(first posted 11/14/2014) One of my favorite Dutch websites about American cars is AmerikaanseAutoPagina. Lots of information, discussions, stories, pictures and videos about all kinds of old and new American vehicles. That is, American automobiles as we like to see and remember them: big and with a V8, preferably with a matching sound….You won’t find anything about Chrysler PT Cruisers and Dodge Calibers, to name a few lesser gods.
To me one of the most interesting topics is the photo-collection of classic American cars as seen on the streets, at garages, in driveways and in parking lots in my country. Twenty eight pages with pictures so far, and still counting….
What’s striking is the almost unbelievable variety of car brands and models, with many representatives of The Big Three. Note that wealthy people, and that included the Royal Family, drove Buicks, Cadillacs, Lincolns and Mercurys in the first decades after the Second World War. As a matter a fact, there wasn’t anything else in that high-end segment of the car market back then. And then you also had the hearses, ambulances, police cars and taxis based on American cars. Conversions were often done by local coach builders.
That all changed in the early seventies. Oil prices started to rise and the Mercedes star started to shine brighter. Meanwhile mainstream European automakers also offered bigger sedans with more power, luxury and comfort.
I selected a few pictures of the vast collection posted on the forum, if you’ve got some spare time then you can enjoy them all right here.
Out of place…..Who ? Me ?
Out of place…..Who ? Me ?
Shiny brand new Mopars, waiting for their customers in a parking lot of the Port of Rotterdam.
That must be a lot of cylinders.
Now at CC we take a lively interest in The Wagons Of Death, the Grim Reaper’s Utility Vehicle. I wonder if there’s a causal relation between the interest in hearses and the average age of the CC crowd. Anyway, hearses rule, hearses are cool ! (certainly in the back)
Better let the good times roll, at the beach….
….or cruising down the road with the top down.
Ford F100 police car.
Two other police cars, Chevrolet Suburbans.
Three ambulances, a Packard and two Buicks.
Perfect ! Just perfect.
Mr. Jan de Boer has passed away, “erven” means the successor(s) of the deceased, but his garage lives on.
GM classics on both sides of the DAF bus.
And finally, some junkyard finds.
Great pictures! That garage packed full of 1946-48 Lincolns is a rare sight – there may not have been that many of those in one garage in the entire USA. 🙂 The owner probably needed two full-time mechanics to keep them running, too.
Sadly, by the early 70s, American cars were starting to lose some of that “American-ness” in terms of materials quality and solidity. It didn’t help that they were getting ever bigger, too. That junkyard must be positively exotic in Europe.
A “state of the art” ameuro junkyard…
Picasso drove an Oldsmobile!
Wonder what Dutch company coachbuilt the 1946 Lincoln hearse? Derham and others built a few ambulance/hearse bodies on pre-war Zephyrs, this is the first postwar Lincoln I’ve seen so converted.
Also wonder how they moved the Lincoln sedan parked partly behind the pillar, with a car parked directly behind it?
The Lincoln hearse was built bij Boonacker from Haarlem (Not Harlem NYC, but the original Haarlem in the Netherlands).
There were numerous coachbuilders that built complete buses, truck cabs, hearses, ambulances and did all kinds of conversions.
The “scenicruiser” ambulance was built by Smit from Joure. The company was a renowned bus and coach builder and obviously also built ambulances. I found another great picture with more ambulances built by Smit.
Source: http://www.hetnederlandschekentekenarchief.nl/hnka/index.php?topic=1781.0
Boonacker’s website: http://boonacker.eu/
They also build (and built) stretched limousines, click “History” to see more American and European classics.
The Lincoln hearse is an oddity, I’ve never seen one this old, even old Henry didn’t get one of these when he shoved off on 1947. He had to make do with a Packard as his last ride.
My last uncle had his fimal ride this year B body Buick wagon
Found another picture of the Lincoln hearse. It’s the same Lincoln, but it has an older type of plates. Later on a new nationwide system of registration was introduced, so that meant new license plates.
As you can clearly see here the Lincoln has also been lengthened.
Source: http://www.hetnederlandschekentekenarchief.nl/hnka/index.php?topic=3066.0
I was wondering how long that Lincoln V12 would last doing typical hearse duties. Low speed corteges, barely off idle for long periods. Guess the driver could open ‘er up afterwards on the way back to base; that does tend to happen with big American-based hearses and funeral cars. In Australia, anyway….
“Shiny brand new Mopars, waiting for their customers in a parking lot of the Port of Rotterdam.”
Chrysler had a factory in Rotterdam, where several EU-spec Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths were built.
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/factories/rotterdam.html
Hey…this link is excellent!!! …never heard about Euro Plymouth Diesel…till now 🙂
When I was a member of the Slant Six Club in the ’90s, there was quite an active Dutch contingent.
Interesting… We had similar street scenes in Israel, US made cars had a special status back then. Just like in The Netherlands, the picture changed after we got too many 70s and 80s horrors. I am also aware there were quite a few American trucks in your country – as was the case in Israel. Again, since US truck manufacturers stopped making COE trucks (or taken over by European companies who prefer to export their own models to certain markets) their presence in Israel has sadly dwindled…
Maybe approx. 10 years ago I saw a neat then must be new 4 door Cavalier in Budapest with Israeli reg. plates! A rare sight… What I like about The Netherlands IS that numerous amcars could be seen on the streets…
Interesting to see big American cars in some very European scenes. Great photos and thanks for sharing this site!
The sheer amount of variety and contrast in these pictures is amazing. Did such a truly diverse automotive fleet occur anywhere else? This is eye candy of the highest order.
That might be an advantage of a small country with no car industry of its own, except for the tiny DAFs from the late fifties to the mid seventies.
Plus the fact that we’ve always had a very open and globally oriented economy. And no “it has to be at least 25 years old”-rule here when it comes to importing cars.
As I’ve pointed out a number of times, there was a time when American cars were the most sought after all over the world, and export sales were an important activity for all the US car makers. And there were many overseas assembly plants.
This first started to decline after WW2, but in an asymmetric way, depending on the country. American cars still sold reasonably well in the more affluent European countries through the 50s and into the 60s, for buyers that could afford them and for various commercial uses.
Tax and import duties were different for each country after the war, and that affected sales. For instance, sales to the UK were probably rather low. But countries that were less affected by the war, and were affluent and had lower import/tax schemes on cars, American cars continued to sell well and were status symbols.
Holland is one, also Switzerland, which embraced American cars until quite late. As Ingvar has often pointed out, Sweden was a strong market for American cars for a very long time.
Most European cars in the immediate post war era were small and cheap. As European cars got bigger, more powerful in the 60s and 70s, their prestige and sales grew, and they began to displace American cars.
The drop in the dollar’s value after the fixed exchange rates were dropped in 1971 made American cars more affordable, depending on the country and its currency value. That gave American muscle cars and such a new boost in sales, hence lots of Camaros, Firebirds and Mustangs of that era.
But by the 80s, these cars lost their appeal, for obvious reasons, and the dollar strengthened again. After the 80s, sales generally drifted down, with some exceptions.
A perfect example of displacing American by European cars is our Royal Family I already mentioned in the article. They drove FoMoCo products, Mercurys. And then in the early seventies they switched to the European Ford Granada. With a V6, and with the Ghia trim level. Later on the Granada Mk2, followed by the Scorpio. When Ford stopped offering E-segment cars in Europe the family switched to Volvo.
Now have a look at these two high-toned gentlemen below. Late seventies, early eighties. Full-time hustlers from The Hague, the short guy is clearly the boss. This picture perfectly reflects the downfall and image of US cars after the early seventies. Especially of cars like the Camaro and Firebird. A bit sleazy, dirty, pimpy.
Reality check: these men are two well-known comedians, but you get the picture…The characters in their TV-show even founded a political party: The Contra Party, or better described, The Anti Party. With mottos like “Together For Ourselves” and “No Bullshit, Everybody Rich”. And the best: “Nowhere no speed limits ! 120 ? We Do That In Reverse !”
A Royal Ford, a 1972 Ford LTD convertible, used as a parade car.
Must be one of the last US Ford products for the Royal Family.
Photo courtesy: Paul Wouters.
More Royal vehicles on this page of Mr. Wouters’ website:
http://www.paul-wouters.nl/koninklijk.htm
There is – in my opinion – another reason for the decline in sales of US-made cars but that applies to sales everywhere, inside as well as outside the US. Perhaps this should fall under “The greatest Sins” heading, but to me there was a marked drop in quality of US-made cars (not large trucks!) during the 70s and the 80s (and even the 90s). What singled out US-made cars until that point was how strongly they were built when compared with even larger European cars; this was particularly noted in what I call “colonial” markets, i.e. countries previously part of the British Empire, where at times one had a 50/50 split between the American/Canadian-made (or local version of such cars) cars and the British-made (or, to a lesser or greater extent, European) ones. This was the case in places like Australia, South Africa (and other African countries), India or Israel. The common factors were harsh weather, bad roads and lack of maintenance either because the next “proper” garage was 300 miles away or because the locals were stingy and/or lacked mechanical knowledge. A US- or Canadian-made car would survive such conditions better than a British- or European-made one (with the exception of VW’s Beetle perhaps); way back then, Japanese cars have not yet attained their legendary reliability or imported due to political grounds. I would strongly argue that the state in which the US car industry found itself in later decades was driven by the fall in build quality. I’m utterly convinced that – for example – had cars like the Chevy Citation possessed the same level of robustness as an early 60 Nova, people would have not even considered buying Japanese or European. There are other factors of course but to me this was a major one.
Exactly. American cars were highly regarded in Australia – Dad drove a ’35 Chevy before the war – probably because they were built for similar conditions to our own. The main alternative in those days were British cars, which pretty much had a stranglehold on the small car market in the thirties.
After the war GM brought out the Holden car which was sized and priced just right for Australia, and sales of American GM cars here dropped. Few people really needed more car than a Holden, and Aussies back then weren’t wont to flaunt their wealth. Later in the fifties things seemed to pick up a bit, especially for Ford and Mopar (anecdotal only, just what I remember seeing on the street) – maybe because they were more conservative in appearance.
I grew up in a strongly ‘continental’ (as we used to say in those days) area of Melbourne, and the migrants who had done well for themselves would park their big American cars in Acland Street among the Holdens and Austins when they visited the cafes and bakeries, while those less fortunate walked for miles.
The Goggo + Caddy picture is perfect for today!
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/13/living/tallest-shortest-man-guinness/
Great pictures. Didn’t realize American cars were so popular in The Netherlands back in the glory days.
Same with Switzerland in the 1970s and early 1980s. When my family visited my aunt in Zürich, I recalled being awestruck as a teenage seeing so many American vehicles (I estimated 40-50% of the mix) in a town outside Zürich.
I was more fascinated how the General Motors North American vehicles were modified to comply with ECE regulations. That included the taillamps with separate amber turn signal, flagpole external rear-view mirrors, H4/H1 headlamps, and so forth.
I guess Jan-Willem Van De Wetering’s characters weren’t that far out in his later books when Ex-Adjutant Grijpstra drove a Ford Bronco and Ketchup and Karate were trolling gay bars in a Viper.
As an aside, when we are introduced to Grijpstra and De Gier in 1975 in “Outsider in Amsterdam” he starts off by describing their unmarked Volkswagen Beetle, while their boss The Comissaris always drives a Citroen.
Not all Police Beetles were unmarked….
Source: http://www.politievoertuigen.nl/Gemeentepolitie/Volkswagen%20Kever.html
Look at all the 80’s FWD GM cars in that junkyard, a whole 80’s alphabet soup; X, N, J and A bodies.
I was noticing that, there are like 4 Omegas in a row.
Wow, the social status from having a giant American car must have made it worth trying to wheel one around those tiny streets.
Not that the D family ever had a car in the old country, strictly bikes and boats for us.
Beach scenes of the Netherlands always make me shiver, only went once but it was so cold and windy…
I think the favorite brands to businessmen and industrialists were Buick and Chrysler. Often black. Cadillac may have been a bit too flashy, certainly for the reformed men from the Bible Belt (The next level is…well, the Amish I guess).
Hub van Doorne (founder of DAF, definitely not from the Bible Belt) also drove a Buick. He was very pleased with the Buick’s automatic transmission. But he knew these were way too big and heavy for the small cars he had in mind. So, that’s when he started to develop the Variomatic.
Here you go. A black Chrysler with a mill in the background. The location is Kinderdijk (lots of mills), in the heart of a very reformed region.
I wonder what mill is under the hood.
It was Chryslers in Israel too… And we had VanHool bodied buses and coaches also (this is a Leyland Royal Tiger. There were DAFs too but strangely those got local bodywork):
Wow ! That looks very much like the Dutch 1967-1988 “standaard streekbus”. Companies like DAF and Leyland built the chassis, engine and axles. Coach builders did the complete body. Hainje, Den Oudsten and Verheul were a few of them. Van Hool comes from Belgium and is a very renowned bus builder. They also built the standard bus for the Dutch public transport.
Here’s one of those typical standard buses from that era, a DAF Den Oudsten. It’s for the more rural areas; these buses were always bright yellow, throughout the whole country. I travelled a lot in them in the seventies and eighties.
City buses were often dark purple and grey. like the one in the article.
Source: http://www.rovm-digitaal.nl/wegvervoer/zwn/
and another not unusual scene from the 60s (well, the T-bird was one of very few) on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (pic by Itzhak Saad)
I found it interesting to read your comment about the zwarte-kousenkerken here 🙂 My maternal family was GG. FYI, the R in Reformed is capitalized in English (so people know you’re talking about the religion).
What brands do these people drive? I once read that the more conservative one is, the more expensive his car is there.
Well, Yanns, I would have never expected to read “zwarte-kousenkerk” here… 🙂
But you’re right, I translated the Dutch words Reformatorisch / Gereformeerd in reformed. There are a lot of movements within the Protestantism. One is even more strict than the other. But Reformatorisch equals “zwarte-kousenkerk” and is the most strict.
My feeling says the wealthy part of these people mostly drives Mercedes E- and S-class. But I’m not sure, I’m from the Catholic southeast. You know, heathens… 🙂
Garrison Keillor wrote that in Minnesota, with many immigrants from Scandinavia & Germany, cars were a matter of faith: Protestants (i.e. Lutherans) bought Fords, & Catholics had Chevies. Even though I’m from a different part of the country, the stereotype “works” even though it makes no rational sense.
@ Neil, both Ford and Opel have always done very well here. These brands matched our “national character”. That is, in the past. When having debts was a sin, sort of. Opel has been our best selling brand for a few decades in a row. Year in, year out.
Good quality, well-built, no-nonsense, no extravagant vulgarity. That’s the way the country liked it. And not only when it came to cars.
Our pastor in the seventies drove a DAF 66. A perfect match, of course. Imagine that he drove a Protestant Volvo 66. We can’t have that, can we ?
As a (Presbyterian) pastor myself, now I sort-of understand why the older Van Den Bergs in my congregation were surprised their Domine drove an old bronze Cortina. In the nineties it was rather eye-catching! 🙂
Hello Johannes, I always enjoy reading your articles that take a European perspective on CCs. I came across this photo of a long row of cars parked diagonally on a freeway from the linked website (many good European CCs!). Would you happen to know if this was some kind of special event or why these cars are parked like this?
I see no people at all, so these cars must be parked. At a “special event”, just like you say.
Can’t find any info on the site. It’s summertime (green) and it’s a freeway. I’d say it’s the TT Assen, the annual motor bike races. The race track is situated alongside a freeway and it’s a major (number of visitors) sports event.
That’s my guess.
Absolutely superb, Johannes. Thanks for opening my eyes to these.
Fantastic pictures. The ’55 Buick looks incredible with those fog lights… so capable and Broderick Crawford!
Back in the 80’s we had a garage in Rotterdam, specialized in American cars. Our customers were mostly cab drivers and the sort of people pictured with the Camaro a few posts higher…..and of course I always had American cars myself, a nice selection ranging from a humble Nova up to Corvettes, Blazers and everything in between. Back then those cars did give you a status most people definitly not wanted…..
Pete, I assume the cab drivers mostly arrived in a Chevrolet Caprice or Impala ?
If you had a US car garage in Rotterdam back then you must know (or remember) Pietersen, a US car specialist and importer since the thirties.
http://www.pietersen.us/
Where I live, Rotterdam city the police C 10’s were the enforcers, big high and impressive.
They’d just needed two of these to totally block off the red light district which was a pier in port.
One day when I was driving a bright redCorvette from a friend I was pulled over by a senior and a junior officer. Just for an id and car paper check, but the old officer clearly wanted to impress the young one who was about my age.
Everything was in order but when I asked them why i was pulled over in a Corvette but never was pulled over in my Autobianchi A 112, the old officer replied : that is because pimps, thieves and other scum drive cars like these!
Ow well I replied to him with a smile on my face : Now I understand why you also drive Chevrolets !
The old man got purple and handed me back my papers without saying a word!
Hilarious! But in short, that’s exactly what happened with the image of US cars, once the seventies went by. Confirmed by Jacobse & Van Es somewhat later, as pictured further above.
Johannes, thanks for a great tour.
I remember those DAF buses from a holiday in Holland in 1970 (? I think, or maybe 1971) – our first trip abroad and being intrigued by the windscreen design. The ones we saw most were I think yellow, and I can recall our Hillman Superminx being outdragged by a Scania-Vabis truck.
If it was yellow, it was a “regional bus”, serving the smaller towns in the more rural areas. The one in the first picture has the typical city bus looks and colors.
They looked roughly the same, but were built by different coachbuilders. Slightly other exteriors and the city bus had less seats and a more basic (spartan) interior.
The window treatment on that F-100 panel truck is so nice, it almost looks like something Ford would’ve done themselves if they considered making a windowed panel to compete with the GM Suburban, IH Travelall, and Dodge Town Wagon.