About Ford Crestliner
Ford raced against its traditional competitors to create a completely new vehicle after WWII, and it won the race with the 1949 Crestliner.
After nine years of war, the time changed the customers' tastes. Ford noticed that and started working on a completely new vehicle while trying to sell pre-war cars with slightly new enhancements. GM and Chrysler did the same, but the big question was: "Who will bring the new car?" The answer came from Ford.
While the pre-war cars featured wide fenders and narrow engine compartments, Ford thought a "ponton-type" bodywork would do better, and it did. In its rush to launch the Crestliner, it cut corners and the rear doors. But that was not a problem in those times. It resulted in a two-door sedan with two round headlights and a taller hood. The rounded shapes and the sculptured door panels that mimicked older fenders' shapes were influential for other carmakers in the years that followed, including the "Bullit nose" with a center chromed cone that resembled the nose cone from a P-51 Mustang fighter plane.
Inside, the carmaker installed a steering wheel with four X-shaped spokes, which resembled the driver that underneath the car, there was a chassis with an X-shaped cross-beam section to increase protection and the car's rigidity. At the front, the carmaker installed a bench for three. Later on, Ford added an option for individual tilt seats to ease the car's ingress and egress.
Under the hood, the blue-oval brand installed its famous flat-head V-8 (a.k.a. Flattie). An inline-six was offered for the base model. After the Crestline evolved into a broader range of vehicles, including four-door sedans, the coupe was named Tudor.