Long Motors Inc., Santa Ana, CA.
P.K. Williams Motors Rambler, Austin, TX, 1959.
Grove Rambler, Garden Grove, CA.
Knoxville Motor Co., Rambler/Mercedes-Benz, Knoxville, TN.
Ricker Motors, Whittier, CA.
K-Rambler, Paramus, NJ.
Rambler City, Jefferson, IN.
Roberts Rambler, Oakland, CA.
Volunteer Rambler, Inc., Knoxville, TN.
Ridgewood Rambler, Ridgewood, NJ.
Barrow Brothers Rambler, Oak Park, IL.
Tom Smith Rambler, St. Louis, MO.
I’ve been following your ‘Vintage Postcards’ series, since the beginning. This is perhaps one of the most eclectic examples of variety, in dealer facade look and feel.
Love the architecturally diverse buildings, and ’50’s kitsch. Design and presentation, all over the place. lol
K-Rambler in Paramus, looks almost like a cattle sales barn. While Rambler City, in Jefferson, Indiana, appears like a fish canning factory. Ridgewood Rambler, reminds me of the unique look, of a traditional Dairy Queen franchise.
Volunteer Rambler in Knoxville, stands out as a very modern, and elegant design. A clean, high-end look, I don’t associate with Rambler. I recall as a kid circa 1980, a local International truck dealer, had a similar-looking building.
I also found the Ken Rambler building in New Jersey to be unusual-looking. Turns out before the Rambler dealer opened in 1960, the building had been used as a farmers market / delicatessen / restaurant called Komsa’s Farms. Below is an image from before it was a car dealership.
Amazingly, the building is not only still standing, but is still in use as a car dealer. It’s now All American Ford:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/DyWYazvyYZdzMU9u6
It is an unusual design. Remarkable, it remains a dealer. The current facade, has a strong ’70’s motel or lobster restaurant feel. lol
It does have a lobster restaurant look to it!
Looking further into the site’s history, it looks like Ken Rambler acquired a Fiat franchise in the late 1960s, and then added a bunch of British makes. Eventually the only one that remained was Jaguar – the site operated as a Jaguar-only dealership from the 1980s until 2012. (I’m not clear if the ownership remained the same, but the name changed to Rallye Motors in about 1970).
This picture is from the Jaguar period – I don’t know when the building was added on to, but I can see the mansard slate-look roof having been added to give the building some “English Country Charm.”
Regrettably, Bergen Jaguar appeared somewhat like another ’70’s era, ‘Surf and Turf’-style restaurant. The building configuration, doesn’t appear to have aided the work of any architects. haha
I picture myself pulling up in my ’76 Cordoba, for the catch of the day. As this music plays in the background, while my guest and I step inside, and wait to be seated. lol.
Music and cars…
All I can see in this scenario is a Matador and The Trammps. And possible food poisoning. 🙂
As I’ve mentioned before, the Volunteer Rambler building was used after 1970 or so as a Mercedes/Saab dealership. Knoxville Motor Co., in the other postcard, occupied the premises. They were in business as early as 1915, mainly as a Nash dealer. The downtown location in the fourth picture, which I slightly remember, was closed when they moved out to the Volunteer Rambler building. I assume Knoxville Motor Co. and Volunteer Rambler had the same ownership, since they both used the “World’s Oldest Rambler Dealer” slogan.
The Volunteer Rambler location is now a strip shopping center with a Panera among other things.
Knoxville Motor Co. remains in business under the slightly different name Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville, and the dealer medallion they stick on new cars mentions this is their 110th Anniversary!
Lots of great shots here. I wonder why some of these dealers didn’t take the time to move cars around so their own product were prominently displayed instead of the competition on the day the photog showed up. That’s a sharp ’62 Impala front and center at Ridgewood Rambler!
And is that a repurposed Edsel sign at Ricker Motors? Quick rebrand in late ’58 maybe….
The shiny, “Falcon” in “Ridgewood NJ” pulled me in.
I wonder how many eventually made it to the point of hanging a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram FIAT sign out front, and how many folded along the way.
I would imagine several moved to the suburbs and picked up a GM or Ford franchise instead…and did any get to keep the MB franchise via a grandfather clause.
The perils of running an auto dealership.
In this series of auto dealerships, I’m finding the used car lots full of very interesting vehicles. What was someone’s pride and joy a few years earlier is suddenly traded in for the latest and greatest.
Having lived in upstate NY for 8 years, I can image the degree of rust in only a few years on a ’50s or ’60s car. Even my 2005 SUV had rust across the bottom after 6 years of rock salt on the NY Thruway.
I remember the Whittier, CA Rambler dealer. My wife’s Grandmother bought her last car there, a Hornet @ ’72-’73. Given the other LARGE dealers in the Whittier area they seemed @ the smallest, but considering what they sold…not suprising. However, just like the ’74 Hornet HB I “helped” my father get; hers, which I “helped” her buy, was a reliable pc. of transportation. 🙂 DFO
AMC obviously wasn’t imposing graphics standards. Each is completely original. Some use the official Nash script, most don’t.
Long has a British car off to the right, probably a Standard.
Agreed and a split screen VW bus.
The British car looks like it might be the ubiquitous Ford 100E to me.
Seeing the Metropolitans parked in many of the pictures makes me wonder why AMC & BMC didn’t continue the collaboration. A re badged Farina A40 could have replaced the Metropolitan.
But BMC were short of production capacity in the early 1960s so maybe they weren’t interested.
That’s an interesting thought! In 1980 when Rambler cars lost popularity, the Mini could have been the captive import instead of Renault variants.
Those “Metro’s” were cool!m
Not sure how I got that “m”, in there.
What year did AMC stop using “Rambler” as a brand name rather than “American Motors” or “AMC”? And were dealers required to change their signage/name quickly? All I can remember are the often vertical signs with the new logo they adopted around 1970, but I’ve seen late-’60s advertisements and brochures that list Rambler as only one model, not the whole brand.
Roberts Rambler 4917 E. 14th now International. The place has come a long way and it is downward.
Me and “the place” are apparently “soulmates.”
I remember P.K. Williams Motors at 2nd., & Congress Avenue here in Austin Texas.
Rambler City, long gone today, was in JeffersonVILLE, Indiana.
These are wonderful .
Rambler City sure had a lot of station wagons ! .
I wish I could still bop on down to Grove Rambler and choose one of those sweet new Metropolitans, make mine Berkshire Green =8-) .
Many of the trade – ins are superlative too .
-Nate
EDIT : thanks for the musical links !