You guys are thinking base price on those '56 and '57 Fords. Remember, cars came just about totally stripped in those days. The most popular Ford in 1956 was the Fairlane 4-door "Town Sedan", with a base price of $2,093. In those days wagons tended to be the most expensive body style, above convertibles. The Country Squire 3-seat wagon, had a base price of $2,533. The T-bird was $3,151.
As for my grandparents' '57 Ford? It was a Fairlane 500 Victoria 4-door hardtop. The Fairlane 500 was the top line Ford series that year, and "Victoria" was what Ford christened their hardtop (No B-pillar, for those not in the know) coupes and sedans. Hardtops required extra beefing up to compensate for the lack of a B-pillar, although the compensation was rarely enough. They often ran $100-200 more than their pillared counterparts.
Anyway, that '57 Fairlane 500 Victoria had a base MSRP of $2404. But wait, there's more. Or, less. For that base MSRP, you got a 223 CID inline 6. Manual transmission. No power assist for the brakes or steering. No heater. No radio. I'm not sure about blackwall tires and monotone paint. Being a top series, it might have at least had whitewalls.
My grandparents got the V-8. But, not the 272. Not the 292. They went full-bore and got the 312 "Thunderbird" V-8, with 245 hp gross. Plus the automatic and all that other stuff that was optional. Throw on tax and tags, and even with some haggling, that $2404 could have easily bloated to $3500. If the car had been equipped with power windows, locks, and a/c, it would have easily topped $4,000. A/C was usually a $450-500 option in those days, and that made it more of a plaything for the rich. It was common in Cadillacs, Lincolns, Imperials, maybe an upper echelon Buick or New Yorker. But not so common in the more medium-priced cars (Olds, Mercury, DeSoto, Dodge, Pontiac), and quite rare in low-priced cars like Ford, Chevy, and Plymouth.
1957 proved to the the last year of unbridled faith in "Longer/Lower/Wider" in the auto industry, and a recession in 1958 helped usher in a backlash against those behemoths, a whole new generation of small cars and, for a brief time, it held the line on car prices.
For example, a 1957 New Yorker 4-door sedan had a base MSRP of $4173. Ten years later, in 1967, a New Yorker 4-door sedan started at $4208.
As for my grandparents, they traded that '57 Ford on a '61 Galaxie Victoria 4-door hardtop. Different name, but basically the same place in the Ford hierarchy. The auto makers in those days had a bad habit of bringing out a new name for the top model, and then moving the old name down a notch, maybe move the name below that down. and at the very bottom, retire a name. That '61 had a base MSRP of $2,664. I'm not sure if it had any more standard equipment than the '57. Same base engine, the 223. I'm not sure when they made a heater standard...probably not until the feds forced them to. Anyway, I remember Granddad saying that '61 was also around $3,500. However, I don't know which V-8 he ordered. There was a 292, 352, and a 390 big block. Somehow, I don't think he ordered the 390, but who knows?
He traded the '61 on a '63 Mercury Monterey. I remember he said the Monterey was around $3500, but he got it for the '61, plus $1200. With the Monterey you got a 390 big block standard. However, that year, there was a Monterey and a Monterey Custom. I don't know which one he bought, but I do know it was another 4-door hardtop, and it had the "Breezeway" rear window, which rolled down for ventilation, but he wanted it to haul long items, such as lumber, ladders, etc.
