Ford Fairlane
Named after Henry Ford's home Fair Lane in Dearbourne, Michigan, The Ford Fairlane car was sold in North America between 1955 and 1970.
The History Of the Ford Fairlane.
Over the years, the Ford Fairlane name was used for several different cars of different sizes and in different classes, the first generation ( on sale 1955 – 1956) Ford Fairlane was initially introduced to replace the Crestline, which at the time was Fords premier model.
This first generation of the Fairlane featured six different models including traditional sedans, the Sunliner convertible, the Crown Victoria coupe and the Crown Victoria Skyliner which boasted a transparent, tinted plastic roof. All models featured what was to become the trademark “Fairlane stripe” in stainless steel along the side.
In 1957, the Fairlane received its first major restyle and when the second generation was released it had a wider, longer look with lower tailfins, quad headlights and a new grille. Special editions of that year included the Fairline 500 Skyliner, a convertible with an automatic roof.
1959 saw the introduction of the Ford Galaxie which, aimed at the top end of the market was sold with both Fairline 500 and Galaxie badging.
As the 1950’s gave way to the 1960’s, the Galaxie continued as Ford’s top of the range full sized Ford while the Ford Fairlane began to decrease in size and suffered a demotion to mid-range. With more re-styles in 1960 and 1961, the Ford Fairlane now primarily sold as a fleet car with base level trim models being widely used as Taxis and police vehicles. By 1965, the amount of chrome used of the body of the Fairlane had been greatly reduced, and the tail fins had also been dropped.
Following yet another restyle, the 1968/1969 the Ford Fairlane took on a whole new body style and size and moved back into the full-sized car class. At this time Ford began a gradual rebranding of the Ford Fairlane as the Torino. They began to do this by branding the lower end and mid-range models with the Fairlane name and the higher end GT models as Torino GT. Eventually, the Ford Fairline was phased out with the last ones being sold in 1971.
The Ford Fairlane In Australia
Although Ford stopped selling the Ford Fairlane model in North America in 1971, Ford Australia continued to produce its own line of Australian Developed Fairline based models until 2007.