(EXPANDED FROM 11/15/2023)
Even though Ford came out with one of the first mid-sized cars in 1962, only three years later it was pummeled by General Motors and Chrysler. In 1965 even American Motors’ mid-sized lineup outsold Ford’s aging Fairlane. This is why a 1966 redesign was intended to put Ford back into the game.
Ford’s handiwork did relatively well. Fairlane output increased by almost 42 percent to roughly 317,000 units. This was even though 1966 was an off year for the U.S. auto industry. Add in the production of the newly upsized Mercury Comet and the Ford Motor Company’s mid-sized line almost hit 488,000 units. This surpassed Chrysler Corporation’s mid-sized twins by almost 20,000 units. However, GM still controlled half of the mid-sized market.
Ford’s redesign was an evolutionary effort that included new sheetmetal and revised greenhouses that sported curved side glass for the first time. The overall look was considerably more trendy than with the 1965 models, which had a rather chunky, one-year-only reskinning.
The Fairlane’s size was only modestly changed. Width was up 0.9 inches to 74.7 inches and length fell 1.4 inches to 197 inches. Height dropped 0.7 to 55 inches while the wheelbase held at 116 inches. Shipping weight was down around 70 pounds, depending on the body style.
Ford updates styling and adds performance models
The redesign put the Fairlane in sync with the big Fords, which in 1965 switched to stacked headlights and vertical taillights. It wasn’t a very memorable design, but the car was relatively clean and attractive.
The main problem was that the Fairlane’s corporate sibling, the Comet, looked too similar. Even though the Mercury had unique sheetmetal, it could be confused with a Fairlane (go here for further discussion).
General Motors entered the mid-sized field in 1964 with a veritable Spanish Armada of cars from four of its five passenger-car brands. Sales were partly spurred by an eclectic range of sporty models such as the Chevrolet Chevelle SS, Pontiac LeMans GTO, Oldsmobile Cutlass 4-4-2 and Buick Skylark GS. This led Ford to add to the Fairlane lineup a 500/XL series as well as the GT and GTA.
Perhaps most significantly, for the first time the Fairlane’s body was tweaked so that it could fit big-block V8 engines (Langworth, 1987). Marketing used splashy backdrops designed to appeal to younger buyers.
Our featured car is a GTA convertible. The GT and GTA both came with Ford’s 390-cubic-inch V8, heavy-duty suspension, bucket seats and a floor shifter. Although a four-speed manual transmission was available, you could also opt for a three-speed automatic (thus the name GTA).
Fairlane represented something new and something old
The Fairlane 500 XL and GT/A did fairly well in 1966 — almost 66,000 were produced. However, it still ran behind GM models such as the Chevelle SS (roughly 72,000 units) and the GTO (almost 97,000 units). Convertible production was even more modest — only 4,327 GTs and GTAs left the factory.
Ford may not have hit a home run with the 1966 Fairlane, but it gave the automaker a decent foothold in the burgeoning mid-sized “muscle car” market. What may be less appreciated about the car is that it also represented a throwback to Ford’s utilitarian past.
The Fairlane was remarkably similar in external dimensions to a 1951 Ford. Here is what a “standard-sized” Ford could have been like if the automaker had not decided that Americans wanted land yachts instead.
In terms of historical significance, the 1966 Fairlane doesn’t hold a candle to the likes of the legendary GTO. And as we’ve discussed here, Ford might have been more competitive in the second half of the 1960s if it had placed less emphasis on pony cars and more on rebuilding its strength in the mid-sized field.
Or Ford could have even sidestepped coming out with a mid-size platform and instead attacked the market with stretched compacts and shrunken big cars (go here for further discussion).
But given what Ford designers had to work with, the Fairlane was a decent start.
NOTES:
This article was originally posted on Nov. 15, 2023 and expanded on March 13, 2026. Production figures, prices and dimensions came from the auto editors of Consumer Guide (2006), Flory (2004) and Gunnell (2002).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, Ill.
- Flory, J. “Kelly” Jr.; 2004. American Cars, 1960-1972. McFarland & Co., Inc.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised 4th Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Langworth, Richard M. and the auto editors of Consumer Guide; 1987. The Complete History of Ford Motor Company. Publications International, Lincolnwood, Ill.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- Fordheritagevault.com: Ford Fairlane (1966)
- oldcaradvertising.com: Ford Fairlane (1966)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Ford Fairlane (1965, 1966); Mercury Comet (1966)
Most famous 66 Fairlane may be one used by Joe Friday and Bill Gannon on Dragnet. Ford did use the 66 Fairlane wagon body through 1971, though the sedans and coupes were updated for 1968 and again for 1970.
I should also say that one of my mother’s sisters married a man who owned a Ford dealership in Jamaica. He owned a 1970 Australian Fairlane almost identical to the U.S. 66 and 67 Fairlane (though the interior seemed more upscale), and I enjoyed riding in it when my parents took the family to Jamaica in 1976 to visit relatives.
Ford designers must have really loved the ’62 Chevy to adapt its side contours to the 1965 Fairlane!
Ford Australia skipped that year (a full reskin for only one year? Wow! Bet the bean counters hated that.) but came storming back with the ’66 which proved phenomenally successful. Having the Falcon as basically a SWB Fairlane made things easy for local production, with a few adaptations/part sharing, like using the Falcon front fenders.. Only the four door sedan down here though.
Good point about it being the same size as a ’51 Ford. Were the bigger Galaxies much roomier, or was it just so much flab?
My first car was a 1967 Ford Fairlane XL with a 289 engine v-8 two doors I love it this was in 1976 I give four hundred dollars for I would love to have it now
The Fairlane GT/A wasn’t up to the GTO and SS396. Ford didn’t have a credible street machine in volume til the 428 CJ.
The Comet shared doors with Fairlane, like Dodge and Plymouth midsizers. The shared stacked headlight theme made Ford and Mercury indistinguishable.
The 1965 Fairlane just looked amateurish.
The character lines on the Comet’s doors look similar to the Fairlane but they are not the same. Take a look at the photos here, which show them more clearly in comparison to the Fairlane and Falcon. Notice how the Comet’s side sheetmetal puffs out a little bit more and the middle character line is both lower and has more of a tip rather than creasing inward.
My question: Why did they even bother to spend the extra money on new side sheetmetal if they weren’t going to give it more obvious differentiation like on GM’s mid-sized brands?
Wow. You’re right. Even the wagons have different rear quarters. Ford screwed this up.
In addition to the styling updates, the big reason for the restyle of the Fairlane and the Comet was to make changes to the unit body so that the big blocks would fit in the chassis and under the hood. G.M.’s and Chrysler’s big block intermediates forced Ford’s hand competitively as the Fairlane Thunderbolts were heavily modified drag racing cars.