Three views of Garrett Rambler’s warehouse sale, taken by Forth Worth’s WBAP-TV in 1963.
Vintage Dealer Snapshots: A Rambler Warehouse In 1963
– Posted on November 6, 2023
Three views of Garrett Rambler’s warehouse sale, taken by Forth Worth’s WBAP-TV in 1963.
That’s awesome!
No hail damage to deal with, the cars stayed out of the blazing Ft.Worth sun. I’d have gone there just to shop without being outside in 108 degree heat. Like a kid at a candy store.
This was in 1964 when AMC was really a big player.
Very clever for marketing, in a state like Texas. The warehouse interior has an agricultural look and feel, like a cattle sales barn. As the patriotic bunting, adds to the ‘County Fair’ vibe. While the warehouse, and ‘bulk’ sales environment, helps buyers think they are getting the lowest prices. Great concept, and very practical!
As for the Rambler Classic, before my time, but one of the cleanest domestic cars of the era IMO. They aged better into the 1970s, than many early ’60s designs. Such as most pre-Engel Chrysler products, which did not date well.
The exposed rafters remind me of another favourite Rambler Classic image, I’ve posted here before. A Classic in front of the then new Ottawa Station in 1966.
That’s because it IS a cattle barn. Garrett Rambler rented some of the barns at the Will Rogers Coliseum for a big “warehouse sale” (“Biggest selection of Ramblers under one roof!”)
Of course using cattle barns as car showrooms brings a whole new definition to the “new car smell,” but folks in Ft. Worth in 1963 may not have minded…
Here’s an ad for the event:
Thanks for looking into this! All makes sense. I mistakenly was originally thinking this was a production facility, or warehouse. The rectangular windows, and window style, contributing to me thinking in this direction.
We have our own cattle barn located here in downtown Ottawa, built in 1898, that seems perfect for a car sales event. Known as the Aberdeen Pavilion, the exhibition hall hosted cattle exhibits during the annual Central Canada Exhibition, for decades. It has never hosted an automotive sale, as the building has been city-owned, since new.
Wow – that’s the nicest-looking cattle barn I’ve ever seen!
Built during the Victorian era on the annual exhibition site, they added more detail and elegance to the structure, when under design.
Note the workers sitting on the frame, while under construction, in the upper left corner.
As it was a cattle barn, it was allowed to deteriorate at times during its lifespan. Early 1900s.
The ’63 Rambler Classic was the direction that US full size cars should have gone in, instead of increasing their size and weight in the decade that followed, worthy of their COTY award from MT and one of the best and most practical all-around family cars of the ’60s imo. great Pics!
I love the idea of a bunch of Ramblers in a cattle barn. I can only imagine the questions:
How do they steer?
I can’t find ones with leather – that’s because cow hide.
Did they move elderly, stodgy customers along by saying get along little fogey?
Sorry. But this is both cool and hilarious all at once.
Impressive display of parking skills, especially since it was a short event. All those cars needed to be moved through the narrow aisles and parked FAST.
That’s one heck of a bunch of “Ramblers”!!
Neat ~
Being TEXAS it wasn’t cool inside that barn but so many Ramblers, it boggles my mind to think how much $ is tied up right there .
-Nate
Lots of wagons here. Seems like wagons were always a healthy percentage of AMC sales.
That’s what my Dad bought (having 2 young kids. me being one of them helped with the decision).
His first was a ’61 Rambler Classic Wagon, bought new in Compton Ca. Dad’s previous car was a ’56 Plymouth Plaza with no options (well, maybe a heater but no radio) he bought before he met my Mother, who learned to drive on a ’51 Chrysler Windsor semi-automatic but wasn’t comfortable with anything but an automatic. Plus the Plymouth was 2 door…he drove it out to California from Massachusetts in 1959, carrying a reactive chemical he needed for his next job making solar cells (we weren’t with him, too young, we flew out with Mom on propeller plane).
I’m not sure why he bought the ’63 Rambler Classic Wagon so soon after the ’61; he didn’t keep cars long but 2 years would be short for him…It might be that the ’61 got in a sandstorm on our way back east in ’61 and he didn’t trust the missing paint when we moved to Pittsburgh, PA (imagine moving from Southern California to Pittsburgh in 1961…my Dad didn’t exactly follow trends). Anyhow, he either bought the ’63 in Pittsburgh or Catonsville, Md, the next city we moved to (both places he worked for Westinghouse Semiconductor).
Both cars were green (up till ’73 our wagons were all green in color, Dad’s family of Irish descent has a lot to do with that of course).
He’s gone almost 10 years but moved to central Texas 44 years ago…in 1984 he bought a new Pontiac Sunbird, one of the first trips made in it was to Ft. Worth. My sisters and I were dropped at Six Flags and later in the day we see my Dad coming to pick us up in a rental….it turns out the Sunbird broke a timing belt, with less than 500 miles on the car. It was easily the worst car he owned…despite regular dealer maintenance, one engine was replaced about 50k miles, and after my sister took it over the 2nd engine threw a rod with less than 85k miles total (35k on replacement engine). Dad junked the car in about 6.5 years from new from dealership. It had numerous other issues, cheap switchgear, leaking power steering hoses, that you shouldn’t expect from a car that was pretty young and maintained. Maybe he should have bought a new AMC Concord wagon instead (the Sunbird was his first “non-wagon” sedan after we older kids were out on our own and he no longer needed the space as my younger sisters were in their teens and more by then). He did finally go back to GM for his last 2 cars, both Chevy Impalas.
Not familiar with station WBAP-TV, looks like it was renamed KXAS in 1984….I wondered why a station starting with the letter “W” would be in Texas (I know there are exceptions, but most stations west of Mississippi start with letter “K” rather than “W”) but wikipages gave me the details…don’t live in Ft. Worth though so still not familiar with KXAS either.
I Own a 1963 Rambler American 330 bought brand new from Garrett Rambler Summer of 1963 truly a time capsule with 21,000 miles. God bless TEXAS & AMERICA 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
That’s fantastic ! .
-Nate