Does anyone know the origin?
Anyway, I just saw another Dodge commercial and it's been a question I've had for years, I thought someone here might know the real answer.
I've often thought what fun it would have been to be a fly on the wall of some of those marketing meetings when they (whoever "they" were) made up this stuff! My god, are we so fickle that we bought more trucks when Ford added two zeros to the F-1's and so forth? And aint it amazing that "they" knew we would?
And this don't even get us to the place where every car was named some kind of animal...slim
1948 was the firstyear of the "F" designation which I'm assuming stood for Ford. And th etrucks were numbered upwards based on GVW capability.
1953 was Fords 50th Anniversary Year and the year the trucks were widely remodeled. Since the emphasis was on driver comfort more than ever, the cabs grea, the windows grew and the F-100 was born. Why the name change - might have had something to do with the Anniversay, or the remodel, maybe not.
Ford was in financial difficulty after WWII and sought to capture the truck market from Chevy. The Big Deal for Ford was the V8 engine. The "Bonus Built" trucks from 48-52 helped start that marketing strategy.
Could be the name was changed to make the truck sound "Mightier" to compete withthe Chevy and Dodge designations.
Anyway, I'm guessing. But at least this will bump you back up for another look see.
You might want to send a note to Number Dummy, as he retains a treasure chest of this kind of Ford (and other makes) minutia!
If I find out anything, I'll let you know.







