1958 Ford Taunus 17M Tudor

"Everything says Luxury Car — Except the Price!"

In automotive styling, it is rare that a Plain Jane is more attractive than the top model, but in case of the Ford 17M we do prefer the base model over the "De Luxe" version, as its four-holed front grille adds a good dose of sportiness.

According to its owner, this car was registered in summer of 1958, which makes it one of Ford's earlier exports to North America. The company massively increased the shipments from its German and British subsidiaries in mid-1958 to provide American Ford dealers with the "compact" cars the buying public so suddenly demanded. Because Detroit's Big Three had completely missed out on that trend, these imports were their only chance to keep on selling competitive automobiles before their own compact cars were ready to hit the road.

Between 1958 and 1959, Ford shipped 8,197 Taunus to the U.S., and sold them mostly through Mercury — Edsel — Lincoln dealers, who probably needed these "compact" cars badly, as their own fullsize cars were collecting dust in the showrooms. But already in late 1960, one year after the introduction of the domestic Ford Falcon, the import from Germany was stopped.