Unusually for a car launch, both the by now 84-year-old German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, and the grandson of the firm's founder, Henry Ford, were present.

The repetitious use of a single simple shape at different levels of the design gave the overall car a consistent visual unity which was in stark contrast to the high finned flamboyance of the previous Taunus 17M and was seen at the time as a radical switch by Ford of Germany away from American styling in favour of European styling.

It was and remains the "Badewanne" (bathtub) soubriquet that caught the eye of the press reporters, and it is as the "Badewannetaunus" that the car continues to be remembered by enthusiasts.

The early 1960s were a period of rapid expansion for the west European auto-industry, and export markets for the new 17M included Greece and Australia where several cars were converted locally into "pickups" or, in Australian English, "utes".

[2] Power outputs initially ranged from 55 PS (40 kW; 54 hp) to 60 PS (44 kW; 59 hp), and these engine versions remained available throughout the model's four-year life, but several more powerful engines featuring raised compression ratios in response to the increased availability of higher octane fuels appeared during the four-year period: by 1964 the most powerful Ford 17M offered 75 PS (55 kW; 74 hp).

In Sweden, the more powerful version first available in 1962 was sold as the "Taunus Sport", with the inclusion of a more lavish interior.

There were several important technical innovations during the four-year model run which no doubt go some way to explain the car's commercial success when compared to that achieved by its predecessor, and will have strengthened the Ford image in a market which had grown used to seeing Ford sales trailing those of General Motors’ Opel business.

In April 1962 the 17M became the first mainstream production car in Germany to offer, as an option, disc brakes on the front wheels.

1962 was also the year when the car acquired an "automatic starter" which reportedly made the traditional manual choke unnecessary.

Options available at extra cost included velour carpeting, grab handles for the passengers in the back, whitewall tires, a two tone paint finish and even a "make-up mirror" cleverly incorporated into the sun-visor on the passenger's side.

Ford tended to be ahead of the field in this aspect of marketing, even if some of the resulting slogans appear stilted fifty years later.

[2] Steel bodied estate equivalent models based on mainstream saloons were rapidly gaining in popularity.

In the sales statistics for several months of 1961/62 the success of the model even enabled Ford briefly to overtake Opel on the German market, becoming the second best selling auto-brand, beaten to the top spot only by Volkswagen.