Every year, manufacturers trot out new cars and new features. Digital gauges, pop-up headlights, sound systems that can shake your brain inside of your skull, power everything, plusher this, quieter that, faster everything. In my time I’ve seen tons of trick features, from the funky pass-through on Chevrolet Avalanches to the radical aerodynamic lines of the Chrysler LH cars of the 1990s and 2000s. I’ve seen white-faced gauges come into and go out of vogue, the gauges on a 2005 Mustang that you can customize the color of at will, and electrochromatic rear view mirrors. Progress in the name of safety, progress in the name of performance, and progress in the name of comfort. Many any of those points happen for the new model year, and you would be wise, as a manufacturer, to crow on about it.
Finding these older reels of footage from well before my time can really open up a new viewpoint. The 1940 Ford vehicle line…with such wonderful updates as an instrument panel that is compact and visible through the steering wheel, a column-shift transmission, sealed-beam headlights and a dual-adjustable front bench seat! Looking back, yes, it’s quaint and open to some snark, but in 1939, when this was probably filmed, these features were the details that would help keep Ford ahead of the competition!
