I found this DeSoto dealer filmstrip posted by MyMopar.com on YouTube. It struck me as quite different from most other filmstrips of this type in that the producers actually visited DeSoto dealerships around the country and asked the dealers about their experiences selling cars. Things are going great–especially when it comes to selling the lower-priced DeSoto, the Firesweep.
The Firesweep was a new offering in 1957, designed to bridge the price gap between the Plymouth Belvedere and the DeSoto Firedome. Most DeSoto dealers were dualled with Plymouth, so this made a lot of sense. The Firesweep was built on a Dodge chassis, but with DeSoto styling and interior trim, and the smaller Dodge 325 V-8. So how well is this new car selling? Let’s ask . . .
Dealer Al Wagner of Youngstown, Ohio. Love the facial expression!
Al Wagner got a Firesweep demonstrator. Most of his sales are conquest sales from other brands, especially Pontiac. Al’s boys rang up twenty Firesweep sales in the month of February!
Sid Brand of Leo Adler DeSoto-Plymouth, Detroit, Michigan.
Sid hired six salesmen away from competing Pontiac, Buick, and Mercury dealerships in the city. “They know competition thoroughly, and they know how to beat competition! We believe the contacts these men have will help us win more conquest sales.”
Now let’s meet Ed Start, Sales Manager at Stewart DeSoto-Plymouth, Gratiot Avenue, Detroit.
Ed explains that Plymouth customers were disappointed because they couldn’t get immediate delivery on a new 1957 Plymouth. But Ed’s salesmen were successful in getting these customers to buy the low-priced Firesweep instead “without too much trouble.”
Now on to Glenn Walker DeSoto-Plymouth, also on Detroit’s East Side.
Gene Charles, Sales Manager, Glenn Walker DeSoto-Plymouth.
Sometimes a customer wants a specific color DeSoto, and in a hurry! The factory may not be able to supply it in time. Gene explained how his dealership solved this problem. They place advance orders for DeSotos in all white with neutral interiors . . .
. . . then the dealership paints the car with the customer’s choice of color. Customers pay for the two-tone option, which covers the dealer’s cost for paint, labor, and moldings. And everybody’s happy. But it does raise the question: What constitutes “original paint”–the paint the car left the factory with, or paint applied by the dealer prior to delivery?
Anthony Metzner of the Amory Garage in Albany, New York.
Lastly we’ll hear from DeSoto dealer Anthony “Tony” Metzner who so eloquently describes the situation this way:
“Let’s face it–when I first started getting Firesweeps it cost me dough to get them in shape for delivery. And I had to get that dough back! Know who’s paying that dough back? Owners of Olds, Mercurys, Pontiacs, and Buicks, because we’re going after them hot and heavy! Workmanship has improved now and we’re proud to show this car to our customers . . . They’re getting a better car than they’ve ever had before, and they know it!”
So much for the dealers’ perspective. But what do DeSoto buyers think?
“My DeSoto Firesweep handles and rides like a dream!”
“Friend of mine bought a new Dodge 2-door hardtop and tried to tell me I had the same car with a different name and a different skin. I told him my DeSoto was more like a Chrysler than a Dodge. Yes sir, I’m darn glad I took this Firesweep!”
And for the female perspective . . .
“We like the new ride very much better than the Buick we traded in. Never had a car with such hot performance! People stare at the car when we drive down the street. My friends say ‘Wow!’ when they see it for the first time! Our neighbor has a ’56 DeSoto and was he surprised to see us in ours! Guess he didn’t think we could afford one!”
Everything’s wonderful! The cars look great, they drive great, the dealers are making money, and the world is on a firm foundation. DeSoto Division sells 117,000 cars in model year 1957.
Next year the same basic car is offered, but with small styling changes. New V-8 engines make their debut. 1957’s successful car is now better than ever! But wait–something’s gone wrong! Sales plummet to just under 50,000 units for ’58. How could this happen? What about all those hotshot sales tactics?
Just how many potential car buyers actually lost their jobs or had lower income due to the 1958 recession? Enough to cut sales of an established medium-priced auto make in half?
It’s 1959–the recession is over, and other medium-priced makes recover, but not DeSoto. Dodge sales were three times that of DeSoto, so it seems that more people preferred the radical ’59 Dodge styling over this relatively clean design. Even powerful, gem-bright beauties like this Adventurer 2-door hardtop couldn’t attract buyers in sufficient numbers.
1960 rolls around, and DeSoto is all-new, with a design that’s even sleeker and more advanced than the “Forward Look” models were in 1957. The cars now feature Unibody construction. Everything is improved–except sales, which drop to a new postwar low of 26,000 cars. The low-cost Firesweep–hyped so dramatically in ’57–has been dropped. How are the dealers surviving? Plymouth sales are also down, but hopefully they’re selling a lot of Valiants! You gotta be flexible in this business!
It’s 1961, and the game’s over! Shockingly, DeSoto (which in previous years always had arguably the best styling of all the “Forward Look” cars) releases this monster which looks like a mutated ’59 Lincoln! Were they trying to kill off the brand on purpose? I guess we’ll never know, but merely 3,000 copies were sold before production ended. Customers who had unfilled orders were given 1961 Chrysler Newports. I’m assuming all those DeSoto-Plymouth dealers became Chrysler-Plymouth dealers from here on out.
What happened to all those DeSoto loyalists? Did they stay in the Chrysler family, or move on to GM . . . Ford . . . AMC . . . foreign makes? How many of them held on to their beloved DeSotos far beyond the usual “trade-in time”, thus allowing their cars to be preserved even to the present day?
This filmstrip really is a window on a lost world. I wish I could personally meet Al, Sid, Ed, Gene, and Tony–I’m sure they would have fascinating stories to tell, and they would tell them in an interesting way. Without YouTube and this website, their names and faces would be totally forgotten.
I’ve used this analogy (which is probably outdated now). If you look through your local phone book, and you see all these names–how many of these individuals do you know or will you ever meet? Probably the smallest fraction of 1%. And yet they’re all real people just like you, with lives, loves, careers, triumphs, tragedies, secrets, and foibles. What stories could each of them tell?
Glenn Walker dealership building, 13333 E. Warren Avenue, Detroit, September 2023. (That is NOT a dual-axle Jeep, but a fault with Google’s street view camera.)
Things have changed so much since the confident, “solid citizen” days of the ’50s. Much of the city of Detroit would be shockingly unrecognizable to the salesmen if they saw it today. The industry too has changed in unforeseeable ways. “Mega” dealerships now dominate, most car buyers now lease, and cars (SUVs and trucks, mostly) are basically computers and smartphones on wheels. Everything’s more complicated, and the “personal touch” seems to be going away. Most brands overlap in price, functionality and looks, so it’s hard to come up with solid reasons for preferring one make over another. Your neighbors probably won’t care if you’re driving a Chrysler instead of a Dodge.
This is what they hit us with now:
Oh, yeah–this really makes me want to go down to “Boch” (botch?) and buy a car!
Wouldn’t they prefer to sell to people with GOOD credit?
New car depreciation will hit you harder than any change in gas prices. Why should I get $1000 off just because I went to college?
As New York clothier Sy Syms used to say, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” Today’s dealership ads treat us like idiots. They’re always screaming low-sounding numbers like “ONLY $199 PER MONTH!” “0% FINANCING!” “THESE DEALS WON’T LAST LONG!” All these statements become meaningless once a deal is begun and the shell game of the options, the trade-in, and the financing comes into play.
I would like to see a car ad where the spokesman, in a calm and friendly way, briefly explains what some of the nice features are, why this car is the best in its class, and why it’s such a good deal. This doesn’t happen, so I guess people don’t want to hear that?
What if DeSoto had survived into future decades? It would probably be just another K-Car or minivan, with little to distinguish it from a Plymouth, Dodge, or Chrysler. Eagle in a way was the new DeSoto, and the Eagle brand itself died a rather premature death.
The important thing is that DeSoto thrived and survived when it did, bringing us some of the greatest classic cars of all time.
See also:
The drop in sales in ’58 probably had as much to do with the build quality of the ’57s as the recession did.
Exactly I will bet that many of the1957 buyers went right back to GM for their next purchase (and found out that they had suspect quality too).
I’ll go with build quality from the previous year, the recession, and Chrysler’s completely screwed up marketing of their brands. There are times when dealers need to be told, “No!” if only for their long-term good.
Then again, trying to discuss “long term good” to a business who’s idea of “long term” is the end of the month is probably a very frustrating experience.
Desotos were the best looking of the forward looking cars.
For the record, it”s pronounced “Bock”. If you are a boomer who grew up in Massachusetts, you couldn’t escape the Boch sales freight train. Ernie Boch was a Dodge/Rambler dealer who embraced carny midway sales pitches, and would smash the windows of new cars to illustrate his “disdain” for list prices, in his cheap, omnipresent commercials. With his high pitched voice and stilted movements, he became a local “celebrity” and multi-millionaire. As teens, my brother and I did impressions of him. Dad bought Mom a new ’68 Charger at his dealership in Norwood, MA.
The guy aping the Coppertone ad is his son, Ernie Boch, Jr., who has added to the Boch fortunes and profile through controversial political associations an philanthropy in New England. Despite the snake oil, chances are you would have bought a car from a Boch back in the day. The family are born salesmen.
I found a commercial . . .
What a turnoff! The high-pitched voice with the Boston accent, and what poor sap would end up with glass shards forever in their newly purchased car?
Thanx for the TV commercial ! .
I nearly got carsick from the camera work .
The ubiquitous 32 Oz. ball peen hammer, I don’t think you’re supposed to use it like that .
I lived right down the highway from Norwood, Mass. awhile, it seemed okay, just off Rt. 128 IIRC .
-Nate
I wonder if this inspired the TV commercials from the Kurt Russell film called “Used Cars.”
WARNING: NSFW LANGUAGE
Many got to see Ernie Boch Jr. (doing his best Howard Stern imitation) on the tv show Bitchin’ Rides. Kindig built him a full custom stretched DeTomaso Pantera that was incredible.
Yep. Bock or Bach, like Johann Sebastian…except only so far as having a similar-sounding name. Ernie Jr. is indeed “controversial”, to put it politely. He took over the dealership empire started by his father, and has subsequently sold nearly all of it off. And fwiw, while his dad’s empire was huge and comprehensive, many many New Englanders maintained that a Boch dealership was about the last place where one would want to buy a car.
’nuff said.
Nissan ads are the worst. Every week, there’s a new ad breathlessly announcing the latest sales event that won’t last long…until next week’s sales event. In none of these ads is there any “our car is better than their car”, “Datsun Saves”, “We Are Driven” info, just impossibly attractive people racing to this week’s sales event. Why the hell would I buy a Nissan, except that it’s cheap?
Rant over.
The giddiness inherent around the purchase notwithstanding, I am fairly certain I would not want my new car painted at the dealership.
As for the dual axle Jeep, surprised someone hasn’t tried something like that and parked it in front of a Jeep dealership as part of a promo feature.
Excellent article, Stephen. I love your observation/analogy about this article (and the salesmen from the film strip) and the phone book. It’s great how history works…there’s always so much to learn about and draw from when one focuses on the myriad of common folk versus big name notable folks.
The business about ordering white cars and painting them for the customer…I once had a salesman propose something similar to me about a car’s interior. He was trying to get me to buy the vehicle on the lot with a vinyl interior that he would then have converted to the upgraded leather interior at less than (and quicker than) the factory could supply the higher-grade model. I declined.
Also, I love the 1961 DeSoto ad. The lady is posing like Mrs. Wile E. Coyote…I’m certain there’s a falling anvil/piano/safe immediately out of the frame at the top of the picture. 🙂
Armory Garage still exists in Albany NY, and they still sell the Mopar brands even though Stellantis owns them now. The buildings have been torn down and rebuilt on several occasions, but the location remains the same. Bought a 92 Grand Voyager and 97 Breeze there.
Great article, Stephen. I think many of the same things when I’m watching videos like these – only the very best and the very worst are remembered for long. Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle, so it’s nice that these films extend that memory a little longer.
As for the change in sales tactics, I’m sure you and I suffer from our respective nostalgic viewpoints. With that being said, my cynicism often strikes and I totally agree with you on the blatantly uncouth structure of a lot of things we’re surrounded by. People have probably not changed that much over the years, but it seems like we once kept our worst impulses more well-hidden. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is left to the beholder.
I remember those no-nonsense Syms ads with the man (I suppose it was Sy himself) dryly stating that “An educated consumer is our best customer.” I also remember my parents telling me that Syms sold junk, and despite it being cheap, they never shopped there. At some point, there was some sort of investigative-journalism type of scandal where it was revealed that Syms’ merchandise was often inferior quality clothes with other labels sewn on (not sure of the details, but it was something like that).
Anyway, this was a great glimpse of brand propaganda from an earlier era. Thanks!
Are any dealers known to have actually painted a new, contrasting color onto white cars? I have to imagine that would cost quite a bit and be difficult to do well without removing trim and such.
Leo Adler had a commercial on the radio where a yodeler sang out “Leo Leo Leo Ad-ler”. I think he also sold Datsuns later on.
I’m amazed with 20/20 hindsight that DeSoto as a marque lasted as long as it did. Once Walter P. Chrysler convinced the Dodge brothers to join his new company, DeSoto was mostly a slightly decontented Chrysler, with commensurately far lower sales in most years.
The cover of that 1961 DeSoto brochure features iconic 1950’s supermodel Suzy Parker, who at the time was considered one of the most beautiful (and photographed) women in the world (she was the first “Chanel Girl”, she was the face of Revlon cosmetics, a muse of photographer Richard Avedon, and she was featured on countless fashion magazine covers/fashion shoots and in print ads for everything from Cadillac to Hunt’s Catsup and Pabst Beer; she also had an acting career…) … here is the entire brochure:
https://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/desoto/61des/61des.html
Interestingly, Suzy is also featured in the 1961 Plymouth/Valiant “Accessories” brochure, below some snips… “interesting” that lovely Suzy was used to promote two of the ugliest Mopars of all time…!!!
FWIW, the good old days were also rife with all sorts of shady dealers and salesmen. There’s a very good reason why in 1955 Senator Mike Monroney introduced the bill that led to the Monroney sticker starting in 1958. Before that dealers commonly misled consumers about the true cost of cars and the discounts they were pitching.
As to sales tactics then and now, there have always been consumers who used objective information like Consumer’s Reports and such and those that were sucked in by aggressive advertisements. Human nature doesn’t fundamentally change.
The migration to online purchasing continues at a rapid pace, for very obvious reasons.
These Mopar dealer-aimed films are quite open about sneaky tricks and a cynical attitude toward the customer. The Chevy dealer films by Jam Handy were more self-conscious and circumspect, perhaps fearing that someone outside the dealer fraternity might see the movie.
Is this real or am I just not understanding the satire? Maybe I’m too young. I can’t believe that DeSoto really built the “best” cars in their era, weren’t they literally just another trim level or whatever of Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge, engineered and built by the same people in the same locations, i.e. just like VW and Skoda and Audi today for example? Maybe one version looked more attractive than the other in any given year but were not emphatically better or worse in any kind of qualitative sense.
And that “filmstrip” is obviously full of cherry-picked segments to send whatever message the producer wanted to send, I can’t believe it reflects any kind of actual reality in that dealers or customers were any better, more discerning, or honest or helpful in any way whatsoever. The newer ads are just jostling for attention within their own crowd in whichever way they deem to be most fit, the comments seem to reflect that there are plenty of scammers and hucksters then and now, no surprise. There are lots of people out there with poor credit, some through their own fault, others due to being scammed at some prior point, some dealers specialize in that market, and others go after good credit people and then farm the lower credit people. Every sale adds dollars to the pile, one would be a fool to ignore one segment over another. Perversely, a buyer with poor credit may actually provide a bigger profit to a dealer than one with better credit or cash.
There’s plenty of “personal touch” still available to anyone who is willing to spend the time, and more importantly, actually spend the money to have it lavished upon them if having some stranger fawning over them is their desire. No different than hiring a streetwalker, really. One is however more likely to find it in a higher-end dealership than in a lower-priced product dealership today (as likely back then too) and I seriously doubt people in the 1950s were any more “honest” than they are today. Consumer protection laws came around for a reason, hollow as they are. At the end of the day, anyone selling something to someone else to make a gain has their own interests at heart more than anything else, to believe anything else is simply naive and a great way to get ripped off. That hasn’t changed since man started to walk upright.
Do your own research, avoid middle-men whenever possible, and yes, if at all possible just purchase an absolute commodity item (such as a car) without someone in the middle that is making money off the sale but not actually producing or providing anything and likely won’t be there in a year or two. Otherwise pit a few against each other to find the best price, and feel free to send whatever you consider an appropriate check to the one guy that may have actually helped to educate you if you save more money elsewhere. Our own best vehicle purchase experiences have been the ones with zero to minimal people involved on the other side, we need more of that instead of some cloying 1950s holdover wondering what “the little lady” for example might want or how her husband feels about her preferences, two things that were rife and common back then and are actually still out there today. Barf. Unemploy them all, no value added that a display center with a salaried, non-commissioned advisor/explainer can’t add for an interested potential buyer to the exact same degree.
The 1950s were simply not “better” than any other decade since. They may not have been any worse than any other decade but certainly not better in an absolute sense. Neither were the 60s or the 70s or the 80s or the 90s or the 00s of the 10s and the 20s aren’t shaping up so hot either for that matter. There may be a couple of aspects that people prefer and wistfully remember from any one era over another but just as many if not more negatives existed that don’t produce as pretty a memory. Might as well make the best out of what today is and work harder to make the future a better place.
DeSoto sponsored. Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life” up to 1961, the last period for the show and DeSoto.