Top Quality Indeed
I took this photo in 1972. It’s probably a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in Norwalk, CT or environs. I don’t know if I took the photo because I recognized that the inventory was anything but “Top Quality”, or because I was looking for a junkyard with late model stuff. In any event, an eclectic but interesting assemblage.
Pretty eclectic assortment. I like the 190SL, but would have to pick either the Squareback or early Wagoneer. And is that red car a Hillman Husky?
Thanks for sharing Kevin; nice assortment today, although they were probably “10-foot pole” cars when you took the pic.
Tom,
I believe that the “Hillman Husky” is actually a Fiat 1100-1300-1500 of unknown age.
The white car with the black hood is a Fiat 1100D or 1100R. I’m not sure what the red car is, but I think Tom is correct that it is British.
Yes, on the white Fiat. And I’m really struggling with the red car, which is a station wagon. It has rather peculiar hubcaps that stick out quite far. Not a common import, for sure.
I believe the red car may be an early Datsun, maybe a PL310.
That’s what it has to be. The grille top seems a wee bit different, but otherwise it’s a match.
I’m stumped on the red car…not an Austin, Morris, Fiat, Vauxhall, Ford….
Red one maybe a moskvitch 403. White is def a 1100 fiat or if the other is a moskvitch—itmite even be a premier padmini (more likely)–in fact i’m positive it is
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/moskvitch-403/
You almost got me convinced. But there’s a couple of problems with the Moskvitch: it has a little rear fender bump-out and a chome piece that is on the front of that. The mystery car has a totally slab side. Also, the Moskvitch’s wipers are located differently. For now, I’m sticking with the Datsun 310. Here’s the Moskvitch wagon
Not to mention that its well, a Moskovitch at a Chrysler dealer in 1972?
Really?
By the time this was taken I don’t think it was still a “Chrysler” used car lot If you look at the building it looks like it say’s Sports America. The inventory makes me think it had been turned into an independent dealership that specialized in sports cars and when that didn’t make the payments they added general imported cars.
They did sell a handful in Canada during the 60s – I’ve only ever seen one.
Fiat 1100 wagon? doesnt look British to me almost Datsun Bluebird shaped
I can see a red Edsel at the right. I would love to drive home!
Some neat stuff there! Looks like a 60 Corvair, 58 or 59 Edsel, a 70 or so Torino and the roofline way back looks like it maybe a 67 or 68 Imperial. Thanks for sharing!
Edsel is definitely a ’58. Since the Corvair’s ‘grille’ badge is big enough to be visible at that distance, I’m going to say ’60.
Absolutely a ’58. Totally worthless then, but I’d love one today!
Believe it or not, people were already starting to collect Edsels in the early 1970s.
A big Jeep and a of course, a Beetle too(there’s one everywhere). I wonder if the Chrysler dealer also had a import car franchise too, which would explain some of the odd trades.
I wonder what they gave on trade for a 1958 Edsel in 1972?
$50?
My uncle once got $50 for a rusted out Comet wagon…after the salesman asked him to go back out and park it behind the building.
Shoot, They probably made the owner give them 50 bucks to take that Edsel.
My grandfather bought a 49 Plymouth beater for $40 in 1961!
I bought a 1960 Falcon for $40 in 1974. Put a battery, u-joints and a tune up kit in it. Drove it for a year or so and sold it for $100. If only I could have done that with every car I bought.
Given the quality of the rest of the inventory, how much do you want to bet that Wagoneer has the (mostly undeserved) bad-reputation Tornado OHC 6?
As intriguing as these cars are to us today, this had to have been the least successful lot ever. That, or they simply didn’t have enough room to hide the embarrassing trade-ins out back.
May have had the AMC 327 V-8 . . .
Don’t think so. The arrival of AMC’s alleged 327 was heralded by the new face on the Wagoneer…the grille that kept appearing on one FSJ or another up until 1979. The OHC six was deep-sixed in the second or third year, replaced by the 232 “big” AMC six…which was later to morph into the “Jeep” 4.0 six and outlive AMC by 20 years.
I say AMC’s “alleged” V-8 in that its creator was David Potter, sacked by Kaiser-Frazer-Willys when their car lines were terminated. He was their V8 guy; was let go before the engine was finished; and then hired by American Motors. The new Rambler V8 was on line in less than a year.
Awful lot of cross-breeding there…reminds me of a little town I lived near when I was in my 20s. All the kids seemed to look alike…and there were rumors of a “key club.” Anyway…no 327 on that Gen1 Waggy.
As others have mentioned, I bet the ’58 Edsel was a real steal by what they’re worth today.
It’s probably a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in Norwalk, CT or environs. I don’t know if I took the photo because I recognized that this inventory was anything but “Top Quality”…
The inventory is also anything but Chrysler-Plymouth 🙂
In hell this is what passes for Top Quality.
Don’t be too hard on the dealer. That’s not his main lot, that’s the side lot where the beaters and cheap cars were kept. Consider it the equivalent of the “buy here, pay here” used car lot of today. They were common at every new car franchise as long as you weren’t talking Cadillac, etc.
Yep. They had to put the less than ideal trades somewhere!
I don’t think by the time this picture was taken it was still associated with the CP dealer by the lettering on the building. Yes they should have taken down the Pentastar when they closed the location but back then they didn’t seem as concerned about such things.
Interesting thing is, they buried the cathedral-grille Wagoneer with the other losers.
Never happen today, of course…nor even twenty years ago when the FSJ was just out of production. But there was a time, long ago, when the world did not lust for the big Jeep wagons.
My old man had a 1968…once he’d had it a year he’d decided it was a mistake. Went to the local Ford dealer trying to cop a deal on a Ranch Wagon…they offered him $1000 for it. One year old, 20,000 miles…Buick V8 and Turbo-Hydra-Matic…4×4…one thousand bucks.
When he finally did trade it in, five years later, on a Maverick, he got $800 credit for it. But by then he’d put 120,000 miles on it…he found himself more on the highway than he thought and the FSJ Wagoneer wasn’t up to it. But underneath the nickel-and-dime lemon-type problems, the Buick drivetrain was bulletproof.
Sorry to ramble. But I find it interesting that in those days owning a Wagoneer was something to be ashamed of
I find it interesting that anyone would consider a Maverick a step up, even then.
1974…year of Arab unrest…lines at the pump; gas goes from 28 cents a gallon to 55 cents. $2.56 in today’s funny-money. Small cars were in, IN!! My mother’s Galaxie rusted out…broken frame…about the same time the old man’s Wagoneer started lifting its el-cheapo paint in big sheets. So…TWO NEW CARS! And NO, my parents weren’t going to turn Japanese. And if they had, they’d have been real unhappy…rust-resistance was nonexistent in the Asian cars of that era.
My mother wanted a Pinto…until she sat in one. Not that it mattered; Pintos were back-ordered. So were Mavericks; but one dealer had a blinged-up one, just under the LDO level…my mother liked.
Meantime my old man found a year-old new Gran Torino at another dealer; marked down a thousand bucks…$4500 in today’s Xeroxed scrip. He couldn’t pass that up…that saved thousand bucks would buy a lot of gasoline.
They both bought, same time; and then discovered they liked each other’s choices better. But the Maverick in those gas-line days, was not a car viewed negatively.
Ah, back in the day when new car franchises had they own unique “used car” brands and signage…
Can anyone name a few?
I’ll start….
Chrevrolets OK Used Cars.
I always thought this was a slighty odd name, why now Great Used Cars? or Fantastic Used Cars? Nah, they are OK.
Lowered expectations, that’s the key. Customers’ are much more likely to be satisfied that way. 🙂
As long as the car doesn’t have to be towed back to the dealer within, say, a week, it was OK, right?
“Sir, the door fell off this Nova”
Lady, read the sign…it reads OK, not great, not awesome, OK.
Like if a teacher wrote “OK!” on my kids paper, instead of “great job” or “excellent”, I would feel strange……
In the world of auto retail (or any sort of retail, really), hyperbole and boasting and outrageous self-aggrandizement are the norm. So a used-car dealer touting his wares as merely “OK” is refreshingly modest.
But I agree that, for a big-ticket item like a car — the second-most-expensive purchase most people will ever make, after a house — “OK” doesn’t quite sound assuring enough, does it? When you’re spending $2 for a can-opener, it’s OK if the product is only OK. But when you’re spending more like $2000 or even $20,000, that product better be better than OK.
Similarly, I’ve always thought that old Doobie Brothers song, “Jesus is Just All Right with Me” sold Jesus a bit short. If one is really a believer, shouldn’t the praise be a little more, I don’t know, enthusiastic than describing The Savior as “just all right”? It might even qualify as, “damning with faint praise.”
Honda used to put a little “OK” sticker on their cars back in the ’80s. Some kind of Q/A thing. When I was little, I thought that my dad had bought his new Civic hatch used.
And right next to that “OK” sticker in the window was a Rusty Jones sticker. Right below those stickers, a big rust bubble developed on the quarter panel. I always thought that was hilarious.
Ah, I remember Rusty Jones, the smooth mustachioed red haired rust protector….cousin of the Brawny Paper Towel guy.
Oh, I got some memories of Rusty Jones and the Johnstown Chevrolet dealer (Rudy Haupt Chevrolet, at this point two managers removed from my father’s days of running the place). Little matter of some fraud, cost the guy the dealership. Chevrolet Motor Division may put up with a lot from the dealers but fraud against CMD definitely crosses the line.
We have a former local Olds dealer that still has at least one GM “OK” Used Car sign. Even when I was like 12 I thought that the “OK” Used Cars did not sound like a good thing.
Said dealer still has their 60’s or so era Oldsmobile sign.
Not my picture, I was quite surprised how easy it was to google one up.
Ford’s used lots were “A1”, and Mercury was “Safe Buy”.
There was a Roberts Motors in Auburn, WA, that was an Olds/Jeep dealer. My brother bought a Wagoneer from them in the mid-1970’s.
That is the one, Chrysler made them take the Jeep signage down when they pulled their franchise to give it to Matson Dodge down the street. But I guess that since GM got rid of the Olds brand they didn’t care. What I don’t understand is the fact that the sign pictured above was the main Olds sign until the brand was folded. I would think that GM would have made them use the current version of the corporate signage somewhere between the 60’s and the 00’s.
Dodge – Dependable
VW – Verified Warranty
Pontiac – Goodwill
Oldsmobile had “Value Rated” used cars.
Rated? By Who?
I kinda like how Value Rated is in a stylized O for Oldsmobile.
Another local former Olds dealer, now you’ve got their advertising jingle going through my head. It was kind of annoying Russ Dunmire, Russ Dunmire, ding, ding.
Studebaker in the late ’50’s/early ’60’s had their “ABC” used cars; Always Buy Certified. There’s one commercial from around 1959 that has a family looking at a ’55 Packard Clipper.
Ah yes, GoodWill Used Cars, at Pontiac, another odd name, I associate GoodWill with the place you drop off grandpa’s old man pants and recliner after he’s gone to the happy hunting ground, not used cars.
Keep in mind that the “OK Used Cars” moniker dates back to pre-WWII. When the American taste for hyperbole was nowhere near as developed as it is now.
Ok used cars was what they sold where my dad worked that meant used Holdens,Vauxhalls,Chevrolets and the like less desirable stuff just got hidden away and wholesaled off to dunger dealers
DeSoto-Plymouth dealers had “Top Value” used cars too with some being the “Groucho Specials” and Buick’s “All Square” used cars.
I’ve never seen “All Square” for Buick, but it could have been way back in the day, Buick later had “Quality Checked” with the 2 checkmarks on the sign.
Buick used “Better Buy” at one time
Datsun – “Valid Value”
I agree with Paul Niedermeier on the red stationwagon. It must be an early Datsun. I guess it was quite rare even then!
I wasn’t aware Nissan was exporting Datsuns to the East Coast, but they have been by ’63 or ’64.
Chevy’s “OK” used cars dates back to the 1920’s and it was a fairly new thing to buy a used car. So, OK back then meant quality.
BTW, I agree this lot looks like it used to be a C-P dealer, but many times, old signs stay up. Example, a local Kia store was converted from a Jeep dealer, that still had AMC logos on its ‘Used Cars’ sign!
The relatively slow four-cylinder 190SL’s were still cheap in those days – it wasn’t until ten years ago or so that their prices started to rise to the present [OMG!] level. Nowadays you wouldn’t see one sitting around minus a headlight out in back. I see some investor is checking it out…planning to stash it inside until 2005?