The Goad Motor Company was a Cadillac and Oldsmobile dealer in Austin. Here’s their used car lot, at 1214 W. 6th Street in 1952.
Part of the collection of Rescuing Texas History from the UNT.
Vintage Dealers: Used Cars In Austin, 1952
– Posted on August 11, 2023
I’d be looking at one of those fastback Oldsmobiles for sure!
Two dimensions stand out. The ’50 Plymouth is NARROW and the ’51 Studie is LOW.
Love that picture. Reminded me of when I was in my pre-teens and would ride my bicycle about 4 miles each way to go visit with my uncle who owned a small used car lot up the road. I loved going there and looking at his cars for sale and talking with him. Yeah, I know. Most kids that age would be riding their bikes to the local swimming pool or to a friends house. Not me. It was off to the car lot and why ended up going into auto sales. Great memories.
Dan, I’d love to hear your story.
This was about the end of the line for a used Studebaker being good enough to be featured among the front row of late model used cars at a GM dealer. I would imagine dealers were still really scrambling for good late-model used cars as late as 1952, given the screwed up new-car market of the prior decade.
Is it lens distortion, or is the Oldsmobile on the left wider (and thus a 48-49 C Body 98) than the Olds to the right of the Stude?
One of my simple pleasures as a little kid, was going with my dad, when he went car shopping. Riding in the back on test drives, enjoying many different interiors. The excitement of a new car. Loved the sound of the overhead triangular flags, blowing in heavy winds. Never trusted the sales guys. lol
That’s a super great memory.
I wish I could go peruse the back row……
Hard to believe now but there was a time when used pickups were lot poison .
-Nate
Instead of visiting used car dealers when I was growing up, the used cars came to me. This was because my youngest aunt’s boyfriend was the son of a used car dealer. She was about a half generation older than me and lived with us until she got married.
Her boyfriend (later husband) would bring over the latest selections, and I’d always check out the cars in the driveway before they left on their dates. The one that really stands out in my memory was a red 1956 Buick Special two-door hardtop around 1960 or so.
How cool would it have been to have had a Austin dealership in Austin, TX? 😉
ahem… “an Austin dealership…”
sorry!
Must be within the city limits, to count.
Dan, I’d love to hear your story.
I want that Stude, and I love the look of those buildings!
I was more than a quarter century away when this photo was taken, but the automobiles, architecture and materials used, furniture, appliances and consumer goods… sometimes make me wish I was around in this time period.
Hmmm…I looked up Goad Motor Company, and it appears their address (probably for new vs used cars) was at 2nd and Guadalupe. Still downtown, but not really in the proximity of their used car lot shown here. Wondering why their used car lot was so far from their new car lot?
I’ve been in Austin since 1982…it has changed a lot in the time I’ve been here. I think Anderson lane on the north end would have been considered “far out” in the 1950’s. My Mother’s house was considered pretty far out when they moved there…it wasn’t even in the city in 1982 and the house originally had a septic system (they added sewers in 2000 some years after they’d been Annexed into Austin). The population growth has hardly been linear, with most of it in the last 30 years. When I moved here there were actually quite a few car dealers, both new and used, located downtown, primarily on 6th street, one on 5th street, but most of those are long gone to the suburbs…guess the land is deemed to valuable for all the space car sales/service takes. Nowdays downtown is mostly offices, for the state and city, of course 6th St. has been the entertainment street for a long time. I’m not much for Whole Foods, but their original store was on Lamar downtown, it flooded during the infamous 1981 Memorial Day flood, but they built their headquarters pretty close near 6th and Lamar.
The nearest Cadillac dealer to me is Covert which was better known for Buick (they were an early Austin Buick dealership). Oldsmobile of course is no more, but Charles Maund used to be the Olds dealership on the north side…they also used to sell VW but have since transitioned to Toyota (not called Maund though). I have to admit that I hardly ever go downtown nowdays…probably more a reflection on me, mostly go if I have to go to jury duty or to settle estate as executor…traffic is a big reason for me, though I usually take the bus (hot as it is in the summer) as it is very hard to get parked…you may actually walk more from your parking spot to your destination depending on when you arrive than you would taking the bus (depending on how close the bus stop is to start of your trip). It’s pretty unpredictable, with construction seemingly never ending but with varying impact on traffic.
Only person in my family that had a car in 1952 was my Mother’s Dad…he bought his only car, a 1951 Chrysler Windsor, the year before, the only car he ever owned (he had to learn to drive it, he was in his 50’s…my Mom also learned on it, she was 20 years old. They lived on the east coast…though ironically my Grandfather died the very same day as the Tower shooting at UT Austin on Aug 1 1966…nothing to do with it, he didn’t get out of the mines soon enough and like a lot of others had black lung. My Dad knew how to drive (he was in the US Army from 1950-1953) but didn’t have a car till he got his Chemistry degree and bought a new ’56 Plymouth Plaza with no options (maybe it had a heater, but that’s it). He drove trucks in the Army, and VW Beetles (he was in Germany towards the end of his enlistment).