1973 Chrysler-Plymouth
As some of you know, I have a sizable car brochure collection. Recently, I had the idea that it might be fun to look at the addresses of the dealerships these came from and see if they are still there, or long gone, or selling Kias instead. But wait! Let’s let the Commentariat in on this. So I have photographed a variety of different brochures, like this one from Learner’s Sales and Service. Learner’s was in my hometown, and lasted in their ’60s style building until about 2000, when Courtesy Nissan-Jeep bought them out. But I certainly don’t know the fates of most of the other dealers further down.
1987 Oldsmobile Toronado, 88, 98 and Custom Cruiser
So, here’s the deal. I could have researched all of these and just told you what became of them. But I decided it would be fun to make it interactive. So, for those of you so inclined, check out these addresses, and through the power of the internet (remember how overused that term was in the late ’90s?), report back here in the comments.
1973 Ford Torino
I will give you hints below each picture as to the year and make of car being featured in the brochure, though some are pretty easy to figure out, like this one.
1978 Plymouth Volare
So many dealerships in the country. And like restaurants, they are a tough business. Some survive and thrive for decades, some remain with the descendants of the original founder, some get bought out by multi-state conglomerates, and some go bust.
1977 Plymouth Gran Fury
Some marques go bust too, resulting in the dealer taking on other lines. Kimberly C-P for instance (also in my neck of the woods), lost Plymouth, but now also sells Dodges–a result of the Great Dealer Cull of ’09. My dad bought a brand-new Jeep Grand Cherokee Orvis Edition there in the early spring of ’95.
1979 Cadillac
You will see a lot of Cadillac brochures here–testament to my love of old land yachts. And Cadillac went great guns through the very early ’80s, so there were many dealerships around–and brochures handed out.
1976 Chevrolet Vega
So, let’s see what turns up. I am interested in finding out what happened to these dealers! So, check them out, report back and–most important of all, have fun!
1977 AMC
1982 Volvo
1976 Volvo
1975 Volvo 164E
1975 Cadillac
1973 Cadillac
1976 Cadillac
1974 Mercedes-Benz
1984 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham and de Villes
Just looked up Kimberly Chrysler-Plymouth in Davenport Iowa. You’ll be happy to know that they are still in business, selling Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, … AND BMW! Interesting addition to Mopar.
Many of my brochures have these addresses stamped on as well. Funny how most of them seem to be from dealerships in the Mid-West. None from the North East of the Western U.S.
Sears Imported Autos in ritzy Minnetonka is still alive and well, selling Benzes to the good folks of the Twin Cities. I hear their ads on the radio regularly.
Same address, and even the same phone number (though the area codes have split a few times since then).
Don Massey Cadillac is still in the same place and still selling only Caddys. Now owned by Penske Automotive Group.
and Don Massey was still voicing the lead-in on their AM radio ads for several years after his death.
Don Massey must get around, as there are several Massey franchises around the DFW metroplex. One of them being a Cadillac dealership.
I finally found the build sheet on my 77 Chevelle, I knew it was a Fort Worth car since it still had the dealer tag on the back of it (Bill McKay Chevrolet) but no one knew where it was, finally located the build sheet and found the street address. Nothing left now, it’s been turned into an apartment complex in downtown FW. so in nearly 40 years that car was built in Arlington, shipped to FW, and then I bought it in Dallas 5 years ago.
Penske bought out Don Massey? Ugh…remind me to never set foot on that property ever again!
I went to a Penske-owned dealership a few years ago to look at a car…after the horrible way I was treated there I decided I would NEVER do business with them!!!
This is a shame, as the Don Massey Plymouth, MI location is considered to be THE Cadillac dealership, supposedly the apple of GM’s eye!
The address numbering much have changed somewhere in the 80s. The old stamp gives the address as 684 Ann Arbor Rd, but their address now is 40475
Hoyle Cadillac in Delray Beach is no longer there, though the showroom and service building are now used as a repair shop, so you can still see buildings and layout. I had never heard of them, they must have been squeezed out by some of the larger Cadillac dealers in the area, like Schooley (Autonation Cadillac today)and Ed Morse Cadillac a few miles to the south.
Clark Chrysler-Plymouth in Casselberry is also no longer there, though the dealership remains as what appears to be a used car only dealer, there is a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep auto mall location not far from where this used to be so I imagine that’s what became of this dealer.
After some quick googling:
Clark Chrysler-Plymouth became Don Mealey-Clark in 1987. Later on, this dealership became part of the AutoNation chain (in Orlando, their dealerships were called Courtesy) and eventually moved to Rinehart Road in Sanford.
During the dealership purge a few years back, Courtesy Chrysler Jeep was closed. (That building eventually became a Mercedes-Benz dealership)
About a year or so ago, Fields (large BMW dealer in the area) bought the rights and opened a new CJD dealership just south of Seminole Town Center mall.
The bottom one, Mancuso Cadillac, piqued my interest.
I lived in the area for around twenty years, and vaguely remembered that dealer. Googling on, I found a really interesting article written in 1984 about the business and the guy who owned it. Best I can tell, they closed down in the early ’90s.
The Mancuso family are still involved in the car business as they appear to have an exotics store north of Chicago, and a few members of the younger generation race.
I agree — it’s well worth the read.
Looked up the address for Motor Werks in Barrington. Their address is 1475 S Barrington rd (almost the same address as Mancuso Cadillac was). As far as I know they sell, Porsche , BMW. Mercedes and Honda at that location and Cadilacs up the road in downtown Barrington.
Here’s one for Volvo selling Herr Biegel in Fürth, still going strong!
http://www.volvocars-partner.de/biegel/
Colonial Chevrolet seems to have gone the same way as the Vega… It now appears to be Sports Car Service (http://www.sportscarservice.com), a shop specializing in Saabs.
On the 1976 Vega brochure, I was surprised to see the phone number still listed with the exchange (first three numbers) written as PO 4 (instead of 764). That had gone away ion the very early 60s as far as I know. Typically the letters were an abbreviation for the town or neighborhood – for example my Uncle who lived outside of Providence, RI had a PA3 number, for the 3rd exchange in the PAwtucket area. (He was in Lincoln.) Note that 723 is still a very common phone number in his area. I couldn’t find out what the “PO” in this number stood for though.
(Edit: Ed beat me to it here..) It seems as though this Chevy dealer is no longer in business, however the building now houses an independent Saab specialist called Sports Car Service.
“We offer…
Service – We service all Saabs, old and new
Used Cars – We have many late model Saabs for sale
Parts – We sell new and used parts for all Saabs”
My wife’ grands lived in East Douglas, MA before they passed, and the first time I visited them around 1989 or ’90, her grandpa was extremely upset the phone company was making them dial *all seven* numbers for local calls. The only had to dial four up to that point…
Bell of Pennsylvania used exchange prefixes (and published them in the phone book) until the late ’70s or early ’80s. The phone number for our childhood house was JEfferson 5-XXXX. Most of my grade school friends were CUmberland 9 or PIoneer 5.
Too bad I no longer have the brochure and wall poster from Jay Brown Spartan Dodge in the Bay Area, just off the highway!
Also Daoust Chevrolet in Marysville, CA, on 5th Street. I haunted that place every September, and the dealer where I received the shock of my automotive life in the fall of 1972! Can you spell “Colonnade”? ‘Nuff said…
This is a very interesting subject! After getting the Marti Report back on one of our ’67 Mustangs, I found the dealer, Fairway Ford in SC is still in business selling Fords!
“Elizabeth Garage” (Elizabeth, IL) was on the window sticker of my ’73 GS — it’s STILL in business as a Buick/GMC dealer although its total inventory now (new + used) = 25 cars. This dealer has a rich history and there’s a very nicely done documentary about it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOpCzYRVCmg
I would not be surprised if someone there remembered “my” car.
I could look at photos of past dealerships all day long.
I’m with you. It is also amazing to me how few old dealer pictures from any given area are online.
I know several local families that have owned dealerships and have photos of them but will simply not make the effort to pull them out and share them. My Mother’s family owned a Ford dealership from the 1940s-1980s and they behave the same way. I tried to round up some photos of dealerships past to put in our small town museum. I got a promise from all the local families that they would and share their photos. Now 4-5 years later we have not received a single response even after asking again.
You and me both LeBaron.
Its funny how the Cadillac dealerships had a standardized stamp regardless of location.
Back when a Cadillac franchise was a license to print money it was much easier to hold dealers to standards.
I’ve seen a lot of Cadillac brochures with that same design and font for the dealer imprint. Perhaps they could be ordered from the printer with the dealer information?
I have a collection of car brochures, very heavy on Mopar from 1946 to early 80’s, quite a few Chevrolet cars and pickups items from mid-70’s to 90’s, and a considerable scattering of other stuff. I’ve decided to sell it, mostly because I hadn’t looked at any of it in years, and in an effort to focus on the main hobby of collecting license plates. If anyone’s interested in making an offer, you could contact me at pmadsen (at) tscnet (dot) com. I have a list I can email that’s pretty specific as to what’s available. I would like to see the collection go to someone in this group, which I’ve enjoyed so much over the years.
What fun. I always hope to see something from Maine’s Brown C-P, where my Dad was leasing manager in the early ’70s. They turned into Lee Dodge somewhere along the way. I know that the Imp is from Central in Norwood, Mass., which is still there. I kinda want to pull in and demand a 50k service and see what they say.
Lloyd American Motors in Wickliffe, Ohio was a stand alone AMC dealer that never had a Jeep franchise. They added Renault and for years were known as Lloyd AMC-Renault and were in an old cinder block building design that was common to many AMC dealers. After Chrysler bought AMC they may have continued as an Eagle dealer but still didn’t get Jeep. By the early 1990’s they were a used car dealer and closed sometime in the late 1990’s.
Cummins Motor Sales in Canonsburg, Pa sold Alfa Romeo and Bricklin along with BMW in the 1970’s. The building is a used car dealership although no longer Cummins. The BMW in that part of Pittsburgh is Bobby Rahal BMW on Rt. 19.
Steven Olds-Cadillac in Elyria, Ohio became Steve Barry Olds-Cadillac and after Oldsmobile closed down they just sold Cadillac until they sold the Cadillac franchise to Bob Morris Pontiac-GMC down the street in the mid-2000’s. Morris Cadillac-GMC recently moved to North Olmsted, Ohio into a building that used to be Great Northern Dodge (Great Northern tried to hang on for a while as a used car dealer after the lost their Dodge franchise in 2009 but closed). Before it was Steven Olds-Cadillac it was Gumpp Motor Corp. who also had stores in Lorain, Ohio and Canton, Ohio. The building is currently a buy-here pay-here used car lot.
Do you have anything marked “Fred Sheffler AMC/Jeep”, Eastway or Westway AMC, or Berea Chrysler/Plymouth? Or for me, the Holy Grail, “Sanfod & Cox Motor Sales”, which sold Checker, Renault, and SAAB way back in the late ’60s?
Hmm, I don’t think so. In fact, a lot of my brochures aren’t stamped.
Many of my brochures are stored in the garage and more are in the closet in bankers’ boxes. I may have to dig some more out for a Part II if the CC Commentariat is interested…
Checker, Renault and Saab–what a combination! They probably didn’t need a very large sales staff but I’m sure their service department was a busy place. Where were they located?
the catholic elementary school / church i went to as a kid was situated right across the street from lloyd motors AMC in wickliffe, OH. up until i was about 10, 11 or 12 (1973-1975), it was the only dealership in town. it was very small, even by late-’60’s standards. I left the area in 1983, and i assume it died when AMC died.
last time i was back there (2016), the building was occupied by an independent auto repair shop.