1960 Frontenac

Canadian Automotive Museum Audio Content

Our bilingual audio tour explores less well-known stories from the collection, in the voices of the Museum’s volunteers, historians, vehicle experts and more.
Transcript:
Americans visiting Canada in the 1950s and 1960s were often confused by the cars on sale here. What, they would wonder, is a Meteor? Who makes the Monarch? Or the Acadian? The Beaumont? And what the heck is a Frontenac? All of these were produced by the major automakers, including Ford and General Motors, but treated as separate brands on their own. Under Canadian tax law, it was less expensive for cars assembled in Canada to be sold here, so foreign manufacturers would modify their existing models with new engines, trim or body panels, and sell them as these unique Canadian brands. The practice is often called “badge engineering”, but it usually doesn’t actually involve very much engineering at all.

This Frontenac is a badge engineered Ford Falcon with maple-leaf decorations, a new front grille, and different tail lights. There was a new boom in compact cars across North America in the late 50s, and Ford dealers took advantage of this with the Falcon. Mercury didn’t carry Falcons, though, so the Frontenac became that company’s entry in this hot new auto market.

First announced on a CBC TV special in December of 1959, the Frontenac was a success, becoming the second-best selling car in Canada for 1960, just beating out the Volkswagen Beetle. Sure, everyone knew it was just a Falcon, but it was colourful, inexpensive, fairly roomy, and best of all patriotic.

Despite its sales success, the Frontenac proved to be a one-year wonder. By 1961 the Mercury lineup included the exciting new Comet, and the Frontenac was no longer needed. That was news to the Frontenac advertising team, as a mock-up of an upcoming 1961 version was more than halfway through a Halifax-to-Vancouver publicity tour that immediately ground to a halt. The car that GM had called “the eventful Frontenac” wasn’t that eventful after all.