These snapshots are part of a series found at The Portal Of Texas History, that I’ve used in a few previous posts. On this occasion, I’ll showcase some import dealers. We start with Village Motors in Abilene.
Village Motors, Abilene.
Volkswagen Dealer, San Antonio, 1957.
Volkswagen Dealer in Abilene, Christmas Time.
Village Motors: is this the first time we’ve seen new Austin Marina’s on a dealer lot here at CC? Priceless.
I saw that and my initial reaction was “can’t be!”. But yet, there it is. Having actually owned one back in the day, it brought back a strange mixture of nostalgia and revolt…
The unknown dealer here was Economy Imports in San Antonio. The building is still standing (used as a signage business). Then-and-now pictures below – StreetView link here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/UqFZGW8YSrqVjJJK8
Thanks Eric! I’ll update the post with this detail.
That VW dealer is doing a good job selling Oldsmobile, Dodge and Ford!
Oh boy, what a flashback… I passed by Village Motors on many trips to the orthodontist in the early ‘70’s. (If that Electra had a vinyl top it’d be a dead ringer for ours). We lived (even) deeper in the sticks, and to an isolated car nut like me, a BL dealer with some Fiats and an occasional R16 were exotica. So whenever we drove by I’d look up from my car magazines and check out the inventory.
Despite all that, I never noticed any Marinas. Looked right through them, apparently. 😊
BTW, the second photo appears to be the Intercontinental Motors building in San Antonio, prior to its redesign in 1963.
I see that Renault 16 peeping out from behind one of the Marinas and the Buick. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one in the United States, but I had a Corgi version many decades back.
Based on the mixture of new cars, I’m guessing this photo was from 1973. I guess Texas destinations were too spread out for cars like MG Midgets and FIAT 850 Spiders, both of which were quite common in central Virginia at the time.
Hmm… having grown up out there (and living in VA now), I think you’re right. Also, it’s awfully hot, and you couldn’t ask any of those little rigs to keep an AC compressor turning.
I saw one 850 Spider in my neck of the woods, but that was it – no Midgets or Spitfires. TR6’s and MGBs (and 914s), otoh, weren’t uncommon.
Guess we’ve found the “too small to share the road with all the pickups” threshold.
Where out in the sticks were you? I grew up close to Johnston Elementary by Westwood and N. 10th.
Deeper in the sticks: I’m a fighting Bluecat from Coleman. About sixty minutes from Mackey’s 😉
The Abilene dealer was either Max Fergus or Ed Melson VW (switched ownership in 1971) at 1395 S. Danville Dr. The showroom was built in 1969 – before that, Max Fergus was located in a much smaller facility directly across the street from Village Motors.
In 1976, the VW dealership changed hands again, and moved. A few years later an AMC dealer opened in the building, and the site changed ownership a few times more after that. It was eventually acquired by a Honda dealership, which built a new showroom on an adjoining site. The old VW showroom was demolished in about 2018. Below is a 2017 StreetView image showing the building before it was razed.
Nice facility then and now… Quite the fancy dea lership
This is great stuff – thanks, Eric!
Eric, I grew up in Abilene in the 70s and 80s. I vaguely remember the VW building, which must have been wedged in between Heritage Cadillac (where the Honda dealer is today) and Dan Hixson Chevrolet.
I remember the AMC dealer being on N. Clack St. (the west side frontage road for the Winters Freeway) between N. 1st and N. 10th St. Mason Gamble Subaru was over there as well.
Got to love the large gaps between cars. Making up for limited stock. lol
I’m loving this post .
Thanx too for the links and detailed where & whom information .
Interestingly, in TEXAS they developed an AC unit to VW Beetles in….. ?1958? (IIRC) .
Quite a load for the then tiny 36HP engine .
The evaporator was mounted behind the rear seat, I’m sure it helped a little bit .
I’d love to find one of those setups, I’d make it work and add to my ’59 Bug .
-Nate
Haha, that’s too much! Well, never say “never.” Of course they found a way to air condition a Beetle; it’s Texas!
I wish I had an image of this building before it became derelict (it was demolished in 2006). This wonderful example of mid-century architecture was built in 1958 at 4135 Gulf Freeway in Houston. It was the Lancia, TVR, and perhaps Alfa Romeo dealership over the course of its existence. The showroom under the beautiful folded plate roof could house two automobiles. Well, one Lancia and one TVR at least.
Now that I am a San Antonio resident I will add a local former dealership: Inter-Continental Motors at 3303 Broadway in the Alamo city. It was the Volkswagen dealership built in 1963 and designed by famed architect O’Neil Ford. His firm Ford, Powell, & Carson also designed a significant number of the structures for Hemisphere ’68 in San Antonio.
I hit a gold mine for old car dealerships in Texas or any other state. Go to https://www.roadarch.com/showrooms/main.html and pick a state
Other than VW, the rest of the “foreign” dealerships look like second thought sideline arrangements attached to domestic dealers. I think this hurt the Euro brands in the long run.
Toyota, Datsun, & Honda were in a similar situation in my neck of the woods till post Entergy Crisis 1973. I’m sure the home office in Japan was demanding independent stores fronts from that point forward.
For the most part that’s what I remember too. There were two notable exceptions on the north side of Houston in the late 1960s though. Yokem Datsun and Gullo-Hass Toyota. There was also a stand-alone BMW dealership on 34th Street just off the Hempstead highway (US 290). I believe it was called Rudi’s. The building was a totally unimpressive metal building with floor to ceiling glass on one corner. That was the one-car showroom. There were also a few service bays but not more than a half dozen. I did go there with my father once when he looked at a Bavaria. He wound up buying Volvo 144 instead. 🙁
Here is what remains of a Volkswagen dealership built in San Antonio in 1963. Inter-Continental Motors was designed by O’Neil Ford of Ford, Powel, & Carson the firm responsible for many of the structures built for Hemisphere ’68 in the same city.
If you want to see more dealerships in Texas, and elsewhere, go to https://www.roadarch.com/showrooms/main.html
I lived in San Antonio 40 years ago but have since migrated to Austin…I’ve owned nothing but VWs (since 1981), my ’86 GTi was from Rod East VW off of 410 towards the East side of the city (well, that went good with the name anyhow).
I don’t buy many cars; my current one is a 2000 Golf I bought at DeMontrond VW in Houston.
When I moved to Austin there were several car dealerships (mostly new car) in downtown Austin, now I doubt there’s any. Most have moved to the suburbs, or are along I35, mostly in South Austin but a few up North.
As I mentioned to Eric a few posts above, I grew up in Abilene in the 1970s and 80s. I do not specifically remember Village Motors, but based on the backgroud around the dealership, I guessed that it was located at N. 1st and Willis St., confirmed when I looked on the Portal to Texas history. It’s only a couple of miles from my parents’ house and an intersection I passed on a regular basis. The showroom building is gone, but the garage is still there.
Wow, N. 1st & Willis – so it was right across the street from Mackey’s (Sports and Toy World)? Hah! Every kid in the area knew that intersection!
Yep! Right across the street from Mackey’s and diagonal from Abilene National Bank, which I liked because it flew the six flags over Texas at the front of the building.
At Village Motors, the white car on the right (second photo) is a Fiat 124 Sport Coupe. I had one in white, so that’s the car that caught my eye.