Sunday, May 12, 2013
Return of the Sedan Delivery
Lately I've noticed that Ford Transit Connect vans are suddenly ubiquitous. Clearly they've struck a chord among businesses. What's the chord? Sedan delivery, a type of vehicle that has been absent for almost 60 years.
I slapped together a quick timeline showing the comparative evolution of Sedan Deliveries and Panel Trucks.
For the first three decades of motoring, regular cars were used for most commercial purposes except big hefty trucking, so there's nothing to show here.
Around 1930 the Commercial Sedan or Sedan Delivery began to emerge between normal cars and trucks. It had the same roofline as a four-door sedan, sometimes elevated or extended a bit; it had the same front end and underlying chassis; it had blank panels on the side instead of windows, and a door on the rear. It filled a specific niche, delivering or selling small items while presenting a more upscale appearance than a full-size panel truck. Some neighborhoods had no-truck rules, and the sedan delivery loopholed those rules.
By 1950 the four-door sedan had dropped into a 'three-box' form, with a low trunk occupying the rear third of the car. This shape couldn't be adapted for a sedan delivery, so the two-door station wagon filled the role. Not very satisfactory, because it was too low to hold appliances, and impossible to stand up inside.
In 1960 the Econoline van came along, and by 1970 'one-box' vans had taken over the sedan delivery niche. Econolines have been serving for 50 years now, and they certainly hold lots of stuff; but they don't look like cars.
Finally around 2005 the Ford Transit Connect brought back the true 1930's sedan delivery. Modern family sedans are small SUVs, with the same 'two-box' shape and dimensions as a 1930's car; so the deliverized version of the SUV brings back the original definition. It's a four-door sedan with slightly elevated roofline, blanked windows, and a rear door. It has a certain flair that makes it suitable for route sales as well as delivery.
= = = = =
Random afterthought: The SUV also brought back another '30s phenomenon: the affordable limousine. From 1935 to 1954, Chrysler made moderate-priced 8-passenger sedans with or without glass partitions. The DeSoto version became the default taxi. Even Plymouth offered limos briefly. After '54, the only limos were super-expensive Cadillacs, unsuitable for taxis or hotels.
In theory, big families could also use those long sedans, but in fact they didn't. In the '50s I knew several Catholic families with 6 or 7 kids, and all of them drove ordinary 4-doors, not even station wagons. They simply didn't take all the kids in the car at once. Modern big families love SUVs, and they always take all the kids. What's the diff? Presumably new laws and taboos that discourage letting the older kids take care of the younger ones. The whole family must always trundle along together, with all the kids locked into their little travel cages.
¶ 7:44 AM 
For the first three decades of motoring, regular cars were used for most commercial purposes except big hefty trucking, so there's nothing to show here.
Around 1930 the Commercial Sedan or Sedan Delivery began to emerge between normal cars and trucks. It had the same roofline as a four-door sedan, sometimes elevated or extended a bit; it had the same front end and underlying chassis; it had blank panels on the side instead of windows, and a door on the rear. It filled a specific niche, delivering or selling small items while presenting a more upscale appearance than a full-size panel truck. Some neighborhoods had no-truck rules, and the sedan delivery loopholed those rules.
By 1950 the four-door sedan had dropped into a 'three-box' form, with a low trunk occupying the rear third of the car. This shape couldn't be adapted for a sedan delivery, so the two-door station wagon filled the role. Not very satisfactory, because it was too low to hold appliances, and impossible to stand up inside.
In 1960 the Econoline van came along, and by 1970 'one-box' vans had taken over the sedan delivery niche. Econolines have been serving for 50 years now, and they certainly hold lots of stuff; but they don't look like cars.
Finally around 2005 the Ford Transit Connect brought back the true 1930's sedan delivery. Modern family sedans are small SUVs, with the same 'two-box' shape and dimensions as a 1930's car; so the deliverized version of the SUV brings back the original definition. It's a four-door sedan with slightly elevated roofline, blanked windows, and a rear door. It has a certain flair that makes it suitable for route sales as well as delivery.
= = = = =
Random afterthought: The SUV also brought back another '30s phenomenon: the affordable limousine. From 1935 to 1954, Chrysler made moderate-priced 8-passenger sedans with or without glass partitions. The DeSoto version became the default taxi. Even Plymouth offered limos briefly. After '54, the only limos were super-expensive Cadillacs, unsuitable for taxis or hotels.
In theory, big families could also use those long sedans, but in fact they didn't. In the '50s I knew several Catholic families with 6 or 7 kids, and all of them drove ordinary 4-doors, not even station wagons. They simply didn't take all the kids in the car at once. Modern big families love SUVs, and they always take all the kids. What's the diff? Presumably new laws and taboos that discourage letting the older kids take care of the younger ones. The whole family must always trundle along together, with all the kids locked into their little travel cages.
¶ 7:44 AM
