Lots of late model used cars. Click image for maximum size.
Vintage Post Card: Municipal Auto Sales, Miami, FL
– Posted on February 8, 2022
-
-
Curbside Classics Archives
Lots of late model used cars. Click image for maximum size.
Guessing that picture was taken in 1961 or maybe 1962.
Correction, 1962. Those two Rambler Americans and the Falcon are 61’s.
Speaking of the Falcon, how much? I’ll take it.
RAMBLERS!
I love those years!
I’ll take five!
There are a lot of Ramblers there for a dealer without a big Rambler sign somewhere. The lot shown here looks like the secondary lot where the compacts and older cars are – the good stuff looks like it’s across the street where it looks like a 60 Cadillac and a 59-60 Buick convertible are out front.
A little noodling around online shows that MAS was a high-volume used car dealer that ran multiple live ads on TV every day. It appears to have been incorporated in 1958, but was dissolved in 1972.
While Municipal Auto Sales might have gone out of business 50 years ago, that location looks almost exactly as it did back when the postcard photo was taken.
2021 Google StreetView link and screen shot is below:
https://goo.gl/maps/kxgZxcHDc75v1u7h8
Out of curiosity, I did a some research into Municipal Auto Sales, and they were in quite a bit of legal trouble throughout their existence — everything from deceptive sales practices, to insurance fraud, to charging customers for license plates (illegal in Florida at the time), to paying employees substandard wages (i.e., under minimum wage).
Several state agencies wound up investigating the place, and when the hassles of dealing with these investigations became too much, the owner closed the place down in 1970.
I’ll take the Hillman convertible off their hands,
Sorry, I signed for it yesterday 😉
A curious lack of VWs for an early 60s pic.
What is the blue compact wagon?
German Ford Taunus 17m p2 wagon,nicknamed “Barocktaunus”. I didn’t knew that these were sold in the US.
There’s a VW bus driving down the street next to the red sign advertising 19 cents, (left third of picture).
Way too many ’60 Ramblers. Also two ’59 Chevy wagons, both white. Fleet leftovers?
Also lots of Euro Fords. Consul, Taunus, and a bonus Anglia driving past!
Good grief, is that a Ford Prefect rushing by on the highway? Imagine the sheer speed from 1.1 litres of advanced iron sidevalve four, the whip and clack of the three gears (two with syncro, wow!), the Puritan father’s interior pack, the engine rebuild every 30K miles…..in 90+ degree heat, in Florida. Hard to top, really, if self-flagellation is your cuppa.
Do I also spy a Ford Zodiac or Zephyr at the end of the line of ramblers top left? Mad dogs and Englishmen this particular day if it is.
Purity of the 4-door original Corvair for me. Maybe with the aircon of the Caddies over the road, I mean, I’m not English, you know.
Pretty sure it’s a 2-door Anglia so you can add non-opening rear side windows to its’ box of delights.
I love how the old car dealerships had those strings of lights lit up over the cars at night. I would have to be making a package deal on some Ramblers. Great photo.
Nothing made paint sparkle like those strings of lights, even when the paint was beginning to chalk.
The Hillman and the Ford Prefect (Anglia?) are no-brainers and weren’t that uncommon, but is the blue wagon a Taunus? That’s a rarity. And I think Justy is correct about the English Ford.
Such choices!
I’d write a check for the 1960 Valiant and the 1958 Ford in a heartbeat.
I wonder if the Rambler dealer tried to lowball a fleet customer on the buyback and these guys swooped in with a better offer.
They could just have been popular, AMC/Rambler was just about at its’ all-time sales peak in 1960-61 and were known for a relatively inexpensive and well-integrated A/C option starting in the mid-50s that must’ve been a huge hit in Miami.
Now, that A/C line of thinking sounds like a pretty good explanation for why they might be so well represented to me! One might further speculate that they’re decommissioned rental cars, which have long been one of Florida’s biggest export products.
It’s interesting to note that with all the colors available during those times (often close to 20 choices for some brands!) most of the cars for sale are white or beige. The lot accross the street also seems to have the same bland color selection as well. Maybe that helps to explain why car manufactureres offer such a misely color selection today. Look at what people were buying!
Well this is Florida, before a/c was common. So a lot of logic for a white car. Probably not representative of the whole country.
I visited Florida in 2015. Even though AC is very common now, most of the cars were still white down there.
This was May. The water temperature in the pool at the hotel was well over 90 already. The air temperature was near (or slightly over) 100 all week.
Why do people retire there again? I’m confused.
I think today’s bland color selection has more to do with bean counting than anything else. The fewer colors to inventory and maintain, the better for the bottom line.
White cars are to be expected in Miami — which makes it all the more unusual to see a black Corvair. Black was not a popular Corvair color in any part of the country, and you see very few of them today.
Sweet ~
I too like the Anglia, a young guy on my block had one in 1964 .
“One might further speculate that they’re decommissioned rental cars, which have long been one of Florida’s biggest export products.”
That and of course, all those damned flood / hurricane vehicles they send to the low end B.H., P.H. lots in the Ghetto and Barrio…..
If a nearly new car is cheap on the lot and has no plates, run away ! .
I wonder which vehicle I’d pick if given the chance .
I grew up without AC in anything and it wasn’t until I was past 50 Y.O. nd living in the Desert that I finally sopped buying black cars / trucks….
No one noticed the sign on the left advertising 19 cent hamburgers, that was the world’s first Burger King, 3090 NW 36th st.