![]() ![]() In truth, America’s auto industry had been living a double life for two years. To be eligible for a new car, a person had to possess an older car with more than 40,000 miles on the odometer.Īutomobile companies continued to make cars and trucks for the government while dramatically broadening their output to include military weapons such as tanks, engines, cannons, trucks, and aircraft. The government then stockpiled remaining unsold cars and rationed them to those individuals deemed critical to public safety and the war effort-doctors, police and firefighters, farmers, and a rare handful of vital war workers. ![]() ![]() Yet they only built around 160,000 vehicles for civilians in 1942, before Ford’s non-military car and truck lines ceased operations on February 10. It would be part of the last group of new vehicles most of the public would see for years.įord made 691,455 automobiles in 1941. The fast, heavy, and new Ford was introduced on September 12, 1941, less than three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. A 1942 model Ford Super Deluxe two-door sedan cost around $920 brand new, roughly one third of an average yearly income. As of 1941, about 88 percent of US households had a family car and that number was rising. Courtesy National Archives.Īmerica had fully embraced the automobile by the dawn of the 1940s. Top Image: A mountain of used automobile tires stands ready for wartime reclamation. ![]()
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