“I thought this car really a wonderful production, as exhibited, as unveiled; just as it was, without one plea,” declared an English Ford dealer on first seeing the Model Y, in the spring of 1932. “And when I learned that it would (as a production job, coming through the mill at Dagenham, in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands) be all of twice that job—better-looking, roomier internally, with its fuel tank aft, I decided that it might not be so bad a thing to be a Ford man, and would certainly be roses, roses, all the way, to be a Ford dealer.”

The intoxication of this observer with Ford-England's first 8 h.p. unit, designed to meet specific national needs—the first Ford to be manufactured exclusively in Britain—was not atypical. “The fact of the matter was, the little car saved us from going under,” and “The Model Y was our only salvation,” were the later recollections of higher company officials.

The baby car was supplemented in 1934 by a 10 h.p. Model C for the buyer wanting additional power. These two vehicles—the Popular and the De Luxe as they came to be called—transformed the British company from a deficit to a profitable enterprise. With them, Ford in England was again in a position to challenge the leaders of the British automotive industry, the Morris and the Austin.