Korum Ford, Puyallup, WA.
Northland Ford Motors, Oak Park, MI.
Al Packer Ford, Baltimore, MD.
Peekskill Ford at Park & Charles Street, Peekskill, NY.
Bill Heath Ford, 5500 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA.
1963 Galaxies at Tasca Ford, Providence, RI.
1964 models in the showroom, Wheaton, MD.
F & D Motor Co. Ford at 7207 Main Street, Bethel, NC.
Wendle Fordtown at Division and Wellesley, Spokane, WA.
Borgman Ford, Grandville, MI.
Arrow Ford, Abilene, TX.
1st Photo: Korum Ford, Puyallup, WA
Looks like you could buy a Cortina Station Wagon with automatic for $2,352 as per the bill board across the street.
I think I rather have the T-Bird instead.
68 Shelby Mustang at Borgman Ford.
On its original 15” steel wheels and wheel covers too, most 68 Shelby’s now (and probably this very car if it survived) sport the requisite 10 spoke alloys. Probably has the other stripes added too like they all now have too
I’m struck by all the sedans, T-Birds and coupes for sale. The pickups apparently are around back.
In 2024, pickups were almost 58% of total Ford sales. Here in the PacNW, they account for up to 80% of many dealers’ sales.
Pick ups were specialized vehicles for purpose driven jobs back in the day. People bought ’em to put stuff in the beds and didn’t use them much for daily drivers at least in the cities. Pick ups were commonly extra vehicles and didn’t have near the sales numbers as did cars.
Now, pick-ups are bought like cars because they’re used like cars-their beds sometimes are rarely used. And, as you say, along with SUVs, are clear sales leaders.
Just drive a new F150 and compare with say a ’72 F100.
The new vehicle market was MUCH different then.
I worked for a big city mega Ford dealer for a couple of years during college in the mid ’80s. The few new pickups in stock at any one time, maybe ten of them in the back corner of the lot, were very basic models without even a rear bumper. I think they were mostly there for farm or commercial sales. I never saw one sold or even had anyone ask to look at one.
In addition to bumper, headrest, and emissions regulation loopholes for light trucks at the time was a Monroney sticker exemption. They had only a basic factory sticker on the passenger window listing their equipment, but no prices. The dealer price markup was whatever management wanted it to be, so consequently pickups were generally much more profitable than new autos, with potentially much higher sales commissions. That should have been a big sales motivation, but the problem was, there was little to no interest in them among the buying public, at least in a city.
That job was a great education on so many levels.
The picture of the beautiful, Googie architecture Northland Ford dealership just sent me down this rabbit hole. The business had been closed and boarded up until purchased by late, former NFL player and businessman Mel Farr, who went on to own a bunch of Ford dealers
I do remember seeing Detroit advertisements from Farr & Co. IIRC, he was portrayed as flying like a superhero. I was sorry to learn both of his passing and also about some of the less fortunate aspects of his business ventures. He seemed like a nice man – at least from his ads.
Wendle Ford (and lots of other brands) is still the biggest dealer in Spokane. It was at the address seen here for a long time, moved out to the suburbs recently.
I’m old!
LOL–I’m probably older! Was 65 in September!
It’s remarkable how sparingly the blue oval was used—if at all.
The inconsistency of the lettering is also disconcerting. One might think corporate identity was still an unknown concept back then.
Check out the Falcon sign that’s clearly meant to fit an old blue-oval lightbox.
Not convincing. It could just as easily be a placeholder from Dupont or anyone else using an oval logo. The typeface also bears no relation to the other typefaces shown here, let alone the well-known Ford logo.
All in all, rather random and amateurish.
I got an unexpected surprise when I checked out the location of F&D Motor Co. in Bethel, North Carolina.
The building is still there, and the lot is full of 1980s era GM products. Turns out the building is occupied by a company called G Body Parts, which sells parts for… well, G-Body GM cars.
Google SteetView Link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sz4Sk21MtCZyvBo8A
Al Packer moved to Florida, Still has two dealerships in West Palm Beach area.
Not necessarily… Al Packer Ford is still in Baltimore, but moved to Eastern Baltimore County and is on US-40 just east of Middle River Road, just south and east of White Marsh.
I do see that they have locations in Florida, and noticed that back in the day. Wonder where they got their start? Florida? Or Maryland?
My Dad bought his first Ford there (on Belair Road as shown in the picture), the ‘73 LTD that became my first car. I bought my next two cars there, the ‘79 Futura and the ‘83 T-Bird.
That location was sold to Scotty Donahoo where he sold used cars for years, but is now called Caliber Collision Center.
Here, let me pull and Eric703 here and provide this modern view…
https://www.google.com/maps/place/5625+Belair+Rd,+Baltimore,+MD+21206/@39.3412203,-76.5468188,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x89c8060acd527bcb:0x4082dfd3d661ea0c!8m2!3d39.3412203!4d-76.5468188!16s%2Fg%2F11mcj3w0lx?hl=en&source=lnms&g_ep=Eg1tbF8yMDI1MTExN18wIJvbDyoASAJQAg%3D%3D
The street view if you don’t feel like following the link…
The vacant lot down the hill towards Hamilton Ave was where they kept their inventory IIRC, and the building was the showroom (in more modern times) and I believe service was around back, or maybe in a separate building down the hill a ways. My memory may be a little fuzzy…
Edit… Reviewing the old picture, the service building was in fact down the hill. Looks like it was torn down in modern times.
Wonderful photos.
I view this page on my phone, and the reply button always trips me up. I’m always inadvertently hitting that dang button as i scroll, and chaos ensues. Could that button be centered so that it is not so easily activated?
The Wheaton, Maryland photo (of inside the showroom) was Hill & Sanders Ford at 11250 Viers Mill Rd. Hill & Sanders stayed in business until the early 2000s, when they sold to the Lindsay Group, and Lindsay Ford is still in business at that location.
Friend of my mom’s bought a car @ “Hill @ Sanders”. Was a “72-3, Torino” wagon. At the time(for many years actually) the lady lived in “Wheaton”.
“.
When I saw the name Al Packer on the Baltimore dealership sign, this guy immediately popped to mind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Packer I’ll let you read his details if interested.
This post made me curious about the Ford dealership where I bought my first brand new FoMoCo car, back in early 1995. The building still stands, but no Fords behind the facade windows anymore.
Apparently, in the summer of 1961, somebody in Peekskill, NY traded in a Triumph TR-3 for a ………. Falcon ? ! ?
dan, I wonder if the triumph TR-3 got traded due to ins. rates on 2-seaters. It wasn’t a Vette, but rates went through the roof on anything 2-seater! I remember that when my brother’s friend bought a new `69 AMX 390 2-seater. A couple years later I saw him in a `72 Chevy Malibu 350 coupe! Easier to insure.
My dad bought his TR3a from the Chevy dealer inBeacon, who sold Triumphs for a bit. They had no signage, but had a few TR3as. Dad was 20 when he walked in and paid $2888 cash for it. He said insurance wasn’t horrible for him, but he also had an AC Ace Bristol within a year he bought new as well, as he was making over $6500/yr as a research chemist at Texaco in Beacon Labs. I seem to recall him saying he could have bought his car in Peekskill but the dealer in Beacon had a guy named Sid who was from England who was a great mechanic, and who was willing to teach my dad how to service his car. I suspect the Peekskill Ford dealer also sold Triumphs. Peekskill is only a bit over an hour from Lime Rock, and the Poghkeepsie Sports Car Club was huge and incredibly active then, so the Hudson Valley had a number of British sports car dealers.
Growing up in Rhinebeck in the 70s and 80s I saw tons of Healeys, Triumphs, Jags, Alfas, MGs, and some other sports cars of that era every day because the area was so saturated from the 50s-70s.
FUN FACT: The used car dealership that Janet Leigh swaps out get away cars in the movie “Psycho” is at 4270 Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood which is just jump the street for the Bill Heath Ford photo at 5500 Lankershim Blvd.
https://www.iamnotastalker.com/2011/10/18/the-psycho-car-dealership/
Being Tasca Ford, I wonder how many of the Galaxie;s with the fender badges have 427s in them. One? All 3?
Sad that younger generations of auto enthusiast’s never experienced the annual roll-out of new models usually in September. The excitement, the anticipation of the reveals advertised in full newspaper layouts!
What really amazes me is new auto showrooms today look the same now as they were +60 years ago. Mostly boring considering the price point of the merchandise. I am a retired Interior Designer with decades of experience designing upscale retail and hospitality facilities. Also decades as an Interior Design professor teaching advanced level design courses including retail. Over the years some of my students choose auto showrooms for a full semester advanced design project. This younger generation developed auto showroom design solutions that were amazing, innovative, and based on solid research. Sad that auto retailer showrooms are still stuck in the 1950s.
We’re trying to find any old posts like this for Mort Hall Ford in Houston