I love this shot; it looks like it could be from today, for a classic import dealer.
A sampler from Alden Jewell’s Flickr page
Vintage Postcards: Car Dealerships, Vol. 4
– Updated on May 2, 2020
A Daewoo dealership? That picture is only the second one I’ve ever seen. The real one was about half a mile from Pautuxet Naval Air Station in MD.
Daewoo, dae came, dae gone.
I remember that little dealership well. I worked and still work across the street from it in San Jose. It operated on a lot owned by the Chevrolet dealership next to it.
The Renault Dauphine auto at the dealership reminded me of a story from my college days in The Bronx. It was the beginning of our senior year in September, 1963 when a classmate of mine was to start student teaching. She needed to get from school to school. She had saved her shekels and decided a new car would be better than a used one. The VW base price was $1600.00. The Renault Dauphine was $1300.00. She bought the Dauphine and at that time said to me that even if it lasted just three years, meaning her first two years to teaching, she would have gotten the service from it that she needed without the headache of repairs from a used vehicle. Thanks for the old car dealership photos and the IH photo, too.
Any idea how your classmate made out with her decision?
I’ve seen a reprint of test comparing the Dauphine to VW’s Beetle. The zero to 60 dash had to be omitted because neither vehicle could attain that velocity.
Both of them could readily exceed 60mph. The very first 1938 KdF wagen with 25hp could do 62mph. By the late ’50s, the 36 hp Beetle had a top/cruising speed of 68mph, and would reach that in about 25 seconds, give or take. The Dauphine was at least as fast if not faster.
Maybe they simply chose not to test them or maybe it was the 0-80 run that was omitted.
The second picture made me think about how wonderful it must have been to be a car nut/teenager in the late 1950s/early 1960s and see the most beautiful and cherished Lincoln products ever:
1957 Continental Mark II and the 1961 Lincoln Continental sedan/convertible
Just sitting there, brand new, on the showroom floor.
Another great collection. This is exactly how I remember International Truck dealers until the mid 70s. This looks like 1973. After the Travelall was cancelled in 1975, Scouts dominated the lots. In 1977, the wildly popular S Series medium truck was introduced. Various IH dealers would have these trucks lined up in their front row, and filling their lot, as they were initially marketed in many colourful paint and stripe schemes. Even though the Scout was not long for this world, the S Series always kept IH dealers looking very profitable.
Early S Series trucks with their typical stripe package.
International dealers also sold the memorable ‘Eagle Brougham’ packages that made their lots popular destinations for kids.
Interesting to note then the S Series 2500-2600-2700 offered 2 different front grilles. Horizontal and vertical like this one. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:InternationalDumpTruck.JPG
The ones with the vertical grille helped to differenciate with the “smaller” S-series 1600-1700-1800-1900.
This would have been taken in late 73 at the earliest as that tan two tone pickup near the sign is a 74 as is the dark green Scout in the front row.
Wow. That row of vividly colorful Continental Mark IVs. I am salivating.
That bright yellow one, I didn’t know they offered such a color on a Mark.
Yeah I saw that and can’t imagine it was a real thing. And certainly not a bright yellow vinyl top to go along with it. Can’t find any paint chips for those colors either so I wonder if it’s a pre-Photoshop color change for the postcard’s sake? Weird, whatever it is.
I posted about an all yellow Continental Mark IV yesterday, with another article. Stunt driver Ken Carter had a yellow rocket powered Lincoln for jumping the Saint Lawrence River back in 1979.
That has to airbrushed in. No way it was a real color.
I was thinking to take that Porsche 356 today, but I’m about to go on a grocery run. I’m buying for our family, my sister’s family and my dad due to possible virus exposure so I need a wagon today. That big 64 Pontiac in front of Salta will do nicely.
Thanks Paul, I have spotted 2 from where I live, Escondido Datsun and Barney’s Studebaker.
I love the Pontiac dealer up top with the 64s parked out front. Salta Pontiac (and watch it rust). 🙂
My, today is the day to buy a Rambler. I wonder how many people walked into Knoxville Motors (World’s Oldest Rambler Dealer) and asked to have a look at the world’s oldest Rambler?
And how great it would be to go into that IH dealer and ask to have a look at the new Travelalls. If they are too expensive, a trip back to Roche’s Lincoln Mercury Edsel is in order because surely that gorgeous yellow 56 Lincoln hardtop would be in my budget.
Love that 56 Lincoln.
Were Salta and Masters Pontiac related, or did Pontiac once have a standardized building design? Whatever it is, I like it.
I like those dealers whose signs just say “Imported Cars” which was at the time a niche category but seems ridiculous now. Also “Sports Cars”.
So “Rambler” was a brand for what, 8 years?, between when they were called Nash (or Hudson) and AMC? Lots of money spent on Rambler signs in the interim.
Well a lot of those “imported car” dealers seemed to just sell what ever imported cars they could get their hands on and didn’t seem to be the typical franchised dealer like we see today.
You may remember “Come on down to wide-track town” from Cheech and Chong. They got it from Mike Salta Pontiac ads.
“….where the swingin’est deals on wheels are found…try the hot new Tempest and the Pontiac…you save more money when you go wide-track…”. I remember it too.
Berkeley Motors, the L-M dealership with the Comet convertible, is now a Staples office supply store. Can one of our Packard gurus pinpoint a likely date for the Transport Motor Co Packard store photo, based on the car in front of the shop (the Packard, not the Ford)? That address isn’t far from the hospital where I was born … wondering if it could have been around the same time. Thanks.
that’s a 1955 Packard Clipper
Thanks … assuming that’s a new car, then it’s a year or two before my time. Packard was gone by the time I became aware of car dealerships, and to be honest I don’t recall anything about local Studebaker stores either.
This location on Broadway might have been rather a retreat for Packard by this time, because the franchise used to be located in a beautiful facility at 2101 Harrison St, in what later housed Herrera Buick. The building was designed by Bernard Maybeck, and was situated right across from Lake Merritt, but that wasn’t enough to save it. Both of these former Packard locations are gone now. It was a real shame to see the Maybeck stucture torn down.
I was also born in the immediate area around that time. Maybe we were roommates.
Finically a couple of buildings I remember!
My father had some used Mercedes in the Sixties and I remember going with him to get parts at Knoxville Motor Company downtown, the Rambler-Mercedes dealer. They had been Nash dealers before the war and added Mercedes as a sideline; eventually they dropped AMC and by the Seventies were a Mercedes-Saab outlet, located in the building in the postcard just below as being “Volunteer Rambler.” I don’t recall Volunteer Rambler at all and I suspect it didn’t last long. Knoxville Motor Co. chose wisely, going with Mercedes over Rambler.
As far as I know, the current Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville is the same business, now in yet another location.
i liked the british cars, amc and the dodge… but the one i took 3 glances at were the BMW dealership. the 76 530i. that car changed bmw. that car blew anything else out of the water at that time. the car was still modern in the mid 80’s when i was a teen. even then i couldn’t afford it. i had to stick to mg midgets mgb;s, lada’s, skoda. ya… i’m in toronto not europe.
Third picture down (Wayne Jones dealer) has two Karman Ghia’s sitting next to each other.
Currently climbing into my TIME MACHINE to grab them.
Wish me Luck!!😉😉😉
You asked a couple days back if we were getting tired of these dealer postcard posts and I want to assure that I for one, sure am not.
Like a couple of other commenters noted, it’s funny how dealers that rep’d good old American brands would take on one or two of them “furrin” lines only to be pleasantly surprised when the import took over the bulk of the sales. In a college town not far from me the Pontiac dealer added Toyota and BMW (not sure in which order) and of course that worked out well for him at the time of Pontiac’s demise. And up the street the Caddy dealer added Honda when all they were making was Civics and that also turned out well to the extent that he eventually handed off Cadillac to the local Chevy franchise.
I know it hasn’t been shown in the series (I don’t think) but several of them do kind of look like the place where Hoke and Boolie went to pick-up Miss Daisy’s
new ’56 Fleetwood.
I kept waiting for the GMC/Buick dealer to take on either Hyundai or Kia as GM kept trimming it’s car lines down and eliminating sedans. They’re still an independent dealer group so they don’t have other locations to fall back on. If GMC/Buick product portfolio stay where they are now my salesman will have a pretty long face when I tell him (in a few years) that I have enjoyed working with him but they don’t have a single product I’m interested in.
Local Chevrolet Dealer also owns a Toyota store (I’m sure they were glad of that when they lost their Cadillac franchise during GMs Bankruptcy) and for the longest time the FCA dealer was joined to the Nissan dealer next door.
Yes. In Sunnyvale, CA, that’s what happened with Larry Hopkins – which was a Pontiac dealer in the 1960s-70s when they took a flier on selling Hondas. It’s now just Larry Hopkins Honda today.
Were those Daewoos in Southfield, MI?
That pic is giving me flashbacks to the short lived Daewoo Dealer on Telegraph Rd between 12 and 13 mile in Southfield. I lived in that area from 2000 to 2002.
San Jose, California.
these dealer photos are fantastic
Yet another great collection of postcards! One that really jumps out at me is Foxgate Lincoln with its array of Mark IVs in a broad array of colors (including the almost shocking banana yellow one). It was amazing how much personality these big beasts had just from the color/trim choices. You rarely saw ones that were identical, unlike today’s luxury brands featuring nothing more than row after row of black, white and gray vehicles.
I’m intrigued by AUTO-MART Studebaker/Packard/English Ford.
I would have presumed that, like GM, FoMoCo would have sold its overseas product at FORD dealers. You got your Vauxhall at a Pontiac dealer, and your Opel at a Buick dealer, right?
Can someone enlighten me? Was “English Ford” considered a separate line of cars?
Al Mitchell Ford’s artist put a lot of work into those generic cars and trucks, but he didn’t understand Ford. Among the vehicles that seem to be trucks, none are Fords.
How can you tell? Ford trucks from 1948 to right now have always had the headlights down inside the grille area. A distinct difference that would show in a generic drawing. Other cars and trucks adopted the form gradually. All of Mitchell’s truck-like vehicles have the headlights above the grille.
I’d forgotten the red (Schenck) Dodge and blue (Teterboro) Chrysler Plymouth “illuminated blocks” over the dealership plate glass.
The shot of Canal Rambler is in New Orleans; that’s Charity Hospital behind it, on Tulane Avenue (two blocks from Canal Street).
My father was the GM at one of the stores illustrated at a time that was contemporary with the photograph.
Looks like the trunk on the yellow Mark IV is still white.
My, how nostalgia blots out the hard edges.
These pics are all of them superb, opening doors like an advent calender back to the past. In we go! The rusted and stinky cars of the past are now back as they should be, new and intriguing, and pristine and gleaming.
A car dealership now invites my eye about as much as an open drain. Seems crass and overly-signaged, and fake. And above all, if actually entered, stressful. Not sited on the best land, or most likeable part of anywhere, either. Somewhere noticeable, ofcourse, but forgettable for it’s ubiquity, and quite without glamour.
And all of that is the truth of most of these places in the photos too. Nostalgia rubs the Vaseline over the rest round the edges. The rest of the bad is lost to the kindness of memory.
Lordy me, I wasn’t aware the side-valve 3-speed Ford Anglia 100e was sold in America, yet there are two amongst this lot. Farting to it’s maximum of 65 mph in the short period of time before all the valves burnt away would be a dreary way to see the vast Land of the Free, and only appealing to most tight-wadded of miserabilsts, surely.