Central Volkswagen Inc., St. Louis, MO.
Ralph D. Jones Volkswagen Village, Springfield, MA.
L. H. Strong Volkswagen, Salt Lake City, UT.
Imperial Motors, Wilmette, IL.
Competition Motors, Porsche-Volkswagen, Hollywood, CA.
Lindholm Motors, Volkswagen, Ruland, VT.
Ted Trudon Inc. Volkswagen, Talcotville, CT.
Intercontinental Motors, San Antonio, TX.
Volkswagen Dealer, Toronto.
Ralph D. Jones Volkswagen Village, Springfield, MA.
Central Volkswagen Inc., St. Louis, MO.
Central Volkswagen Inc., St. Louis, MO.
My wife’s family had a few VW’s, included a Type 2 van, a Beetle convertible, and a Karmann Ghia, when she was a young and before we met. I bet they bought them at Volkswagen Village in Springfield.
Rich, even though I don’t comment very frequently these days, you keep finding terrific pictures.
Yesterday I had the pre-CC Effect…I stumbled upon this picture, not knowing this was running this morning. It’s from my birthplace of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The dealer was gone before I aged to awareness.
Competition Motors had a neat covered-wagon camper on a Type 2 pickup at the back of the lot, and maybe an Anglia next to the MG. The other tradeins were dull American cars, which is a little surprising. I figured Cool Californians were already driving imports by then.
A very attractive variety of photos. They all look great!
The simple VW branding, and the consistent-look of the products, lends a super clean appearance to most dealers.
The toy-like charm of the Beetle’s looks, comes across in so many of these images. I personally love the second image. The lighting is great. There is almost an organic quality, as the Bugs took like turtles huddled together, under the lighting.
I find Intercontinental Motors in San Antonio, just beautiful. With the products under the large tree, and very modern, airy showroom.
That photo is of the last incarnation of an auto dealership that had stood on that spot since the late 1920s. It apparently was originally a Chrysler dealer, and started selling VWs in the late 1950s (when this photo was taken).
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:5q47s602r
And lots more photos of the VW dealership here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/dealers/ralphdjones_springfield_ma.php I think that the VW dealership survived well into the 1970s. I’m pretty sure it was still there when I lived in that area in the 1980s.
Sadly, it’s just a parking lot/hole in the ground now. Which unfortunately describes a lot of places in Springfield, MA…or at least what happened to them in the past 20 – 30 years.
Thanks for this info! I love those hand-painted photos, often used for postcards.
Very unfortunate this dealer didn’t survive. Given their small scale, there may have been some serious competition nearby, from large dealers.
Sad looking at these old pics, and memorabilia. They did have a long existence. When I look at many of the before and after locations Eric researches, the successful property evolution rate doesn’t appear good.
I’ve always liked this publicity shot of Clarkdale Motors in Vancouver from 1960.
It was renamed Vancouver Volkswagen in 2021 and is still in the same location, although the original building has been renovated and added to many times.
In the 50s, 60s and 70s, the offer was only Beetles, Karmanns and Kombis everywhere.
That Intercontinental Motors building in San Antonio is striking. So I looked it up. Seems that it was designed by a well-known architect in San Antonio and is still standing.
There are more pictures here: https://rondalpartridge.com/artworks/categories/123/11680-rondal-partridge-o-neil-ford-architect-intercontinental-motors-san-antonio-texas/
And a little bit of text about the building: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Cityscape-Inter-Continental-Motors-Building-3518761.php
Sadly, it doesn’t look like the neighborhood has stayed as beautiful as the building. At least Google says it’s still standing, just kind of in a raggedy place.
Intercontinental Motors was one of many new car dealerships on Broadway, a major street for business, and still is. But as is usually the case, dealers abandoned the inner city and moved their dealerships out to the loop with their giant US flags and all.
But Broadway still is a quite attractive place for businesses. Revitalization is always happening.
That’s good to know. I love San Antonio.
It’s been almost 40 years since I lived in San Antonio, I owned a ’78 Scirocco I brought from out of state when I moved there from Massachusetts, and I bought an ’86 GTi from Rod East VW (now Alamo Heights VW) not too far up the road, on loop 410 instead of Broadway. My current car (’00 Golf) I bought at DeMontrond in Houston. I’ve not yet bought a car in Austin, where I’ve lived since I moved from San Antonio.
I’ve owned only VWs (all water cooled, hatchback, and manual) since early 1981. My Dad first drove a Beetle while in the US Army stationed in Germany sometime between 1950-1953, and eventually bought a ’59 which became his first “2nd” car. He only owned one air cooled VW (the Beetle).
If someone told me the Intercontinental Motors building was completed in 2025, I’d believe them. The local BMW dealer basically looks just like this, and the local Lexus dealer is a single-story version of that same building and landscaping. Inside looks modern too.
The 23-window T1 out front would be worth quite a bit if it’s still around and in good shape…
Rich Baron had a similar post on May 2, 2024 – Vintage Dealer Snapshots: Volkswagen Dealers in the ’50s and ’60s that also featured Intercontinental Motors in San Antonio. I contributed a comment and a reply to Paul Niedermeyer’s comment at that time. The building at 3303 Broadway still stands and, as Elky states, the neighborhood is revitalizing and doing well. Hopefully, this fine example of mid-century modern architecture will be repurposed and preserved.
This article had me wistfully thinking along the “what if” line in my family. After dad left Hallman’s Chevrolet in the fall of 1965 (just as the 1966 cars were being delivered), he took about six months off and promptly started driving mom nuts. And then Volkswagen of America contacted him.
Johnstown had had a VW dealership (Suppes) since the mid-Fifties, but VoA was considering opening a dealership in Indiana, PA about 30 miles northwest of our home. Indiana was best known for one of the better colleges in the Pennsylvania State College System (a real liberal college town plunked in very conservative Western PA), and the birthplace of Jimmy Stewart. The town already had the Mercedes-Benz franchise, which is why Johnstown never got one.
VoA immediately approached my father about taking on the franchise. Word was that he was their first choice for the dealership.
Hmmm, mid-Sixties, the Beetle is getting very trendy, in a screamingly liberal college town, sounds like a wonderful opportunity to coin money for at least the next decade. And after a couple of meetings with the VoA people . . . . . dad turned them down.
By this point, I’m 16 and understanding what the family business was all about. So, of course, I asked him why. His answer?
“There’s no way in hell I’m going to work for the same bastards who were trying to kill me 20+ years earlier.” Yep, to his dying day, dad could never understand how anyone who considered themselves an American could possibly buy a German or Japanese car.
Also from “wstrn PA”. My career military, dad wanted to bring a “Vdub” back from Germany in “1954”.
My mom, apparently, was against it.
Lot of my dads fellow soldiers did though. from what I was told, they could get bargain pricing through a military buying program.
One guy got a green one and a black one.
Know a fair lot a people who went to “IUP”.
Been a while but I think it was “42ish” miles from “Butler PA”, to “IUP”.
Our town was alive ((relatively speaking)) then. We had “Mcdonald Motors” as our “VW” dealer. They did really nice holiday, decoration.
I totally get your father’s sentiment. I had 8 uncles in the armed services in WW II, in both the U.S. and Canada. Just for those uninformed, Canada fought the fight for over two years before Pearl Harbor was attacked. Those uncles saw all levels of service from never being deployed to paying the ultimate sacrifice and being buried in a Canadian military cemetary in France. Foreign cars were not well regarded in the family. My fathers Morris Minor was OK though.
Imperial Motors. Jaguar, Porsche, Triumph, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz… Has two VW’s in the showroom window. I wonder if they sold VW’s two to one over all the other models combined.
They had that “KG” right up front looking “spiffy”!
The two “Ford”, converts sitting in front of the “Hollywood CA”, dealer steal all the attention!
Does anyone here know what’s going on with the seven women at Central Volkswagen, carefully arranged from shortest to tallest, with matching VW-branded outfits? Is there any significance to the white shoes that two of them are wearing instead of black?
The VW dealer in the Toronto picture is now Toronto Honda. Some things never change.
Well that’s how it went in the auto market, so it goes with the buildings. Hard to tell if it’s the same building, but I’d say yes.
That location is surrounded by condo towers now, but the house at the right of the old photo is still there, you can tell by the odd roofline.
I used to love going to our local VW dealer on Sunday afternoons with my Dad, he would look at the new 1970’s cars up front and I would look at the 1960’s ones in the back lot.
The Los Angeles area had many VW dealers in the ’60’s, as many or possibly more than Chevy or Ford. The Chevy dealer in Redondo Beach changed over to VW. Additionally, nearby Harbor City, Torrance, Manhattan Beach,Hawthorne and Gardena all had VW dealerships.
I remember the graphic of the VW serviceman with the VW head as seen on the repair vans.
Wonderful pictures and memories .
For a laugh, look up “Highland VW” of Highland Park, Ca. and what happened after they made some hilarious late night TV commercials, VWoA wasn’t amused and pulled the franchise .
“Typ I” means _only_ beetles and K-G’s .
That sweet # 241 23 window bus is a Typ II .
The pickup in the back of the lot has a canvas “tilt” on it, very rare these days .
All through the 1950’s in America there were waiting lists to be able to buy a VW, this persisted into the early 1960’s, Competition Motors of N.Ho. gray marked many VW’s from Canada and sold them off the lot .
-Nate
Missed one of my favorites: https://spots.ag/2021/11/28/porsche-550-spyder-c288828112021132027_1.jpg?1638102081
I’m sure the dealership is back there somewhere…
Wonderful pictures – thank you. The dealers look professional, but also seem to have a friendly character.
Here’s part one of a promotional film aimed at those considering being a dealer. Becoming a Volkswagen or Toyota dealer seems such an easy choice, in retrospect. To get an idea of what it felt like to choose, I try to imagine which of the emerging Chinese brands I’d invest in, these days.
An order from Competition Motors, one of the dealers pictured here, at 8:43
Also, I might just rephrase the statement at 1:13….
This brought back memories of my local VW dealers, Britton’s North Shore VW in Beverly, MA and Lynngate VW, in Lynn, MA, where I bought the first new car I ever owned, a 1984 Jetta GLI (the sedan version of the Golf GTI hatchback). Both are gone now. Lynngate VW didn’t survive the turn of the century, and Britton’s burned down in a fire “of suspicious origin” as they say in the local police blotter, but no one was ever caught for setting the fire. Another local dealer, Kelly Auto Group, bought the rights to North Shore VW and moved the whole operation from Park Street in Beverly to Andover Street (MA Route 114) in Peabody, MA, which has become the local “auto dealer’s row” for Boston’s North Shore. Many of the dealers there were once located in downtown Beverly but moved out to wilds of Peabody or Danvers in the 1960’s, as that area was once nothing but farm fields that became shopping centers and car lots when the farmers cashed out and sold to developers.
I see neither of thwo most important in my history made it. A family member worked at Pray Volkswagen in Greenwich Ct. in the late 70s so I got to see Malcolm Pray’s car collection, including a Kasier-Darrin and an Isetta. I bought parts and one used car from Howard Holmes VW in Elmsford NY. I even changed a door handle in the parking lot once.
Both dealerships are long gone but I have a Howard Holmes license plate frame and VW dipstick hang up in the garage