Vintage Dealer Postcard: S&R Lincoln-Mercury-Comet-Triumph-Fiat — One Stop Shopping From Luxury To Super Cheap
– Posted on January 25, 2023
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If ever there was a collection of low volume brands pulled together to try to make a living, it was here. I’ll bet this guy was really glad to see the Comet come along that year.
I remain fascinated and transfixed by the1960 big Mercury. It’s a really small fan club, I know.
I’m a fan as well. Would love to have both a 1960 Mercury and a TR3 in the driveway.
I was thinking this was in California, but I see a reference to Rockville Centre NY online. I think I see a NY state vehicle inspection sign on the building too.
The California confusion’s understandable, this is from Alden Jewell’s Flickr and he seems to have a plurality of NorCal dealerships being that I think he’s from there.
Rockville Centre is on Long Island about 4 or 5 miles east of JFK Airport;
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rockville+Centre,+NY/@40.6738982,-73.6353924,11z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c27b469361882f:0xd3a94406928fe9f!8m2!3d40.6587138!4d-73.6412406
The collection of low-volume brands here was even bigger – this dealership sold Alfa, Lancia and Panhard too.
Also, I wonder why the signage on the building on the left-hand side of the image is blacked out?
Nissan dealership at that location now.
I would assume the blacking out next door is a competing dealership with the make they sell lettered on the building under the black bar. To save the sort of confusion in this retro-parody ad;
Thanks for the ad featuring the Glenn Ford Buick-Olds dealership.
There was similar confusion in NASCAR, where the Mercury team was racing Dodges with MERCURY painted on their sides. (Carl Kiekhafer made Mercury outboard motors and also ran a racing team.)
I believe Carl was racing Chrysler 300’s at that time. That’s a whole fascinating story itself.
Bob
Comet gets its own space on the sign as a separate brand from Mercury, so I assume the sign went up in 1960 or 61 when Comet was not yet a Mercury. Wonder how long it stayed up before “Comet” was removed. Also, the “E” in Comet looks like the Edsel logo. Some Edsel dealers replaced the Edsel sign with a Comet sign, leaving the second E in place. I can’t find anything online as to whether S&R was a former Edsel dealer though.
Rather crude blacking out of the two signs on the store to the left of the dealership, even by pre-Photoshop standards.
I do recall it being common for the lower-selling imports to be sold by Big 3 Detroit dealers as a side hustle of sorts. They didn’t sell well enough to warrant separate buildings.
Oops, just noticed the Lincoln in the showroom, so probably 1960 not 61.
Good catch – yes, this dealership did sell Edsels, so I bet that is the Edsel “E” up there. And they sold Simca as well for a while.
Wild. I think Mercedes was peddled at Studie dealers, so all sorts of nuttiness back then.
The S-P and M-B arrangement was to be more than just selling their brands. There was also a sharing of parts designs and patent rights. For example, the Conical door latches featured on the Avanti are Mercedes door latches. The older style linear type door locks on Studebakers didn’t work well with the Avanti fiberglass body shell that had more flexibility.
WOW! S&S sold Panhard! There’s a winner for the U.S. market. At the time, I was living in midtown Manhattan. i do not remember seeing any Panhards running around the City. However, the one depicted, fully restored by Jay Leno, would do well with the addition of false eyelashes and lipstick to complement the front end. Yours in mirth (and my girth), Tom
I agree on the 1960 Mercury. Sort of a fun boat along with the last year of the monstorus Lincoln that I also like.
Here’s March 1961, so pretty close:
October 1960: