the reflections of my mind. Do not know if it had a 292 or a 312, but dad said it was not stock, probably the same thing he used in his stock car he ran at the local tracks.
Barney Fifes 1st car, was a ’54 Ford he bought from Mrs. Myrt “Hubcaps” Lesh, ( Ellen Corby, grandma Walton) for $300, his life savings.The car was a lemon, and Barneys reaction to what Gomer said had to repaired, was priceless. He sinks lower with every repair. Also, in Adam-12, Jim Reed( Kent McCord) raced a ’54 Ford he allegedly had in HS in the 1972 episode “Who won”. In that episode, sharp observers will note the ’55 Chevy from 2 Lane Blacktop was in the background.
In 53 , 55 , 57 and 59 my parents bought new Ford wagons , trading in the old one each time . I’m sure they were V8s with OD , except the 59 . The 59 had the 2 speed Fordomatic automatic transmission because my mother , at the age of 32 , was just learning to drive and couldn’t drive stick shift . The most memorable thing about the 59 was my father taking his mother to visit friends several hours away . On the way home the transmission refused to shift out of low gear and by the time they got home he said you could fry an egg on the transmission hump ! Even though it was out of warranty Ford replaced the transmission.