Meet the new Chevrolets for 1939, Master 85 and Master De Luxe, in this spiffy factory film.

This 1939 General Motors film opens with a noteworthy boast, as Chevrolet is touted  as “motordom’s best seller.” While perennial rival Ford led the market in calendar year sales from 1933 to 1937, Chevrolet took over the top spot in 1938 and hung onto it by a comfortable margin through 1942. From that angle, the film gives us a good idea what the buyers of 1939 were looking for in a low-priced car.

There were two Chevy model lines for 1939, the Master 85 base model and the Master De Luxe. The main difference: The Master 85 rode on a traditional front beam axle and leaf springs, while the Master De Luxe featured independent front suspension. For ’39, Chevrolet abandoned its unusual Dubonnet Knee Action system and adopted the same double-wishbone setup as the rest of the GM divisions. (Read about Knee Action here.) Both models were powered by Chevrolet’s familiar overhead-valve six, now rated at 85 horsepower—identical to the ’35-38 Ford V8.  With an obvious poke at its Dearborn rival the Chevy print ads claimed, “It’s the liveliest of the low-priced cars!”

With prices starting at $684, the Master De Luxe cost $60 more than the Master 85, but still outsold the base model by a good margin. Among other things, this indicates that independent front suspension was now a genuine selling point in the low-priced class. By far the best-selling body style was the two-door Town Sedan with its handy integral trunk, and the feature gets plenty of exposure early in our film. Video below.