Ford Popular - Definition and Overview

The Ford Popular is a car from Ford built between 1953 and 1959. When production of the older Ford Anglia and Ford Prefect was stopped in 1953 the Popular was developed as a budget alternative. The Popular was based on the old, prewar-style Anglia. It was powered by a Ford Sidevalve 1172 cc four cylinder engine. The car was very basic. It had a single vacuum powered wiper, no heater, vinyl trim and very little chrome. Over 150,000 Populars were made.

This car proved successful because, while on paper it was a sensible alternative to a clean, late-model used car, in practice there were no clean late-model used cars available in postwar Britain due to the six-year halt in production caused by World War II. This problem was compounded by stringent export quotas that made obtaining a new car in the late 1940s and into the early 1950s difficult, and covenants forbidding new-car buyers from selling for up to three years after delivery. Unless the purchaser could pay the extra GBP100 or so for a 100E, Austin A30 or Morris Minor, the choice was the Popular or a prewar car.

In 1959 the old Popular was replaced by a new version that was in production until 1962. As the old version it used the Anglia shell, the 100E this time, and it was powered by a 1172 cc sidevalve engine.