Ford · 1952–1959

Ford Taunus P1

The Ford Taunus P1 is a small family car which was produced by Ford Germany from 1952 until 1962. It was marketed as the Ford Taunus 12M, and, between 1955 and 1959, as the larger-engined Ford Taunus 15M. The company produced a succession of Ford Taunus 12M models until 1970, as the name was applied to a succession of similarly sized cars, but the first Taunus 12M models, based on the company's Taunus Project 1 (P1), remained in production only until 1962. In that year the Taunus P1 series was replaced by the Taunus P4 series. At its launch, the car placed Ford ahead of the pack, being unusually modern in terms of the bits that showed. It was one of the first new cars to appear in Germany since before the war, and featured a radical ponton format "three box" body as pioneered (at least in Germany) by the 1949 Borgward Hansa 1500. The three-box car body format would soon become mainstream, but when the Ford Taunus 12M appeared in 1952 competitor manufacturers including Opel, Volkswagen and Auto Union were still competing with models based closely on designs originating in the 1930s.

Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Predecessor: Ford Taunus G93A · Successor: Ford Taunus P4

All Ford Taunus P1 data: UK builds, safety, recalls, model years →

Globe Taunus / "Weltkugeltaunus" (1952–1959)

=== Development === The planning for Ford Germany's new ponton bodied passenger car began in 1949. Several aspects of the car's development reflected the advantages and the disadvantages of running a business with management decisions necessarily split between two continents at a time when even international telephone calls needed to be pre-booked. The original plan for the strikingly modern design came from Ford in the USA who drew up a proposal based on the ponton format Champion model introduced to the US auto-market a few years earlier by Studebaker. The Studebaker design had already proved highly influential on the domestic programs of mainstream US automakers. Cologne based production engineers adapted the US proposal for the German market. The Studebaker featured a large roundel directly above the front grille on which was displayed the propeller of an airplane. The Ford Project 1 also featured a prominent roundel at the front of the car, but in place of the Studebaker's propeller design, the Ford roundel featured a hemispherical depiction of half a globe. This bold and unusual decoration led to the new car becoming known as the "Weltkugeltaunus" (Globe Taunus). The proposal from Ford in America called for a monocoque construction, following the lead (in Germany) of the 1937 Opel Olympia. Ford of Germany had no experience of this construction method, having spent most of the 1940s concentrating on building light trucks. Project 1's predecessor, the Ford Taunus designed in the 1930s, had had its body built by Ambi Budd, an independent specialist pressed steel body builder in Berlin until 1948, and after the Berlin firm had its surviving plant crated up and shipped to the Soviet Union, Ford had in 1948 been driven to having Ford Taunus bodies produced by competitor

Side-stripes Taunus /"Seitenstreifentaunus" (1959–1962)

By 1959, Ford's US management had decided that the earlier policy of selling as separate models the Taunus 12M and Taunus 15M no longer made sense. This was partly in response to the lack of effectiveness with which the 15M model had been competing against Opel. General Motors were evidently cash rich at this time and Opel, between 1953 and 1957, offered an extensively redesigned or upgraded version of their Opel Olympia Rekord every year, and were dominating the middle-weight sedan sector of the German auto market. However, another important game changer had been the introduction in 1957 of Ford's second new post-war model, the Project 2, known to customers at the time as the Ford Taunus 17M. The larger and flamboyantly styled Taunus 17M was seen as a much more powerful competitor to sell against the successful Opel and against the Borgward Isabella, which acquired something approaching iconic status in the later 1950s. For 1959, Ford's smaller Taunus no longer needed to try to compete half a class up. The Taunus 15M was withdrawn from sale. A redesign of the front of the car saw the prominent globe symbol removed, leaving a more restrained front for the Taunus 12M which competed now without distraction in the small car category, a sector increasingly dominated by Volkswagen's Beetle. Having lost its defining globe mascot, the smaller Taunus acquired a thick painted stripe down each side, slightly below the level of the car's waist. It thereby acquired its "Seitenstreifentaunus" (Side-stripes Taunus) soubriquet. By this time, the Ford Taunus 12M's twenty-five-year-old underpinnings were becoming uncomfortably obvious, and the car was having to compete largely on price. However, that also meant that in terms of the amount of car offered for the money it represented some

Replacement

By 1961, despite its three-box body shape, the Taunus 12M had become outdated and outclassed, with an engine, suspension system and gear-box which still followed pretty closely their original 1935 designs. In August 1962 production of the Taunus P1 came to an end, after 555,463 cars had been built. The car was replaced by the Taunus P4 which retained the "Taunus 12M" name, but applied it to a Ford's first German built front-wheel drive model, powered by a modern compact V4 engine. During its three-year production run, between 1959 and 1962, 245,614 of the Stripes Taunus models were produced. 56,843 of these were fitted with the larger 1.5 liter motor.

Technical data

== References == Rosellen, Hanns-Peter: Ford-Schritte, 1. Auflage, Zyklam-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. (1987/88), ISBN 3-88767-079-5 Oswald, Werner (2003). Deutsche Autos 1945–1990, Band (vol) 3 (in German). Motorbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-613-02116-1.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); text is shortened. Read the full article for the complete history and citations.

Specifications

name: Ford Taunus 12M (1952–1962), Ford Taunus 15M (1955–1959)
aka: Ford Taunus P1, "Weltkugeltaunus" (Globe Taunus) till 1958, "Seitenstreifentaunus" (Side-stripes Taunus) from 1959
Manufacturer: Ford Germany
Production: January 1952 – August 1962 (12M), January 1955 – September 1959 (15M)
Predecessor: Ford Taunus "Buckeltaunus"
Successor: Ford Taunus 12M P4
Class: Large family car (D)
Body style: 2-door saloon, 3-door "Kombi" estate car, 2-door cabriolet
Engine: 1172 cc Ford Sidevalve engine I4, water-cooled (12M), 1498 cc I4, overhead valve, water-cooled (15M)
Transmission: 3-speed manual, 4-speed manual optional from 1953
Length: 4060 mm
Width: 1580 mm
Height: 1500 mm
Kerb weight: 850 –
Wheelbase: 2489 mm
Assembly: Germany: Cologne-Niehl

Specification summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Measured facts from Wikidata (CC0). Check the linked sources for citations.

More photos

Sources

Wikidata — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1436937CC0 1.0 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Taunus_P1CC BY-SA 4.0 · Text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1370551201 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MHV_Ford_Taunus_G13_03.jpgPublic domain · Photo: MartinHansV · retrieved 2026-10-01
Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.