Reliable Chevrolet, Springfiled, MO.
Newport Chevrolet-Oldsmobile, Homini, OK.
Capitol Chevrolet Inc., Austin, TX.
Ted Gentry Chevrolet, Selma, AL.
Chevy Land, Hal Greene, Monrovia, CA.
Christenson Chevrolet, Highland, IN.
Brooklyn Chevrolet, Cleveland, OH.
Lyman Slack Chevrolet, Portland, OR.
Frank D. Clay & Son, Chevrolet, East Pasadena, CA.
Grant Bishop Chevrolet, Los Gatos, CA.
So much better than todays cookie cutter cars and dealerships.
Agreed.
Malibu wagon at Reliable Chevrolet already rusting away on the front passenger fender near the bumper?
Nah, it’s the reflection of the side marker light on the Camaro.
But, nothing like getting a head start!
It looks more like the shadow from the protruding end of the 5 mph bumper — consider how low the sun must be in that picture.
Shadow cast by the “railroad tie” bumper.
Those were the Good old Days, my pick would be the Red 63 Nova SS at Christenson Chey.
I’m with Rich here, I’ve owned a few ’63 / ’64 Chevy II Novas and they’re great little economy cars .
-Nate
I just have to mention I immediately thought of that scene in Vietnam from Forrest Gump when I saw “Brooklyn Chevrolet in Cleveland OH.” “There was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland – he was from Detroit; and Tex… well, I don’t remember where Tex come from.”
Anyway, dealers back then seemed a lot more individual and varied. I’m always intrigued when I drive by a shuttered dealer in a small town somewhere. Seems like it only took 10,000 people or so to guarantee a dealer or two in any particular town; now it’s more like 50,000, and often not even then. Seems like the mega-dealer concept with hundreds of cars is all you see anymore – which is good for getting the lowest price in the initial purchase, but not much else…
It did not require much population to host a dealership back in the day. My little town of 1500 had both Chevy and Ford stores. What was required was a strong trade area which we had with many family farms in the surrounding miles. The old Chevy dealer would say “if the farmers say they are having a fair year, I order a lot of pickups “.
Multi dealership franchises were far and few between back in those days, and that was by design. My father was kind of an oddity running Hallman’s Chevrolet in Johnstown, PA, one of seven dealerships in the Hallman’s chain. And how that chain was formed was indicative of how things were done back then.
The franchise was centered out of Hallman’s Central Chevrolet in Rochester, NY (the building still exists and is remembered as such, although it hasn’t been a car dealership in decades). Owned and run by one Maynard Hallman. Maynard had five sons, all of whom followed him into the business, each running ___________ Hallman Chevrolet in whatever city. Supposedly, legally, they were all independent dealerships that just happened to be joined by family/blood. The Johnstown store was the only one that was Hallman owned but not run by a member of the family.
To the best of my knowledge, there’s only one Hallman dealership still functioning today, it’s in Erie, PA, owned by one of the sons (assuming he’s still alive, I drove past it in 2022 on my last visit, but haven’t set foot on the property sine 1977).
Things were different back then. One person owning multiple dealerships was definitely frowned upon, and multiple marques in a dealership likewise.
This really wasn’t true in the ’60s. In 1962, the total number of multiples (within the same corporate family) almost equaled the number of exclusives, and by the late ’60s, multiples exceeded exclusives by close to 50 percent. Intercorporate duals were not common for domestic makes, somewhat more so for imports.
We were shopping for a car when that slant nose Camaro was new. We walked past it in a showroom just like Reliable’s and I was swooning. My mom looked at it and said no way, it looks like a Studebaker. You know she was right, it did sort of look like a Hawk.
Your mother was right. I never noticed it before but now I’ll never not see it.
there’s more. the wraparound rear window which came out around then was copied from the ’53 Starlight coupe. Get rid of the rear quarter window on the Studie and that’s the Camaro roof from ’74 up.
Mid “1960’s”, “Pasadena”, no convertibles. Huh?
These are all great. I wonder how many people who had bought an early Vega from Reliable Chevrolet will see this post.
And if they sued the dealer because the Chevrolet they bought was not Reliable, as advertised – or did litigation-mania come later? Might be an iffy business name these days.
That 1958 picture of Capitol Chevrolet really bring back memories of the new car introduction at Hallman’s Chevrolet, Johnstown, PA. The biggest difference is that dad’s dealership was at least 50% bigger and the front facade curved around the street (Valley Pike) that fronted it. Otherwise, boy does it bring back memories. And the 2-3 days before, while setting up, when the windows were covered by brown craft paper.
Wow. That dealer in Hominy, OK really liked continental kits. I Don’t think I have ever seen 3 together, like he has out front.
My favorite topic on Curbside Classics are the postings of vintage dealership pictures. The wonderful memories of visiting large urban dealerships and seeing so many different models, trim levels, and colors, and as a child collecting the brochures. Last time I was in the market for a new car was April 2010 and I wanted a 5th generation Camaro. The advantage of the Internet was that I could ‘build’ on a Chevy website which I did. I received an email from Myers Chevrolet / Cadillac that was a large dealership not five minutes from my home in Ottawa Ontario. Of course I had questions and that started a month long email correspondence with a sales associate. I don’t remember all the correspondence but by mid-May I agreed to test drive a 2010 Camaro only after we got in the ballpark of what I was willing to pay to order a car my way. I contacted many of my car guy friends and asked what are the worst streets and highways on my side of Ottawa. No lack of bad roads in Ottawa. Back to the dealership with my sales associate and time to close the deal. Now I added into the mix my trade-in. It was now mid-May and the 2011 models would start production mid-June. After all this time of negotiation’s, sitting with my sales associate I said I want to special order a 2011 model because in one month a 2010 model will be a model older. So the price we agreed upon for a 2011 model was the 2010 prices since the dealership did not have confirmed prices for the 2011 models. Deal done, order placed, and the wait began. Even though the car was made in Canada, and my dealership was large, US dealerships got first on the list of pre-orders. I didn’t receive my 2011 Camaro until the first week of August 2010. But the wait was OK because I received weekly updates, then daily updates, where my order was progressing to completion. Still remember the day I received the update my car had entered the assembly line and it took 8-hours and some minutes to build. I was called that my Camaro arrived at the dealership so I went to look. There was my beautiful 2011 white Camaro with beige & charcoal leather interior, option polished wheels, on the sales floor loaded with new Cadillacs with a sign saying “Do Not Touch”. Oh my gosh, my Camaro was on the sales floor to be seen but not touched!
I knew at the time, due to my age, this might be my last new car buying experience. That dealership in Ottawa made the experience wonderful. I did not mention that when the dealership realized I would wait months for delivery, they gave me a new 2010 Camaro to drive for a week, free. I drove it for a day and returned it as I didn’t need anymore test driving. That is customer service. I still have my 2011 Camaro and its pushing 20K miles and that includes one round trip from Canada to Florida and two round trips from Canada to Virginia. I suppose when the car is sold in my estate it could be advertised as only driven by an old professor.
Grant Bishop had no corporate signage, unusual, especially as it appears to be 1966. Rural dealers in California were different than urban ones. Multi-brand were very common, Cadillac, Olds, Chevy, for instance. I once saw a Ford dealer in Fillmore with tractors on display along side trucks and even passenger cars.