With the Ford Taunus 12 M (G13), the Cologne company presented a modern compact car in 1952, whose visionary pontoon shape soon found imitators. But this Taunus also offered sophisticated glamour: Ford’s glittering chrome globe radiator became the epitome of affordable luxury.
They are the eternal rivals in the race for leadership in compact cars. Ford and Volkswagen have competed in this discipline since Henry Ford II after the Second World War with a clear “No!” declined the offer of the victorious Allied powers to take over all German vehicle construction. Even then, the Beetle seemed too old-fashioned to the American corporate executives.
Instead, Henry Ford II wanted to rejuvenate and advance the German car landscape with design milestones finalized in Cologne, such as the Taunus 12 M (G13) introduced in 1952. A project that Ford was surprisingly successful, because the future-oriented self-supporting body with a modern pontoon shape was a bang.
Although there were already some pontoon pioneers such as the Borgward Hansa and Fiat 1400, the design of the compact car class in Germany was ultimately shaped by the first post-war development from the Niehler Rhine bank. The Cologne-based company used international assistance for this: Ford-USA provided the basic form, Ford-France realized prototypes at the body shop Chausson and Ford-Germany took care of the fine-tuning.
These refinements also included the fresh logo with the letters “F-K” for Ford-Köln, the M for “Meisterstück” in the model designation 12 M and a striking globe above the chrome glittering grille. An effort that was worth it: the style-defining Taunus remained the toughest challenger to the Opel Olympia/Rekord and VW Beetle for more than a decade. And he even set accents in the premium segment with chrome and convertible.
Hooray, we’re alive again: 70 years ago, the Germans found their way back to tentative prosperity. The newly launched regular TV program was enjoyed by 1,000 proud owners of an exorbitantly expensive television set, while everyone else followed the young British Queen Elizabeth’s first public appearances on the cinema screens.
The average wage in Germany was still a modest 400 marks a month, but vacation trips became popular and traffic density increased rapidly. Munich even laid out the first zebra crossing in 1952, as more and more people swung down from their motorcycle saddles into Volkswagen Beetles or Opel Olympia.
Tentatively updated pre-war designs that suddenly found an ultra-modern competitor: the Ford Taunus 12 M in smooth shapes, with large windows, plenty of space for five passengers and luggage, with independent front suspension and surprisingly small wheels (13 inches instead of the usual 15 or 16 inches) in favor of a low center of gravity and unproblematic driving characteristics. The front independent wheel suspension was also an innovation in the German middle class. Sure, the 1.2-litre engine was still an old familiar from the 1930s, but Ford was already preparing a new 1.5-litre engine that was successful three years later under the type code 15 M.
So much future-oriented technology from the cathedral city, which he had ruled as mayor for a long time, even prompted Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to give a friendly greeting. In fact, the Taunus 12 M not only ensured full employment on the assembly lines, it also became a global export success, just as the globe on the radiator promised.
In countries like Sweden, it prevailed against Fords made in England that were sold at the same time and also scored points against the humpback Volvo in the pre-war fastback design. The Taunus demonstrated its robustness on rough slopes in Africa and Asia, and in Germany it also won fans in the fleet management of authorities and emergency services. Even the ADAC breakdown service bought the progressive Taunus as an alternative to the conventional Beetle. Compared to the Volkswagen, the Taunus was significantly more expensive, and when Opel also reduced the prices for the old-fashioned Olympia, Ford had to pull a joker: the poorly equipped and cheaper priced economy version of its “masterpiece”, the Ford 12.
In the end, however, it was the two-door “M” sedans, measuring just over four meters, with which Ford used its assembly lines to capacity, supplemented by a variable combi, useful panel van, a pick-up and an exclusive convertible at exalted prices, for which there were Porsche already gave the legendary Type 356. With this broad portfolio, the Cologne-based company countered the product offensive of the then General Motors subsidiary Opel, which suddenly also relied on the pontoon design for the Olympia Rekord presented in 1953.
Mercedes also gradually replaced its conservative 170 models with the new 180, of course in the trendy pontoon shape. The Stuttgart-based company promptly pushed itself ahead of the “new star in the automotive sky” in the German registration statistics, as copywriters provocatively describe the Ford 12 M.
Ford Taunus 12 M versus Mercedes 180? In fact, both brands aimed at the same clientele with their basic series, namely high-income freelancers and tradespeople. Hard to believe today, but in 1952 only four percent of the population could afford a new car, as Ford explained in a press conference. With these higher earners, however, the proportion of those who then bought a Ponton Mercedes (or Opel Kapitän) for social prestige instead of the cheaper Ford or VW was high.
In the mid-1950s the “German economic miracle”, accelerated by tax cuts for industry, trade and agriculture, reached a peak and fashionable kidney-style furniture and American lifestyle insignia à la cars with chrome glitter and tail fins were more in demand than ever. Ford responded to the trend with a facelift for the Taunus 12 M, whose grille now showed a “dollar grin”.
On the other hand, the 15 M, which looks almost identical, but with a new 40 kW/55 hp four-cylinder, should bridge the waiting time until the debut of the 17 M mid-range and offer an alternative to the 1.5-liter sedans from Opel, Peugeot or Borgward.
Inside, the Taunus models continued to offer “world-class living comfort,” as the marketing explained, while on the outside new, colorful metallic paints based on nitrocellulose conveyed a luster that was otherwise displayed by road cruisers on Hollywood Boulevard.
So much advancement through design made it possible for the Ford to have a surprisingly large model consistency: no new dress every two years as with Taunus competitors, but an eleven-year production period.
From 1959, however, with a flatter roof, larger rear window and filigree C-pillars and mostly with white side stripes as a premium attribute. After a good 600,000 units, the next Ford step followed in 1962: the 12 M (P4) with front-wheel drive, but that’s a new story.
Today, the Focus continues the success story of the compact Ford, but not for long: A fully electric crossover is already ready to go, based on the MEB platform provided by VW. Whether Henry Ford II said “Yes!” would have said?
