September 13, 2004

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The Sedan Delivery
Story and photo by Bill Vance

Light trucks are big news these days, whether they are pickups, vans or sport utilities. From the Jeep's humble start in 1945, to pickups in the 1950s, and Chrysler's minivans in the '80s, truck sales have flourished.

There is one class of commercial vehicle, however, that is now largely forgotten. It is the sedan delivery. Although never a big seller (10,000 was a good year), for many years it carved out its own special niche in the marketplace.

The sedan delivery was basically a station wagon with the rear side windows closed in, and usually a hinged door at the rear, although tailgates were sometimes used. The sedan delivery combined the utility of a light-duty hauler with the driving ease of a car.

Because the sedan delivery was more car-like than a truck-based panel truck, it made a more refined statement as a commercial representative. Whether used by a pharmacy, flower shop or laundry, it projected an elegant image. The merchant's message, especially if wrought in elegant gold script, seemed somehow more tasteful than if it were on a strictly-for-business truck.

Sedan deliveries have a long history, going back to at least 1905 when the Ford Motor Company introduced its Ford Model C delivery car. It shared most of its components with the Ford passenger car.

Ford produced delivery cars on and off, before going out of the truck business for a few years beginning in 1913. If you wanted a Ford truck you had to make your own arrangements to have a body built.

Both Ford and Chevrolet entered the more formalized sedan delivery business, (Ford still called it the delivery car), in 1928. Ford's was based on the newly introduced Model A. Chevrolet's was based on a Chevrolet car, which had its hood stretched and its wheelbase lengthened from 2,616 to 2,718 mm (103 to 107 in.) for 1928 in anticipation of Chevrolet's new 1929 overhead valve six "Cast Iron Wonder." This was GM's name for the engine; most people called it the "Stove Bolt Six."

Sedan deliveries were offered by several manufacturers through the thirties. Truck and car styling was often similar, which resulted in a blending of cars, panel trucks and sedan deliveries. Trucks would not start to develop their own more rugged identities until the late thirties and early forties.

Dodge introduced a model called the commercial sedan, or sedan delivery, in 1933. American Austin, later American Bantam, marketed a tiny car-based hauler called variably a sedan delivery or delivery coupe. It was a theme that Crosley would follow after the Second World War, but both the Austin/Bantam and the Crosley were too small to be taken seriously.

Following the war, Ford and Chevrolet pretty well had the sedan delivery field to themselves, although Ford had a hiatus between 1949 and '51. When it returned in 1952, Ford's was called the Courier in the U.S., and sedan delivery in Canada.

Another Canada-U.S. difference was that, as in Ford cars, Canadian sedan delivery buyers had to wait until 1955 to get the new overhead valve V-8 and ball-joint suspension, which the U.S. got in 1954.

Sedan deliveries enjoyed a small but steady clientele through the forties and fifties. Then in 1960 things began to change. Ford shifted its sedan delivery from the regular Ford to the compact Falcon platform.

Ford continued the Falcon-based sedan delivery only until 1965, by which time it was alone in the field, but annual sales had slid to below 800. The rise of small "box-on-wheels" vans such as the Ford Econoline and Chevrolet Corvair gradually made traditional sedan deliveries and panel trucks redundant.

Chevrolet simply stopped making sedan deliveries in 1960. It was planning to introduce its rear-engine Corvair "Corvan" for 1961, and saw no further market for the sedan delivery. Studebaker entered the field briefly with an optional kit that converted the two-door Lark station wagon into a panel wagon. It was introduced in 1959 and enjoyed modest sales success.

There would be a short burst of activity on the sedan delivery scene in the 1970s. In 1971 Chevrolet introduced a Vega sedan delivery called the panel express, a station wagon with the side windows blanked out; 1975 was its last year.

Ford returned briefly with its subcompact Pinto panel delivery in 1979, but it was also a short-lived model. The Pinto would depart in 1980, replaced by the 1981 front-wheel drive Escort.

Thus one of our most interesting commercial vehicles passed from the scene. It had provided excellent transport for businesses where light, bulky hauling was required. And it did it with a cache that no pure truck could muster.

Reflections on Automotive History by Bill Vance, Volumes I, II & III available through www.billvanceautohistory.ca

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