Article and photos by Tim Miller, Moto/ology Contributor
The car-based sedan delivery and pickup truck body styles were a pair of niche markets in the automotive world developed for light commercial applications. The sedan delivery had its beginnings around 1930, and its popularity continued until the 1960s until vans took over the market. The vehicles were at the lower end of the auto maker’s divisions, basic vehicles in the Chevrolet, Ford, and Plymouth line-ups. Pickup-type vehicles such as the Ford Ranchero or Chevrolet El Camino, which came on the market in the 1950s, were interesting vehicles, but their value as work trucks was minimal.
With the advent of steel bodies in the mid-1930s, auto makers built the sedan delivery models on their car lines, vehicles that were essentially station wagons with no side windows and a one-piece door at the rear replacing the two-piece wagon tailgate. They were level entry vehicles, devoid of any comforts or trim packages found in their respective car lines, used by tradesmen and delivery services. Quite often the only seat in a sedan delivery was the one for the driver.
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Of interest to Canadians were sedan deliveries unique to the Canadian market. The Meteor, a Canadian version of the Ford, was produced in Canada from 1949 until the mid 1970s to fill what was considered a marketing gap in the line-up for Mercury dealers. The Meteor was available in a full range of models, including a sedan delivery built in the early 1950s. Very few of these Meteors were built, and are quite rare.
Another Canadian-only sedan delivery was the Pontiac. While GM did build US Pontiac sedan deliveries from 1949 until 1953, a Canadian version of the little Pontiac truck was built from 1938 until 1958, producing about 13,000 in total, about three times the US output.
Although models of the Canadian Pontiac resembled their US counterparts during this time, all Pontiacs, including sedan deliveries built in Oshawa, were Chevrolets under the skin, with Chevy frames, engines, and running gear.
By 1960 US makers had adopted the Volkswagen Transporter platform of a boxy configuration with large and convenient side-loading doors, and the sedan delivery was doomed to this more efficient vehicle. Ford, GM, and Chrysler built thousands of Econolines, G-Series, and A-100 vans respectively, although Chevy did build the Corvair-based Greenbriar van in the early 1960s.
In the early 1970s Chevy built a small van based on its compact Vega and Ford built a Pinto-based van in the mid-1970s but these were built in very low numbers.
Another vehicle adapted from a car platform was the car-based pickup truck, also known as a sedan pickup or coupe pickup. Chevy and Plymouth built small pickup boxes into the backs of coupes in the late 1930s, as did Studebaker and Hudson. They were never big sellers but precluded introduction of the Ford Ranchero and the Chevy El Camino in the late 1950s.
The Ranchero was first introduced in 1957. The little truck was first built on a full-size Ford, came in two trim levels, and was marketed as a utility vehicle for farming and trades purposes.
For a vehicle with questionable hauling capabilities, Ford sold a lot of Rancheros between 1957 and 1959; so many that Chevrolet introduced its version, the El Camino, in 1959. These vehicles offered an upscale ride from the very utilitarian regular pickup truck which offered little in the way of options, colors, or creature comforts.
Ford built the Ranchero until 1979 in five variations. Between 1960-65 the Ranchero was established on Ford’s compact Falcon. The Ranchero grew in size in 1966 when it was based on the Fairlane, and then the Torino, starting in 1968. For the final years of 1977-79 it used the mid-size Ford LTD II chassis, engines, and running gear.
While the initial 1959 sales of the El Camino were promising, sales for 1960 were poor, and the vehicle was dropped until 1964 when it returned as a Chevelle product. As GM changed the Chevelle through the next dozen years, the El Camino reflected these changes. The final generation of 1978-87 was Malibu-based.
Some Ranchero models were produced in Ford’s Oakville, Ontario facility, as well as a handful of Meteor Rancheros in 1958. Before Oakville production, Ford produced vehicles in Windsor. GM’s Oshawa plant produced El Caminos starting in 1964