Al Smith Buick, Raleigh, NC.
1961s in the showroom (with a Bianchina on the curb).
Boylan Buick, Kalamazoo, MI.
Rank & Son Buick, Milwaukee, WI.
Grand Buick (and fun traffic), Dallas, TX.
Tom Kirkpatrick Buick, Meadville, PA.
Johnson Motor Co., Durham, NC.
Frank Hawkins Buick, Seattle, WA.
Ideal Buick, Frederick, MD.
Lots of Opels in the background. Not sure what convinced GM to push them in the US. I do remember a neighbor had an Isuzu Opel sedan. The brightest yellow one could imagine. An Opel Manta or GT would be my fancy.
Apparently there were lots of eye catching things around Buick Dealerships. People who’s last name started with B seemed to like owning Buick dealerships. That Bianchina is another new thing for me. It caught my eye (just after the lady’s legs) before I realized the name was in the caption. I had guessed maybe Isetta. That “super”(LOL) smooth Riviera in the 7th picture also caught my eye.
Our local Buick/Pontiac dealership, Carroll Motors, building wasn’t much bigger than an average two story house in front but went back deeper. It was near the bottom of a narrow valley cut by the creek it sat next to. Fortunately the creek was enough lower it didn’t flood the building but probably did flood the rear of the sloping parking lot and threaten the service area entered through the rear of the basement. The creek bed/valley widened much more after the dealership so there was someplace for flood waters to spread out into. The area near the dealership was rocky and harder for the creek to cut down into. Two miles upstream the creek passed through my parent’s yard so it was a fun thing for us kids. Boating, rafting, fishing, ice skating in winter, neighborhood hockey games, an ice road for minibikes to other towns. The dog loved to swim in it. After that it passes through a large golf course that Jamie Farr/LPGA is often at..
Loved those “GT’s”, We used to call them “Jr Vettes”. The “Manta”, as ya say was popular because it was “euro, spiffy”.
Frank Hawkins Buick was in Seattle, WA (not OR), at 9th and Bell. The building is long gone.
Yes, of course. It’s updated now.
Somewhere I have, or at least had, a Frank Hawkins Buick license plate frame.
One could almost gasp at the long, lean, ’67 Electra in the top photo.
But my [biased] fave is the grainy ’63 Olds 98 in the middle of the “RANK & SON,” photo.
It was our ’63 98 in which i took my drivers test.
Remarkable to see that so many of these hulking 1920’s edifices still persisted into the 60’s & 70’s.
These days, I can almost get a massage while waiting in a dealership 😂
Thx for another great set, Rich.
Rank Buick was on the east side of Green Bay Avenue, just north of Capitol Drive. The owner was Wally Rank and he was a great car collector. There was an annual car show at the dealership and in the lower level many of Wally’s collector cars were stored and displayed for the show. He had and liked the very special stuff from the ’30s – Cords, Duesenbergs, Packards, etc. I went to the Rank show just once – in about the mid-1980s.
Dealership was closed long ago and the building(s) are gone.
So many lovely Buick’s ! .
I don’t remember the Opel’s being in the Buick dealers I visited in the early to mid 1960’s, what years did they carry them ? .
-Nate
Mid “60’s- about “73”. Quite a few dealers stopped sooner though.
Ideal Buick in Frederick, MD looks like it is now Emporium Antiques. Fascinating to know that this site was a car dealership at one time.
That mid “70’s”, era pic is bleak.
And there’s a Triumph Herald next to the Bianchina.
I remember Rank & Son Buick. In Wisconsin’s pre-expressway days of the late ’50s/early ’60s, a trip to Milwaukee was an all day expedition into the far reaches of the deep South. It was an exotic place we’d go on rare occasions when my salesman father had a flight out of Mitchell Field that didn’t connect well with the train schedule.
On rare occasions where we had extra time, my Dad would yield to my pleas to stop at one of the larger showrooms like Rank & Son. It was a real treat for preteen me to see more new cars in one place than was possible in our small town.
Big difference between the downtown storefronts and the flashy new dealers out on Auto Row. I’m surprised GM allowed the storefronts to continue in such a quiet dignified style!
Grand Buick in Dallas is actually Orand Buick. It was at 2128 Cedar Springs and Maple, current site of The Crescent.
Orand Buick became Ewing Buick Plano.
There’s a Triumph Herald next to the Bianchina along with the expected Opel (here an early Rekord wagon) and the scooter in the showroom.
The Opel name in the US from 1958 to 1979 with real German ones coming in through 1975 and the Opel-Isuzu from 1976-9. That’s not counting cars like the last Regal and first Encore which brought Opel’s influence on Buick showrooms right up to GM’s sale of them to Stellantis and a few years past it.
Opel’s “last” year in the States was ’76 or ’77. Buick dealers needed an economy car in the lineup, and it they weren’t dualled with Chevy or had an import store on the side, then things were probably a little rough. Think it was ’77 when the Buick/Opel debuted, which was built by Isuzu. Opel’s got a little pricey (exchange rate between the dollar and the German mark got bad, if I remember correctly). When the Buick/Opel itself died in ’80 or so, some dealers then decided to add an Isuzu franchise to their operations, like Covert Buick in Austin, Texas (Isuzu also built the Chevy LUV pickup, so the Isuzu P’up was also in the showroom).
I was very excited to see Boylan Buick as the main image for this article. I live in Kalamazoo and have a keen interest in local history. Boylan was long gone before my time, but I definitely have eaten once or twice at the Taco Bell that sits there now.
Looks like some nice 1968 Buicks in the Al Smith showroom and lot here in Raleigh. Al Smith kept the Buicks until early 2000’s. Then Thompson, who sold Cadillacs, and formerly Oldsmobiles, got the Pontiacs and Buicks. We had a new 2000 Pontiac Montana that we bought from Crown Pontiac in Raleigh that closed but had it warranty serviced a couple of times at Thompson. I also bought a used 1999 Buick Park Avenue at Thompson in 2002. I’m thinking that is about the time that Thompson got Pontiac and Buick and continued with Cadillac as well.
I’m thinking that the Bianchina outside the Al Smith showroom is actually a Vespa car. There is a scooter right next to the salesman so maybe they had that franchise as well?
You’re thinking is spot on; it is a Vespa 400.