Introduced in 1959, Galaxie is one of Ford’s longer-running model names, remaining in production through 1974. The start was a little confusing, though.

It’s safe to assume that the 1959 Ford Galaxie was a response, at least in part, to the 1958 Chevrolet Impala. Both were super-deluxe additions to their full-sized car lines. But to be fair, both Ford and Chevy product planners were probably looking at similar sales and survey data, which showed there was room at the top of the price bracket for another premium model.

There’s an interesting sort of reverse parallel in the two rivals of the low-priced field, though.  While the ’58 Impala was officially part of the Bel Air line, it carried no Bel Air badging. Meanwhile, the ’59 Galaxie was presented as a stand-alone model, but it wore both Galaxie and Fairlane 500 emblems—see arrows above. (Early production photos don’t necessarily stick to the script, note.) It’s one more curious twist in model designations for us to ponder all these years later. The Galaxie name, French for galaxy, itself originated with a far-out 1958 Ford concept car called La Galaxie.

The full-sized Ford lineup was introduced on October 17, 1958, but the Galaxie rollout was held up until a a few months later in February of 1959. The chief Galaxie signifier was its thick C-pillar mimicking the hot-selling Thunderbird, a feature heavily promoted as the “Thunderbird roof,” in contrast to the thin roof pillars of the other full-sized Fords.

The Galaxie was “Thunderbird in looks . . .Thunderbird in luxury,” the ad writers declared. “If your family is too large for a 4-passenger T-Bird, this 6-passenger hardtop is for you!” However, along with the formal-roofed two-doors and four-doors, the ’59 Galaxie lineup also embraced the Sunliner (soft top) and Skyliner (hardtop) convertibles with their standard rooflines.

The Galaxie was a solid success in its first year—in fact, it outsold the Fairlane and Fairlane 500 combined, allowing Ford to beat Chevrolet by a thin margin in total volume. For 1960 there was a clear delineation between the Galaxie and Fairlane 500. An even more deluxe Galaxie 500 joined the lineup in 1962, and the model name continued until 1974 when it was finally pushed aside for good by the popular LTD, Ford’s leader in the value-luxury category.

But just to show how the automakers can endlessly recycle their model names, the Galaxie would later return, sort of, but in a rather different form. The Frenchifed Galaxie spelling was exchanged for the English-American Galaxy and then applied to a line of minivans, MPVs if you prefer. Developed by Ford of Europe, originally as a joint venture with Volkswagen, the Galaxy was offered from 1995 to 2023.

1995 Ford Galaxy Ghia