Ralph D. Jones Volkswagen Village, Springfield, MA.
Lindholm Motors, Volkswagen, Ruland, VT.
Dawson Volkswagen, Walla Walla, WA.
Competition Motors, Porsche-Volkswagen, Hollywood, CA.
Impérial Motors, Wilmette, IL.
“CB” Smith Motors, Austin, TX.
Central Volkswagen Inc., St. Louis, MO.
Central Volkswagen Inc. (Service Area), St. Louis, MO.
Ralph D. Jones Volkswagen Village Showroom, Springfield, MA.
Beetles everywhere–that’s really how it was once upon a time. I look forward to CC’s VW experts helping to precisely date the photos in today’s nice assortment.
“Competition Motors” in Los Angeles: did they advertise in the car magazines (selling EMPI stuff)? It sure seems familiar…
Unexpectedly, Alabama offers a good number of early-on VW dealer photos, like this one-enjoy!
https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/photo/id/26910/
Competition Motors is where James Dean had his Porsche 550 Spyder serviced on the morning of the day he died in said car.
Thanks, I thought that was the case.
I previously posted Inter-Continental Motors at 3303 Broadway in San Antonio on February 8, 2024 in the Import Dealers in Texas thread. I passed by this building two days ago and it still appears as it does in the attached image.
Inter-Continental Motors 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.
What a splendid building! How is it used now, if at all?
Paul, unfortunately, as of April 30, 2024 it sits abandoned but the grounds are maintained and there were at least two cars in the parking lot which look to be currently in use. The possible good news is the building is in a trendy neighborhood close to two universities and an affluent residential neighborhood.
As an architect, I see much potential for this structure as a hospitality or high-end retail establishment. It is also adjacent to the city’s botanical garden and a major city park. Further good news is San Antonio has a reputation for preserving its notable architecture – usually. At least it is much better than the other large cities in Texas.
Virtually across the street from this building a mid-century modern (read googie) restaurant that had ceased operations after almost a half-century has been purchased by a group that has had much success in Houston with several specialty restaurants. The new owners have vowed to honor the original design of that structure.
FWIW, there was a Volkswagen dealership in Houston at 9055 North Freeway (Interstate 45) which opened in 1971 under the name Bob Magnusson Volkswagen. I do not believe it lasted long into the 1980s. Mr. Magnusson was a customer of my father’s pharmacy and I believe Dad said they attended the same high school.
Walla Walla is well represented in these dealer pics, and most of the dealers are also well presented with good architecture. Seems unexpected for the size and industrial nature of the city at that time. It was never a high culture city like Seattle or KC.
Most of these were obviously older buildings. Back then dealers switched brands much more often; sometimes they would dump their brand if they didn’t like the new cars shown to the dealers in an advance showing.
I assume that many of these may well have been former dealerships for marginal and/or independent brands.
VW put a lot of pressure on dealers to have nice facilities, and many of the newly built VW dealerships were the finest ones in their town. Towson VW had a beautiful new facility when we arrived there in 1965, the nicest by far.
I checked this out for a few of these buildings, and their pre-VW history. Here’s what I came up with:
Ralph D. Jones, Springfield, MA: The building had been used as a car dealership since the 1920s, selling various makes. Ralph D. Jones operated a Chrysler-Plymouth dealerships from this location before VWs. It looks to me that Jones entirely switched from Chrysler to VW.
Lindholm Motors, Rutland, VT: Lindholm used this building as a Willys distributor before VWs. It looks to me that Lindholm switched brands entirely to VW.
Dawson Volkswagen, Walla Walla, WA: The building was constructed in the early 1940s. It’s unclear who occupied it before Dawson moved there in 1953, but when they did, Dawson carried many import brands (MG, Jaguar, Triumph, etc.).
Imperial Motors, Wilmette, IL: The building housed a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership before being taken over by Imperial Motors (oddly enough), which sold many European makes at first, similar to Dawson, above.
“CB” Smith Motors, Austin, TX: This building was purpose-built as a VW dealership in 1960. CB Smith was already an Austin Dodge dealer, opened a VW franchise in the 1950s, and then moved it to its own building a few years later
Central Volkswagen, St. Louis, MO: This building served as a Ford dealership (Midtown Ford) before being a VW dealership.
I had a baby blue ‘63 Beetle, so the above brings back lots of memories.
If I could crank up my Time Machine, I’d go for that Ghia convertible on the corner of the Dawson VW store dealer lot. Not fast, but who cares!!
Also, have you noticed white wall tires on some of the Beetles. I would imagine VW of America was trying to “Americanize” some of the fleet.
“Whitewall tires say: Look at me. Here I am! Looove me.”
Whitewall tires were used in many countries, for the same reason that the gentry wore fancy shoes. Trucks and workmen had plain, functional tires and shoes.
If you look at modern low profile blackwall tires, you’ll notice that the sidewall details are beveled to create details in shades of gray instead of an unbroken surface like old school blackwalls.
Whitewalls were especially popular when conventional tire design had tall sidewalls. The big black undecorated area distracted from the rest of a vehicle designed for maximum glamour.
Lindholm Motors, Volkswagen, RuTland, VT. . The building is still there but it is now a Subaru dealership for the continuity of the boxer offer. The VW dealership is now in a building just to the south.
Thanks for confirming… it sure looked familiar.
Apparently, they do still sell flat four ice vehicles now.
In college in the early ’80s I had a Karmann Ghia much like the one in the lead photo. Mine was a ’59 convertible, I think with the smaller air vents up front. I also had a 1965 Beetle convertible with license plate frames from Lucksinger Volkswagen, San Luis Obispo. Porsche 356 rims and a great surfer patina.
I still want a yellow “KG”!
When I bought my Rabbit from College Park (MD) Volkswagen in late 2006, they were still in one of these small Beetle-era buildings, I’d guess built in early ’60s at latest, linoleum floors and woodgrain paneling everywhere. Most of their inventory was parked on various unpaved surfaces in every space available. They were bought out by the huge-in-this-area Darcars (or maybe already had been by that time) and moved to a large, modern facility in nearby Silver Spring, MD (currently closed for renovations, though not very old and it already looked very modern to me). The old building on Baltimore Ave. (Rt 1) is still there, which Darcars Nissan now uses as a used car sales facility. Interior has been whitewashed unfortunately, but outside looks the same except for the signage.
Looked at vdubs in 71 at our local dealer, Ahmed vw. Still a little pricey for me, went down the street to Ford and got a new 71 pinto. Dark green metallic with a black vinyl top and stick shift.. Lot of punch buggies in these great pics… love the Cadillac Fleetwood parked with all The little ones
Yeah I see a 59 or 60 Caddy pulling in to Central VW in the second to last photo. Maybe coming in to get a beetle for a kid off to college.
Old “Vdubs” always make me happy..
The C.B. Smith facility is where I bought my ’69 type 1 in January 1969. It was just south east of the intersection of 5th Street and Lamar. Long gone.
Nice old pictures, thank you so much for posting them =8-) .
-Nate
Did anyone notice the 59 Caddy
Convertible on the back lot of
Central Motors. I’ll take the land yacht.
The Vermont dealership building is almost identical to two local dealers that sold VWs up until the late 1970s…..Niagara Falls VW at 8700 Pine Ave and Jim Kelly VW on Genesee St in Cheektowaga, NY. The NF building is intact while the Kelly Building was torn down in the 90s.
I wonder what the story is with the 64 or 65 Cadillac Series 75 limo at Central Motors?
Unfortunately 73 was the year of getting rid of the v-8, my family had a 73 vw bus, I learned standard shift in that, pulling hills caused valves to drop as well as my interest in vw
My parents bought an early 60s Beetle before I was born, most likely at Imperial Motors in Wilmette, since they lived about a mile away. It’s even possible that one of the cars pictured was the one they purchased, as the vintage is correct (small license plate lamp shroud). Some of my earliest memories are of riding in that car, which for some reason was called the “Gitchy Car,” a term coined I think by one of my brothers. I always assumed the made-up word referred to either its diminutive size relative to our Ford wagon or the distinctive sound VWs made in reverse. That car was eventually traded for an early 70s Beetle, which was subsequently traded for a 76 Beetle convertible that still sits in my garage.
I think the Cadillac Fleetwood limo, might belong to the dealership owner! You think .
Every time I see a post showing brand new Bugs it makes me wish I’d bought two new 1970s ($1957 including leatherette and AM radio) and packed one away in Cosmoline.
CB Smith in Austin was at 405 N Lamar. Directly across Lamar from the Butter Krust Bakery (if I recall the spelling correctly.) and just north of the train tracks. It’s no where Fidelity investments has an office.
Downtown Austin was hit by a flash flood in 1981. The Temple Daily Telegram had a front page photo of a VW Rabbit that was partially washed out of the showroom, hanging halfway out of the dealership window. Same location as the old CB Smith store?