MG is still around, albeit Chinese-owned now. The MG 6 GT hatch and 6 Magnette sedan are both available new in New Zealand, and are quite attractive in the metal. Well-specced and well-priced too. Far from MG’s heritage though.
Wow – VW was ten times the sales of the number 2 import. VW also sold a lot more than many 1963 American lines. 220K units is not chicken feed.
IIRC, Chrysler Cadillac and Mercury were stuck around 100K units. Studebaker was in the 80K range. Does anyone have the breakdown on US brand rankings for 1963?
Wikipedia has a great collection of US production figures (link here)
Production Figures for 1963
Chevrolet 2,237,201
Ford 1,525,404
Pontiac 590,071
Plymouth 488,448
Oldsmobile 476,753
Rambler 464,126
Buick 457,818
Dodge 446,129
Mercury 301,581
Cadillac 163,174
Chrysler 128,937
Studebaker 69,555
Lincoln 31,233
Imperial 14,121
Checker 1,080
Keep in mind that 1962 was the first year that it became apparent what a rustbucket the Renault Dauphine was. Up to that point, the sales figures between them and the Beetle was a lot closer.
As to the Japanese, the first Toyopet’s and Datsun’s appeared in 1958. They flopped pretty badly (think underpowered, well-built, ’50’s Austin sedans), so I think by this point the primary sales point was their small trucks. And California was just about their only market.
It was around this time that Mad Magazine did a really nasty humor piece on Japanese cars. Basically engine powered kid’s pedal cars with the instruments as stuck-on decals. Obviously, nobody at Mad had the slightest clue about what the Japanese were capable of.
Japanese motorcycles were still in the “what are these?” stage in the states. In ’63 Honda still was getting the majority of its sales in California. The C100 Cub didn’t appear in western Pennsylvania until the spring of 1964, and didn’t really take off until a year later. Yamaha followed a couple of months behind.
Syke: How common was the 305cc Super Hawk in your part of the country during the early 1960s? It appeared in 1961 according to the press, but as you mentioned, market penetration was slower in states beyond California.
The hot-shit backup quarterback of my high school’s football team had a 305 Super Hawk in the spring of 1966 – limited, of course, by the fact that he was born in 1950 and PA driver’s licenses didn’t start until you were 16.
Of course, his best friend (non-jock, non-big guy on campus) immediately bought a Yamaha 250 Big Bear which would leave the Super Hawk for dead.
The first motorcycle at my high school was a neighbor of mine, two years ahead of me, who showed up with a Hodaka 100cc bike in the spring of 1965. Purchased from the local Triumph and Royal Enfield (and former Indian) dealership who took on Kawasaki about six months before the H-1 500cc triple came out.
That Hodaka was the only bike in the parking lot in ’65. Then there were a bunch of them in ’66 and things started to take off. All Japanese, nothing bigger than that Super Hawk. 500cc and up bikes were the providence of the greasers and bad guys, none of whom would have lived in my (very high end) school district.
Prior to ’65 I have to admit I was entirely car oriented, but I seriously doubt there was anything on two wheels in the Johnstown area that wasn’t Harley, Indian, Triumph or Royal Enfield. I think the Honda dealer (Alvin’s Honda in Windber, took on the cars when the Civic came out, then later dropped the motorcycles) opened in late ’65.
Something to keep in mind is the local demographics: Johnstown, PA is a blue-collar, shot and a beer, steel and coal town. If you’ve ever seen “Slap Shot” and “All the Right Moves”, you’ve seen Johnstown. Politically Democratic (union) but somewhere to the right of the tea party. Very conservative. VERY right to life – admitting pro-choice in the county is the fastest way to lose an election.
Japanese anything took relatively forever to come into town. When it came to motorcycles, you either rode a Harley, a Triumph, or you kept your piece of crap in the garage. Despite their being dealers of all four Japanese marques by 1970. They made their money on motocross, not street. This attitude only changed in the early ’90’s as Harley mania opened the market to the Japanese cruisers, but the Japanese sportbikes didn’t become prevalent until early in the last decade.
Cars, likewise. There was a Volkswagen dealer for as long as I can remember (which I’ll guess means they arrived sometime around ’55-57). The Oldsmobile dealer also carried Renault, which meant that during the ’50’s Renault was the most popular import in Johnstown. We had a British dealer who carried just about anything British that he’d thought would sell as long as it was priced under a Rover 2000. Obviously, MG and Triumph sports cars were 95% of his sales. He had the good fortune of taking on Subaru once the FF1’s came out and has thrived since.
The town had some captive imports. The Buick dealer sold Opel, the Pontiac/Cadillac dealer had Vauxhall for the few years they were available, I think the Ford dealer sold a few English Fords but they were far and few between. I think Toyota arrived about 1966, so the Oldsmobile dealer immediately added Datsun to Renault. There was a Saab dealer for about a year, it was a complete flop. Don’t think he sold a new car in that time. No Volvo (still isn’t), no Mercedes-Benz because the Indiana, PA dealer (going back to the Studebaker days) had and still has the territory.
Fiat and Jaguar? Go to Pittsburgh, or at least Greensburg.
Volkswagen was the only brand to thrive until the ’70’s, even both Japanese brands had a very difficult time getting accepted among the local buyers until the first gas crisis.
Correct me if I’m wrong – isn’t the former VW plant (the one where they built Rabbits and pickups) located near Johnstown?
I have an acquaintance who used to be on Congressman John Murtha’s staff many years ago – you may remember him, as he was in the House forever. She told me that for a Democrat, he was quite conservative.
Syke
Posted October 16, 2013 at 9:39 AM
Westmoreland County, just outside of New Stanton. Very close to the intersection of I-76 (PA Turnpike), I-70 and US 30. About an hour’s drive from my old place.
I remember Jack Murtha very well, knew him before he did his first run for Congress. The consumate pork-barreller, he was a living example of the old saying “The problem with this county is that 434 representatives are tax and spend idiots, but our guy is allright.” He kept Johnstown alive with all the pork barreling from after the ’77 flood until well into the ’90’s when things finally picked up. Became a national disgrace for the same reasons.
I was fortunate in that I could see both sides of the issue from direct involvement.
Geeber
Posted October 16, 2013 at 11:52 AM
Representative Murtha’s daughter-in-law taught one of my law school courses in the mid-1990s. She was a very nice, down-to-earth person.
Pennsylvania is about the last state in the union where there are still large numbers of old-school, Roosevelt-style Democrats. They are liberal on economic issues (because they didn’t trust the big steel, coal and railroad corporations) and extremely conservative on issues like gun control and abortion. They also have no problem with what has come to be called “pork” as long as they are getting their fair share of it.
Representative Murtha epitomized that worldview in many ways.
Honda bikes were a very hot item in Iowa City by 1963, especially the Cub and such. But the bigger ones were starting to show up with some regularity by then too.
Remarkable list, which creates a much different picture than what one would think based on survivor/restored car sightings and automotive press attention. Based on those, one would think that the list looked more like this:
1. VW
2. MG
3. Triumph
4. Austin-Healey
5. Mercedes-Benz
6. Jaguar
7. Volvo
8. Fiat
9. Saab
10. Renault
Renault was a much stronger #2 a few years earlier; the 1960 compacts and the import shake-out that year really started them on their slide. But Renault was big in the late fifties.
I don’t have numbers available, but yes, the Dauphine sold very well in the late fifties, but I think it was still a ways behind VW, just not nearly so much so. I’m quite sure Renault topped 100k annual sales in its best year(s).
From my R10 CC: The Dauphine, which was the direct predecessor to the R8 and R10, had a meteoric rise in sales during the Great US Import Boom. In 1958, it actually outsold the Beetle in 11 states, and seemed to be a genuine threat to it. Its sales peaked at over 100k units in 1959. But its fragility and lack of dealer support quickly caught up with it, and when the Import Boom turned Bust in 1960, Dauphine sales evaporated in a reddish cloud of iron oxide.
As a point of comparison, here are 1963 production figures for some U.S. brands:
Rambler — 428, 346
Mercury — 301,581
Cadillac — 163,174
Chrysler — 128,937
Studebaker — 69,555
In other words, in 1963 VW sales were remarkably high in the U.S. — and by the end of the decade they would more than double. In a very real sense the American compacts failed to hold back the rising popularity of imports. Yet by the late-60s Detroit had deemphasized smaller economy cars. Big-block Mustang, anyone?
That’s because Detroit never wanted to mess with small cars. “Small cars equal small profits.”
The plan was that the Detroit small cars would come out, smash all the imports, shut down all the dealerships (except in those commie areas where college professors, liberals, etc. insisted on driving something different), and put an end to the foreign invasion.
At which point the small cars would go out of production, and the American consumer would obediently go back to proper sized cars again. When that didn’t work, the industry took the current import penetration and wrote it off.
Until it kept growing, at which point they tried again.
Looking at that chart, I see one import – VW – that had really high sales, and several other companies selling what were essentially niche products. A large part of the VW’s popularity was rooted in the fact that it WASN’T a domestic car. It was different, but not necessarily better. The MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey, meanwhile, really weren’t much of a threat to Detroit.
The real challenge to Detroit comes in the early 1970s. By that point, Toyota and Nissan (Datsun in those days) had gotten their acts together, and then Honda produced its first “real car” with the first-generation Civic. Their initial victims, ironically enough, were the low-cost European economy cars – Fiat, Renault, Austin and even the vaunted Beetle.
Interesting figures VW never made it that big here anti German sentiment was still strong in the 60s and Renaults had already proved they were not very good in the 50s.
British and American cars were what we bought with some Australian efforts, rustbuckets though they were thrown in.
1. I have to wonder if Opels and European Fords were disqualifed from this list based on being GM and Ford products. I’d think they both had to be selling more units in the U.S. in 1963 than the make ranked #10 on this list.
2. As a few others have already noted, figures for European brands that were primarily viewed as sellers of economy cars in the U.S. were probably much higher during the 1958-60 import boom than they were in 1963. Renault and Fiat were likely higher then, and a few other makes of this nature may have been in the Top 10 then but had since dropped out. Domestic compacts ate into their market share; the end of the U.S. recession by 1962 reduced demand for small economy cars; many non-VW import brands had gained a reputation in the U.S. for suspect quality, deserved or not (rust issues and/or not holding up well to the way Americans drove and maintained their cars). In hindsight, 1963-64 or thereabouts probably had the lowest import market penetration in the U.S. of any time after the mid ’50s. As this chart illustrates, VW was really the only import brand of any great significance. The share of the market controlled by the domestics had to be over 90%, I would think?
3. As others have also noted, VW was in the middle of a sharp upward climb which had begun in the late ’50s and wouldn’t start to level off until 1968, by which time VW’s U.S. sales were in the 400K-500K range, where they would remain through about 1971.
4. I once recall reading that in 1965, Toyota sold about 6000 cars in the U.S. (not sure if that’s just passenger cars, or all vehicles including trucks), which was more than double any previous year; I’m guessing that the majority of those sales were in California. A lot is made of Toyota’s having come to the U.S. in 1958, but I don’t think people realize what a miniscule presence they had until around 1965 or 1966, especially outside of California. Nissan’s history is similar. After ’65 or ’66, they exploded similar to the way VW had a few years earlier, but in ’63 they had only a nominal U.S. presence outside of a few west coast footholds.
Opel and Ford probably didn’t make this list for two reasons. The first may be because they might not have been considered “import brands”. But in 1963, Opel had nothing to sell in the US in 1963. Opel was on hiatus that year, as the Rekord was dead meat, and its sales had plummeted since the GM compacts appeared in 1960. The Kadett arrived in 1964, and that really revived the brand. Opel would soon jump to the #2 import position.
Undoubtedly Ford was selling both the dated and out-going Anglia in its last few years, as well as the new Cortina in 1963. But probably not in very substantial numbers. Ford didn’t get serious about the Cortina until a few years later, when it brought sales in-house (they were being sold by import dealers), and put some advertising into it. But I don’t know where those sales stats would be.
I swung by my local public library for a few minutes today to check out their copy of the “Standard Catalog of Imported Cars”. The info in that book can be hit-or-miss, but based on what it does have, Paul absolutely nailed this in the case of both Opel and Ford:
OPEL
Although Opels were sold in the U.S. every other year in this era, it is believed that none were imported for the 1963 model year. Some promotional literature produced in advance of the model year claimed that Opels would be available, and even published a list price for them, but GM apparently changed its mind and decided to have Opel sit the year out. The book cited the datedness of the Rekord and the availability of domestic GM compacts as factors in this decision.
U.S. Opel sales apparently reached an import boom peak of 39K in 1959. There are no figures for 1961 or 1962 in the book, but they must have plummeted from where they were before that, as Paul said, for things to have reached a point where GM felt they weren’t worth importing at all in ’63. U.S. sales were in the teens in both 1964 and 1965, then began to climb sharply after that, reaching an all-time peak of 93K towards the end of the decade.
FORD
British Fords were available in the U.S. in 1963, but the book doesn’t have a sales figure. U.S. sales in 1964 were just 4,110, however. Based on that, it’s plausible that Ford could have simply missed the Top 10 in 1963, as the brand in tenth place that year was at 4,117.
British Fords’ import boom peak was 42K in 1959. The best years after 1960 were 1968 and 1969, which were both in the 21K-22K range.
I thought some German Fords were also sold in the U.S. during the import boom, but the book didn’t have a listing for them. Post-1969 models like the Capri and the Fiesta were in their own “Ford of Europe” section.
There was a little anti-German sentiment in the early 1960’s. I remember coming out of a supermarket to find out that someone had honked a big boog onto the windshield of our then new ’61 Beetle. Also, one of the church members grumped a little about our buying a “Nazi” car. I reminded him that we’d bought it from an American dealer who bought it from an American distributor, and that it had American tires and an American battery. I’m not sure that it helped….
Five years later, my father turned down Volkswagen of America’s offer of a dealership in Indiana, PA (college town, very urbane); because the memories of that artillery shrapnel received at Cassino was still too strong. And he admitted, it was a wonderful business possibility.
I know I am going to get blasted on this but I have never saw the appeal of the original VW Beetle(or Type 1 if you prefer) It was cramped(at least to me), small, slow, noisy and I would imagine more then one owner bought one in the late spring or summer only to be shocked during winter about how little heat really came out of those vents.(now my Father got his first car before he went to college in the late 1960’s. It was a VW Beetle. He got it in the late spring and wound up wrecking it by the end of summer. He was so excited to get this car though I wonder if he still had it that winter would he be so happy with it(My father is from just outside Philly and it gets cold as f**k in the winter) His next car was a used Valiant(go figure)
They also looked unsafe with the small skinny bumpers and the gas tank in the front(which also left itself open to being punctured or damaged by somebody tossing the spare carelessly back into the trunk). Plus from what I hear the gas mileage really was not as stellar as one would expect from such a small car.
Cost of a Gal of gas was 30 cents so high miles per gal was not exactly a strong selling point in cars at the time.
The Beetle was cheaper by a little against American cars but the 1950’s to 1972ish erawas the golden age of cars in the USA with high horse power and flash and size were the most important and many folks would have opted to spend a little more on a Falcon(which even VW folks have top admit is a better and more advanced car then the Type 1 ever was at the time or ever would be)
So please please please enlighten me on the appeal in 1963 of the VW Beetle?
Probably not in the time I have available. Maybe you should ask some of the other 22 million folks who bought Beetles 🙂
Seriously, we’ve done a lot of Beetle posts here, so if you enter “VW Beetle” in the site’s “Search by Google” bar up there on the upper right side, you might find some insight into why so many folks bought them. Let’s just say like with so many things in life, you either “get” the VW, or you don’t. But trying to change someone’s opinion of it is probably an exercise in futility. Anybody else?
Other than high build quality, good parts availability (for an import) and simplicity when something did go wrong I also don’t see the appeal of the Beetle. The few times I have driven one they were miserable.
VW was the perfect car for the US in the late 50’s and 60’s. The market demographic was very wide; the car appealed across socio-economic status. It had an aura of both sophistication and counter-culture that perfectly fit the mood of the times. And the Doyle-Dane-Bernbach ads very effectively capitalized on this appeal.
I will counter your question with another question,
What car captures your passion? Because whatever it is, no matter how great it may be to you, I’m sure I could pick it apart and make it seem like a miserable worthless piece of junk.
If you want an answer, I hate to disappoint you but there is not one. Anyone who reads my posts and my COAL knows how much I love Volkswagens, however I nor does anyone else who feels the same was as I do, have to justify that in a rational way to you or anyone else for that matter. Why? Because it’s a passion, and passions are not rational. If they were, they wouldn’t be passions.
A Volkswagen puts a smile on my face like no other car does. You might hate it, but that’s why I’m driving one and you are not.
However, I will address a couple of things you said directly.
1. If you can puncture the fuel tank by throwing the spare tire into the trunk, you must be The Incredible Hulk, and on steroids.
2. My ’59 Beetle averages 35mpg, and that’s on today’s crappy ethanol fuel and a worn out carburetor. My Dad’s ’61 got 41mpg on a long trip a couple of years back. Compared to modern cars that can do that with 4x the power, safety equipment and creature comforts it’s not great, but I don’t think anything that came out of Detroit at that time could come close to that.
By the way, did the über-hairy hippie boys and girls also put a bag of sand in the front trunk to keep Hitler’s apple of his eye on the road at high speeds, just like we did here ?
The biggest advantage VW had, IMO, was a dealer network second to none, even the domestics. Clean, modern, exclusive (no other brands), with competent mechanics and a full parts inventory, at reasonable prices. It all added up to a great ownership experience.
Im sure a Falcon was a better car, on paper. But you had to deal with the Ralph Williams Ford dealership experience. Some of the criticism, like the heater, fail to mention that in 1963 a heater was still an extra cost option on low priced domestics, except for the Corvair’s equally bad heater. You got two extra cylinders, but a three speed with crash box first gear. Short wearing 13 inch tires surrounded the absolute minimum size brakes.
Now in 2013 its very different.
MG gone.
Triumph gone.
Austin-Healey gone.
Saab gone.
Jaguar owned by Tata from India.
Volvo owned by the Chinese.
Volkswagen built in factories in the USA.
and Fiat owns Chrysler.
Where there any Japanese imports to the USA back in 1963 ?
MG is still around, albeit Chinese-owned now. The MG 6 GT hatch and 6 Magnette sedan are both available new in New Zealand, and are quite attractive in the metal. Well-specced and well-priced too. Far from MG’s heritage though.
Wow – VW was ten times the sales of the number 2 import. VW also sold a lot more than many 1963 American lines. 220K units is not chicken feed.
IIRC, Chrysler Cadillac and Mercury were stuck around 100K units. Studebaker was in the 80K range. Does anyone have the breakdown on US brand rankings for 1963?
VW’s best years in the sixties were still ahead of it. IIIRC, they came close to a half-million in 1970 or so.
Wikipedia has a great collection of US production figures (link here)
Production Figures for 1963
Chevrolet 2,237,201
Ford 1,525,404
Pontiac 590,071
Plymouth 488,448
Oldsmobile 476,753
Rambler 464,126
Buick 457,818
Dodge 446,129
Mercury 301,581
Cadillac 163,174
Chrysler 128,937
Studebaker 69,555
Lincoln 31,233
Imperial 14,121
Checker 1,080
I think these figures include cars and CKDs built for export.
Keep in mind that 1962 was the first year that it became apparent what a rustbucket the Renault Dauphine was. Up to that point, the sales figures between them and the Beetle was a lot closer.
As to the Japanese, the first Toyopet’s and Datsun’s appeared in 1958. They flopped pretty badly (think underpowered, well-built, ’50’s Austin sedans), so I think by this point the primary sales point was their small trucks. And California was just about their only market.
It was around this time that Mad Magazine did a really nasty humor piece on Japanese cars. Basically engine powered kid’s pedal cars with the instruments as stuck-on decals. Obviously, nobody at Mad had the slightest clue about what the Japanese were capable of.
Japanese motorcycles were still in the “what are these?” stage in the states. In ’63 Honda still was getting the majority of its sales in California. The C100 Cub didn’t appear in western Pennsylvania until the spring of 1964, and didn’t really take off until a year later. Yamaha followed a couple of months behind.
Syke: How common was the 305cc Super Hawk in your part of the country during the early 1960s? It appeared in 1961 according to the press, but as you mentioned, market penetration was slower in states beyond California.
The hot-shit backup quarterback of my high school’s football team had a 305 Super Hawk in the spring of 1966 – limited, of course, by the fact that he was born in 1950 and PA driver’s licenses didn’t start until you were 16.
Of course, his best friend (non-jock, non-big guy on campus) immediately bought a Yamaha 250 Big Bear which would leave the Super Hawk for dead.
The first motorcycle at my high school was a neighbor of mine, two years ahead of me, who showed up with a Hodaka 100cc bike in the spring of 1965. Purchased from the local Triumph and Royal Enfield (and former Indian) dealership who took on Kawasaki about six months before the H-1 500cc triple came out.
That Hodaka was the only bike in the parking lot in ’65. Then there were a bunch of them in ’66 and things started to take off. All Japanese, nothing bigger than that Super Hawk. 500cc and up bikes were the providence of the greasers and bad guys, none of whom would have lived in my (very high end) school district.
Prior to ’65 I have to admit I was entirely car oriented, but I seriously doubt there was anything on two wheels in the Johnstown area that wasn’t Harley, Indian, Triumph or Royal Enfield. I think the Honda dealer (Alvin’s Honda in Windber, took on the cars when the Civic came out, then later dropped the motorcycles) opened in late ’65.
Something to keep in mind is the local demographics: Johnstown, PA is a blue-collar, shot and a beer, steel and coal town. If you’ve ever seen “Slap Shot” and “All the Right Moves”, you’ve seen Johnstown. Politically Democratic (union) but somewhere to the right of the tea party. Very conservative. VERY right to life – admitting pro-choice in the county is the fastest way to lose an election.
Japanese anything took relatively forever to come into town. When it came to motorcycles, you either rode a Harley, a Triumph, or you kept your piece of crap in the garage. Despite their being dealers of all four Japanese marques by 1970. They made their money on motocross, not street. This attitude only changed in the early ’90’s as Harley mania opened the market to the Japanese cruisers, but the Japanese sportbikes didn’t become prevalent until early in the last decade.
Cars, likewise. There was a Volkswagen dealer for as long as I can remember (which I’ll guess means they arrived sometime around ’55-57). The Oldsmobile dealer also carried Renault, which meant that during the ’50’s Renault was the most popular import in Johnstown. We had a British dealer who carried just about anything British that he’d thought would sell as long as it was priced under a Rover 2000. Obviously, MG and Triumph sports cars were 95% of his sales. He had the good fortune of taking on Subaru once the FF1’s came out and has thrived since.
The town had some captive imports. The Buick dealer sold Opel, the Pontiac/Cadillac dealer had Vauxhall for the few years they were available, I think the Ford dealer sold a few English Fords but they were far and few between. I think Toyota arrived about 1966, so the Oldsmobile dealer immediately added Datsun to Renault. There was a Saab dealer for about a year, it was a complete flop. Don’t think he sold a new car in that time. No Volvo (still isn’t), no Mercedes-Benz because the Indiana, PA dealer (going back to the Studebaker days) had and still has the territory.
Fiat and Jaguar? Go to Pittsburgh, or at least Greensburg.
Volkswagen was the only brand to thrive until the ’70’s, even both Japanese brands had a very difficult time getting accepted among the local buyers until the first gas crisis.
Syke,
Correct me if I’m wrong – isn’t the former VW plant (the one where they built Rabbits and pickups) located near Johnstown?
I have an acquaintance who used to be on Congressman John Murtha’s staff many years ago – you may remember him, as he was in the House forever. She told me that for a Democrat, he was quite conservative.
Westmoreland County, just outside of New Stanton. Very close to the intersection of I-76 (PA Turnpike), I-70 and US 30. About an hour’s drive from my old place.
I remember Jack Murtha very well, knew him before he did his first run for Congress. The consumate pork-barreller, he was a living example of the old saying “The problem with this county is that 434 representatives are tax and spend idiots, but our guy is allright.” He kept Johnstown alive with all the pork barreling from after the ’77 flood until well into the ’90’s when things finally picked up. Became a national disgrace for the same reasons.
I was fortunate in that I could see both sides of the issue from direct involvement.
Representative Murtha’s daughter-in-law taught one of my law school courses in the mid-1990s. She was a very nice, down-to-earth person.
Pennsylvania is about the last state in the union where there are still large numbers of old-school, Roosevelt-style Democrats. They are liberal on economic issues (because they didn’t trust the big steel, coal and railroad corporations) and extremely conservative on issues like gun control and abortion. They also have no problem with what has come to be called “pork” as long as they are getting their fair share of it.
Representative Murtha epitomized that worldview in many ways.
Honda bikes were a very hot item in Iowa City by 1963, especially the Cub and such. But the bigger ones were starting to show up with some regularity by then too.
My dad had (in California) one of the first Honda motorcycles in the US around 1959.
Dad bought it used from a Marine who owned it in Japan then imported it privately; his name was Bob Lutz.
Remarkable list, which creates a much different picture than what one would think based on survivor/restored car sightings and automotive press attention. Based on those, one would think that the list looked more like this:
1. VW
2. MG
3. Triumph
4. Austin-Healey
5. Mercedes-Benz
6. Jaguar
7. Volvo
8. Fiat
9. Saab
10. Renault
I’m surprised that Renault ranked #2 and that Peugeot didn’t even make the list.
Renault was a much stronger #2 a few years earlier; the 1960 compacts and the import shake-out that year really started them on their slide. But Renault was big in the late fifties.
I believe that, in the ’50’s, VW and Renault were really going toe-to-toe in the sales race?
I don’t have numbers available, but yes, the Dauphine sold very well in the late fifties, but I think it was still a ways behind VW, just not nearly so much so. I’m quite sure Renault topped 100k annual sales in its best year(s).
From my R10 CC: The Dauphine, which was the direct predecessor to the R8 and R10, had a meteoric rise in sales during the Great US Import Boom. In 1958, it actually outsold the Beetle in 11 states, and seemed to be a genuine threat to it. Its sales peaked at over 100k units in 1959. But its fragility and lack of dealer support quickly caught up with it, and when the Import Boom turned Bust in 1960, Dauphine sales evaporated in a reddish cloud of iron oxide.
As a point of comparison, here are 1963 production figures for some U.S. brands:
Rambler — 428, 346
Mercury — 301,581
Cadillac — 163,174
Chrysler — 128,937
Studebaker — 69,555
In other words, in 1963 VW sales were remarkably high in the U.S. — and by the end of the decade they would more than double. In a very real sense the American compacts failed to hold back the rising popularity of imports. Yet by the late-60s Detroit had deemphasized smaller economy cars. Big-block Mustang, anyone?
That’s because Detroit never wanted to mess with small cars. “Small cars equal small profits.”
The plan was that the Detroit small cars would come out, smash all the imports, shut down all the dealerships (except in those commie areas where college professors, liberals, etc. insisted on driving something different), and put an end to the foreign invasion.
At which point the small cars would go out of production, and the American consumer would obediently go back to proper sized cars again. When that didn’t work, the industry took the current import penetration and wrote it off.
Until it kept growing, at which point they tried again.
Looking at that chart, I see one import – VW – that had really high sales, and several other companies selling what were essentially niche products. A large part of the VW’s popularity was rooted in the fact that it WASN’T a domestic car. It was different, but not necessarily better. The MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey, meanwhile, really weren’t much of a threat to Detroit.
The real challenge to Detroit comes in the early 1970s. By that point, Toyota and Nissan (Datsun in those days) had gotten their acts together, and then Honda produced its first “real car” with the first-generation Civic. Their initial victims, ironically enough, were the low-cost European economy cars – Fiat, Renault, Austin and even the vaunted Beetle.
Interesting figures VW never made it that big here anti German sentiment was still strong in the 60s and Renaults had already proved they were not very good in the 50s.
British and American cars were what we bought with some Australian efforts, rustbuckets though they were thrown in.
A few random comments:
1. I have to wonder if Opels and European Fords were disqualifed from this list based on being GM and Ford products. I’d think they both had to be selling more units in the U.S. in 1963 than the make ranked #10 on this list.
2. As a few others have already noted, figures for European brands that were primarily viewed as sellers of economy cars in the U.S. were probably much higher during the 1958-60 import boom than they were in 1963. Renault and Fiat were likely higher then, and a few other makes of this nature may have been in the Top 10 then but had since dropped out. Domestic compacts ate into their market share; the end of the U.S. recession by 1962 reduced demand for small economy cars; many non-VW import brands had gained a reputation in the U.S. for suspect quality, deserved or not (rust issues and/or not holding up well to the way Americans drove and maintained their cars). In hindsight, 1963-64 or thereabouts probably had the lowest import market penetration in the U.S. of any time after the mid ’50s. As this chart illustrates, VW was really the only import brand of any great significance. The share of the market controlled by the domestics had to be over 90%, I would think?
3. As others have also noted, VW was in the middle of a sharp upward climb which had begun in the late ’50s and wouldn’t start to level off until 1968, by which time VW’s U.S. sales were in the 400K-500K range, where they would remain through about 1971.
4. I once recall reading that in 1965, Toyota sold about 6000 cars in the U.S. (not sure if that’s just passenger cars, or all vehicles including trucks), which was more than double any previous year; I’m guessing that the majority of those sales were in California. A lot is made of Toyota’s having come to the U.S. in 1958, but I don’t think people realize what a miniscule presence they had until around 1965 or 1966, especially outside of California. Nissan’s history is similar. After ’65 or ’66, they exploded similar to the way VW had a few years earlier, but in ’63 they had only a nominal U.S. presence outside of a few west coast footholds.
Opel and Ford probably didn’t make this list for two reasons. The first may be because they might not have been considered “import brands”. But in 1963, Opel had nothing to sell in the US in 1963. Opel was on hiatus that year, as the Rekord was dead meat, and its sales had plummeted since the GM compacts appeared in 1960. The Kadett arrived in 1964, and that really revived the brand. Opel would soon jump to the #2 import position.
Undoubtedly Ford was selling both the dated and out-going Anglia in its last few years, as well as the new Cortina in 1963. But probably not in very substantial numbers. Ford didn’t get serious about the Cortina until a few years later, when it brought sales in-house (they were being sold by import dealers), and put some advertising into it. But I don’t know where those sales stats would be.
I swung by my local public library for a few minutes today to check out their copy of the “Standard Catalog of Imported Cars”. The info in that book can be hit-or-miss, but based on what it does have, Paul absolutely nailed this in the case of both Opel and Ford:
OPEL
Although Opels were sold in the U.S. every other year in this era, it is believed that none were imported for the 1963 model year. Some promotional literature produced in advance of the model year claimed that Opels would be available, and even published a list price for them, but GM apparently changed its mind and decided to have Opel sit the year out. The book cited the datedness of the Rekord and the availability of domestic GM compacts as factors in this decision.
U.S. Opel sales apparently reached an import boom peak of 39K in 1959. There are no figures for 1961 or 1962 in the book, but they must have plummeted from where they were before that, as Paul said, for things to have reached a point where GM felt they weren’t worth importing at all in ’63. U.S. sales were in the teens in both 1964 and 1965, then began to climb sharply after that, reaching an all-time peak of 93K towards the end of the decade.
FORD
British Fords were available in the U.S. in 1963, but the book doesn’t have a sales figure. U.S. sales in 1964 were just 4,110, however. Based on that, it’s plausible that Ford could have simply missed the Top 10 in 1963, as the brand in tenth place that year was at 4,117.
British Fords’ import boom peak was 42K in 1959. The best years after 1960 were 1968 and 1969, which were both in the 21K-22K range.
I thought some German Fords were also sold in the U.S. during the import boom, but the book didn’t have a listing for them. Post-1969 models like the Capri and the Fiesta were in their own “Ford of Europe” section.
There was a little anti-German sentiment in the early 1960’s. I remember coming out of a supermarket to find out that someone had honked a big boog onto the windshield of our then new ’61 Beetle. Also, one of the church members grumped a little about our buying a “Nazi” car. I reminded him that we’d bought it from an American dealer who bought it from an American distributor, and that it had American tires and an American battery. I’m not sure that it helped….
Five years later, my father turned down Volkswagen of America’s offer of a dealership in Indiana, PA (college town, very urbane); because the memories of that artillery shrapnel received at Cassino was still too strong. And he admitted, it was a wonderful business possibility.
He just wasn’t going to work for the enemy.
I know I am going to get blasted on this but I have never saw the appeal of the original VW Beetle(or Type 1 if you prefer) It was cramped(at least to me), small, slow, noisy and I would imagine more then one owner bought one in the late spring or summer only to be shocked during winter about how little heat really came out of those vents.(now my Father got his first car before he went to college in the late 1960’s. It was a VW Beetle. He got it in the late spring and wound up wrecking it by the end of summer. He was so excited to get this car though I wonder if he still had it that winter would he be so happy with it(My father is from just outside Philly and it gets cold as f**k in the winter) His next car was a used Valiant(go figure)
They also looked unsafe with the small skinny bumpers and the gas tank in the front(which also left itself open to being punctured or damaged by somebody tossing the spare carelessly back into the trunk). Plus from what I hear the gas mileage really was not as stellar as one would expect from such a small car.
Cost of a Gal of gas was 30 cents so high miles per gal was not exactly a strong selling point in cars at the time.
The Beetle was cheaper by a little against American cars but the 1950’s to 1972ish erawas the golden age of cars in the USA with high horse power and flash and size were the most important and many folks would have opted to spend a little more on a Falcon(which even VW folks have top admit is a better and more advanced car then the Type 1 ever was at the time or ever would be)
So please please please enlighten me on the appeal in 1963 of the VW Beetle?
Probably not in the time I have available. Maybe you should ask some of the other 22 million folks who bought Beetles 🙂
Seriously, we’ve done a lot of Beetle posts here, so if you enter “VW Beetle” in the site’s “Search by Google” bar up there on the upper right side, you might find some insight into why so many folks bought them. Let’s just say like with so many things in life, you either “get” the VW, or you don’t. But trying to change someone’s opinion of it is probably an exercise in futility. Anybody else?
Other than high build quality, good parts availability (for an import) and simplicity when something did go wrong I also don’t see the appeal of the Beetle. The few times I have driven one they were miserable.
VW was the perfect car for the US in the late 50’s and 60’s. The market demographic was very wide; the car appealed across socio-economic status. It had an aura of both sophistication and counter-culture that perfectly fit the mood of the times. And the Doyle-Dane-Bernbach ads very effectively capitalized on this appeal.
I will counter your question with another question,
What car captures your passion? Because whatever it is, no matter how great it may be to you, I’m sure I could pick it apart and make it seem like a miserable worthless piece of junk.
If you want an answer, I hate to disappoint you but there is not one. Anyone who reads my posts and my COAL knows how much I love Volkswagens, however I nor does anyone else who feels the same was as I do, have to justify that in a rational way to you or anyone else for that matter. Why? Because it’s a passion, and passions are not rational. If they were, they wouldn’t be passions.
A Volkswagen puts a smile on my face like no other car does. You might hate it, but that’s why I’m driving one and you are not.
However, I will address a couple of things you said directly.
1. If you can puncture the fuel tank by throwing the spare tire into the trunk, you must be The Incredible Hulk, and on steroids.
2. My ’59 Beetle averages 35mpg, and that’s on today’s crappy ethanol fuel and a worn out carburetor. My Dad’s ’61 got 41mpg on a long trip a couple of years back. Compared to modern cars that can do that with 4x the power, safety equipment and creature comforts it’s not great, but I don’t think anything that came out of Detroit at that time could come close to that.
Sorry Leon, I can’t enlighten you.
By the way, did the über-hairy hippie boys and girls also put a bag of sand in the front trunk to keep Hitler’s apple of his eye on the road at high speeds, just like we did here ?
The biggest advantage VW had, IMO, was a dealer network second to none, even the domestics. Clean, modern, exclusive (no other brands), with competent mechanics and a full parts inventory, at reasonable prices. It all added up to a great ownership experience.
Im sure a Falcon was a better car, on paper. But you had to deal with the Ralph Williams Ford dealership experience. Some of the criticism, like the heater, fail to mention that in 1963 a heater was still an extra cost option on low priced domestics, except for the Corvair’s equally bad heater. You got two extra cylinders, but a three speed with crash box first gear. Short wearing 13 inch tires surrounded the absolute minimum size brakes.