I’m down to the last batch of vintage dealer postcards and ads, and instead of dumping them all on you at once, I’m going to do what I should have done from the beginning: dribble them out one at a time. That we can feast our eyes on them with greater focus and attention.
Speaking of, this one sure got my attention.
I can’t help but wonder which domestic he sold previously: Hudson? Nash? Studebaker? I doubt it was one of the Big 3.
From what I can figure out, it was Jeep. I think Don McCoy owned “McCoy’s Garage and Jeep Sales” in West Palm Beach. Evidently, Mr. McCoy didn’t leave all of his eggs in the Sunbeam basket for long though, as evidently in 1966 he opened a Toyota franchise, which (unsurprisingly) became rather successful.
Good piece of advertising though, on Rootes’s part.
Doing a little more research, it appears that Mr. McCoy also held an Oldsmobile franchise for a while.
I came across this grainy picture of his dealership from 1967. Oddly, there’s a few discrepancies from what’s shown in the Rootes ad. For one, where in the featured ad, the building is painted with the words SUNBEAM SALES & SERVICE, here in this photo that area of the building appears to advertise WILLYS JEEP. (I don’t see any Jeeps in the picture, so it’s possible he just kept the painted sign up there even if he got rid of the Jeep franchise… it’s a somewhat unclear to me.)
The HILLMAN name appears over the garage in the picture below, whereas in the Rootes ad, that’s a blank space.
And the hanging sign in the grainy picture below is different from the new-looking “S SUNBEAM” sign in the ad above.
I wonder if all or some of those changes were really just airbrushed in for the Rootes ad? Making the building seem like a Sunbeam-exclusive dealer, where it really wasn’t quite that way.
Also, there’s a Toyota sign shown on the right-hand side of the picture below, indicating this picture was taken after he picked up the Toyota franchise in ’66.
Those signs look like they’re made from heavy paper or something like that. Undoubtedly his place was “dressed” for the ad.
Good move on picking up the Toyota franchise, and that’s pretty early too. Sunbeam was going nowhere fast.
Strange branding. Hillman was well-known and appreciated in the places where imports were popular. Hillman MInx and Hillman Husky were solid names. Sunbeam belonged to the Tiger and Rapier. There wasn’t any need to confuse and conflate the names.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single Sunbeam Imp in North America. Plenty of Alpines and Tigers, but no Imps. I saw a couple in Europe about thirty-five years ago, but never here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one offered for sale online in the US either.
I suspect picking up that Toyota franchise made everything else seem pretty unexceptional. Whether the cars were exciting or not is a matter of perspective, but having customers happy to hand over every penny of MSRP and more over and over again must have been pretty nice.
The Toyota Corona and the Rootes “Arrow” series cars (by whatever name) were similarly sized and priced conventionally engineered sedans and hardtop coupes. Direct competitors. We all know how that turned out.
There were two on the corner lot in Anchorage AK, when I was still hanging around there in the mid-Sixties. The Datsun dealer? He was on a gravel lot! The BMC/Jaguar dealer and the Mercedes dealer were the only import guys with showrooms and lots of pavement. Fiat? That was Lou, the Serb mechanic with the two-bay garage.
I really liked that Imp. I was running a Hillman Husky at the time, but the Sunbeam dealer didn’t want to have anything to do with it, so I gave up on him.
I don’t doubt they sold them, but very few seem to have stood the test of time. You could sell pretty much anything in the US up through the 1967 model year, and then all the marginal imports disappeared. Some imports missed the 1968 model year while they regrouped, like Alfa Romeo, but many neat little cars were gone for good. That was the end for the real Minis, for the Austin Healey 3000, and I’m sure for the Imp. I used to pass a house between Virginia Tech and Radford that had two or three MG 1100 sedans decomposing in the yard, no doubt pre-’68s.
Imps were sold in Canada – I’m not sure I remember seeing one, but I remember finding a sales brochure from the period when my parents were looking for a new car in 1968 (they bought a Datsun 1600, aka 510).
I’m confused. The window advertises the “All New Sunbeam Minx” but the ad copy calls the sedan a DeLuxe. I thought the Sunbeam branding on the Minx was Canada-only, after the Hillman brand was dropped here. Maybe they advertised the Minx name to attract Canadian snowbirds in Florida.
Looks like Sunbeam was confused too. This was part of a two-page ad — the other page (below) listed the Sunbeam models, and that car was described there as the “Minx De Luxe”:
This was at the time Rootes was switching everything over to Sunbeam in the US, kind of like Datsun transitioning to Nissan. Overlap.
They had always sold both brands here, but obviously Hillman was going nowhere. The Alpine brought some sunshine to the Sunbeam brand, so that was the way to go, for the time being.
And there was nothing even remotely new about the Minx, let alone “all-new” – except maybe the Sunbeam badging?
“My parts and service business pay for the whole selling operation.”
Is this praise? It seems to imply they break a lot!
My mind immediately thought “A Max Hoffman with limited funds”.
I remember talking to someone in the UK who said a friend had switched his dealership from selling British Leyland to Datsun products. After a few months it was obvious that Datsuns just did. not. break. down. So they started offering servicing facilities for BL cars again, just to keep the service department employed.
Back in the late 1970s or early 1980s I met a man from New York City who, during the course of conversation, told me he owned a Hillman Minx back in the 1950s. He had bought the car because of its smaller size and said he thought it would be a bit easier to drive and park in the city, and it was. When it ran. He was awfully disappointed with how unreliable the car was and ended up selling it and after that he never owned another car. Living in New York City, I guess he didn’t need a car.
Reading between the lines this seems to indicates the Sunbeams were not exactly reliable.
Amazing, all the post-war business and franchise opportunities that presented themselves in the 50s and 60s. The US truly was the land of opportunity. The groundwork for future success of many manufacturers was being defined.
It’s inexcusable so many importers promoted cars so seemly inadequate for the US and Canadian markets. They were creating reputations, good and bad, that would define their brands for years. Some foolishly appeared looking to make a quick buck.
Looking at old ads, I was always very impressed Volvo promoted safety and suitability for all four seasons as strong assets. I rarely (if ever) recall seeing this in ads for English, French or Italian cars.
My parents’ first car was a 1953 (or maybe ‘54, I wasn’t born yet) Hillman Minx. It was replaced by a series of Volvo’s, which were obviously more capable cars. Nevertheless, our Minx frequently hauled our family of four from the Bay Area, at sea level, up to Lake Tahoe at 6000’ elevation, for summer vacations. I have some snapshots of it on dirt roads in the Sierra, and it certainly saw a lot of freeway miles, in the 6 years we had it. My mom actually remembered it fondly, and never mentioned any breakdowns or major repair expenses. A great car? Probably not, but not as fragile and unreliable as British car stereotypes suggest.
In an era when virtually nobody talked safety or suitability for winter, big credit to Volvo in this regard. The fact they actively promoted safety when the public didn’t expect it, where other manufacturers didn’t, said a lot. Is the reputation for English car fragility and unreliable a stereotype? Or is it more based in fact?
English motor vehicles (motorcycles as well as cars) had two pronounced deficiencies:
1. Engine design due to their taxation system. The English tax system forced design of small bore, long stroke engines, which were fine on the A and B routes in England and the size of the country. Put them on an American highway like the Pennsylvania Turnpike back at the time and these engines screamed their guts out trying to keep up 65-70mph all day. There’s a reason why the sports cars offered Laycock de Normanville overdrive.
2. Lucas electrics. You’ve heard all the jokes. Actually, Lucas electrics weren’t that bad back in their day (no, they weren’t as good as German Bosche, but no worse than the French or Italian competition). The killer reputation comes from the Japanese showing that someone other than the Germans could make reliable electrics, made such reliability commonplace, while Lucas didn’t bother trying to keep up.
I’ve often said that I had an original, bone stock 1969 Triumph Bonneville for twenty years that I’ll put up against any Honda CB750 of the vintage for day-to-day reliability. Just don’t ask what I went thru to get that reliability.
If that was his best move, I wonder what some of his bad ones were…..
That’s funny… I don’t care whose franchise agreements you’ve signed.
LoL
BTW, we’re laughing with McCoy, not at him.
The amount of country between Long Island City, NY and Los Angeles, CA (listed as the addresses to contact if one was interested in obtaining a franchise) is rather substantial. Which supports the impression that penetration of the American market by these sorts of cars was limited to, or in the case of Toyota, began at the coasts. I have certainly never seen a running Sunbeam, or for that matter Anything Imp in the Flatlands. The first I knew of the existence of small cars begins with the mid-60’s Opel Kadett.
I grew up in Chicagoland with Norwegians, Germans, Mexicans, Irish, Italians and Dutch as immediate neighbors. This means I grew up in the 60s surrounded by DAFs, Volvos, MG, Porsche, Opels, SAABs, VWs, Borgwards, Wartburgs, Fiats and popular domestics as long as they were affordable to blue collar dads. It seemed that factory floor dads liked tinkering with cars and since a lot of them immigrated after WWII to the US, and many had war brides, they brought their love of their native vehicles across the oceans with them.
Also, being cheap was a good thing. My uncle had two Crosleys for Chicago parades promoting his men’s wear stores. Every dad was a mechanic because they couldn’t afford one. Junk yards were plentiful for even cheaper cars and as a matter of fact, I wrote about being brought home from the hospital in a junk car Dodge. Imports, (except for Gabi’s Porsche), were inexpensive.
We had a domestic wagon for the family, and a foreign car as a kind of hobby car. Naturally, there was a lot of different cultures, languages, foods and religions among those first generation US kids. (I am happy WASP white trash, with Pomeranian grandparents.)
So even with all that, I don’t recall seeing any Sunbeams or Hillmans.
As to the appearance of this dealership, it strongly reminds me of the SAAB dealer in downtown Lansing, which back then was filled with Germans, Dutch and Swedes. There were a lot of these little import dealers that looked like this.
My father, one summer’s day in the early ’60’s, brought a 1957 Hillman Minx home at lunch so his car-crazy kid could crawl all over it. These cars were so rare in Western Pennsylvania (between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg) that the memory still stick with me. And has left me with a fondness for one of these cars.
The next time I saw a Minx in the metal was on my first trip to Maine to meet the soon-to-be-in-laws in 1999.
This was normal behavior with my father. If I wasn’t in school, he’d pointedly bring the oddest “furthest from a Chevy” home with him at lunch to let me play around it. And, as I got older, illicitly drive it in the driveway and on our dead-end block. One of my favorite perks of being a car dealer’s kid.
On our couple of vacations into Canada, dad and I would invariably prowl thru the used car lots in the evening near the motel. Dad would talk shop to the salesman on duty, while I’d discover the British car industry.
The “Willys” Jeep suggest his initial franchise was Willys-Overland from 1942 mentioned in the advertisement. When W-O was bought by Kaiser, he no doubt handled those too while they were available.. The various Jeeps, CJ, station wagon and pick-ups proved to be steady, if unspectacular, volume for the dealers that stayed with them McCoy was like so many small, independent dealers who would take on a variety of lesser or niche nameplates to fill out his portfolio of offerings. Independent car makers weren’t in a position to demand such dealers be exclusive, they simply needed the market coverage.
The Rootes dealer rep for the East’s name sounds familiar.
He ruled Rootes with an iron fist.
I was hoping the west’s rep would be Mr. Harry Treman.
I wonder who thought it was a good idea to call all Rootes cars in the US Sunbeams. Was it really good to make buyers think of percolators and electric blankets when they see your dealership? In my area we had Sunbeam Bread, too – but that may have been regional. On second thought, the bread and small appliances were probably much more satisfying purchases.
Sunbeam and Hillman had both been sold here since right after the war, with Sunbeam being the upscale/sporty brand, and Hillman the basic sedans. In about 1965, it was decided to consolidate to just Sunbeam, as presumably it had a better brand image.
I hope those cars had air conditioning.
Growing up in New York City, the upscale, fine music station WQXR advertised Hillman and Rootes. The dealership to visit, according to these ads of man years, was at 505 Park Avenue. A pretty hoity-toity address at the northeast corner of 59th Street and Park Avenue.
Back in the 60s i’d have had had an Imp in preference to a Mini – the ohc alloy motor would have held more allure than the ‘A’ series. Sunbeam Imps were not common though.
Imps were had a reputation for being somewhat unreliable – I can’t understand the logic in trying to sell them in America. I don’t see the sense in trying to sell any really small car in America – the tiny Honda in Pulp Fiction always jarred.
My Dad had a Hillman Minx, a spot on dead ringer for the minx Deluxe Sedan in the advert.
Badging (UK familiar) Hillmans as Sunbeams was a practice Rootes used across much of Europe. The Imp was the Sunbeam 900 in Scandinavia, the Avenger as the Sunbeam 1250 and 1500 and Hillman Hunter was the Sunbeam Arrow in many places.
In the UK, Sunbeam was only ever the Rapier and sporty Imp derivatives
In the mid ’70s, I bought a rusty 62 Hillman Super-Minx convertible for $50. I tried to fix it up best I could, but parts were pretty much nonexistent by then. Still, by then It ran well enough Io get $275 for it and I thought I made quite a killing.
Fast forward to 1984, and I found it’s replacement, a ’67 Alpine, for $1350. It needed a clutch, tires, battery and some TLC, but it was a solid car, with a serviceable JC Whitney top, and a leaf-green Earl-Scheib paint job. Plus, there was club support by then. So I was able to keep it going for 12 years, including multiple trips to my folks in Virginia Beach, relatives in Western Pa, and an epic 1700 mile vacation to the big October1990 Sunbeam United meet in Toronto. Of course it wasn’t my only transportation,so I didn’t have to subject it to snow and salt. But I had no garage and eventually age and rust did catch up with it.
So sad about Rootes. Except for the Imp, their cars tended to be more robust than many of the the Fiats, Renaults and other foreign subcompacts that were so popular in the late 50s and early 60s. But by the mid-60s, several strikes and excessive costs to tool up, build and de-bug the Imp drove them to Chrysler – and you could say the rest is history.
At least the Alpines didn’t survive to endure the embarrassment of what happened to the MGs by the late ’70s, with their jacked-up suspensions, detuned engines, and hideous rubber noses!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Once again I posted a comment here 15 minutes ago, and it seems to have been deleted. It also happened a few months ago, and after I enquired, I received an apology and explanation that they really wren’t sure why my comment was tossed in the spam-can. I use a Chromebook. Is my OS just not compatible with the latest Curbside Classics site security?
Respectfully, Mark DiSilvestro
From the administrators’ past posts on this issue, I suspect the spam filter is an equal opportunity comment eater. It’s not you or your OS.
You’re not alone. Has happen to me on my IPAD.
For differing reasons but like the Maytag repairman, Mr. McCoy must have been the “loneliest guy in town.”
To whoever here that retrieved my comment, Thanks!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Whenever I see a Sunbeam convertible, I also think of Don Adams and “Get Smart”. It’s still funny till this day.
Not sure if he drove a Tiger or Alpine, but was always fascinated with the car.
In later episodes, he drove a Karmann Ghia.
The engine in the Hillman Minx et al had only 3 main bearings which was fine for UK roads in the 1950s when people seldom exceeded 50mph. The coming of the motorways exposed their weakness. The motorways were littered with Rootes cars that had run their mains. They fixed it with the later 1725cc version, moving to 5 mains, at the expense of the big ends which gained a reputation for fragility.
The US had high speed freeways which were unlike anything in Europe except the autobahns (and the Germans were too poor after WW2 to drive big cars at speed) so European cars suited Europe. All of Europe was bankrupt and repaying vast debts to the US, who did very well out of the war and hadn’t been bombed back to the stone age. For Europe it was ‘export or die’ so we exported what we had. Very few cars got tested at continuous high speed. The amazing thing is the volume of cars that were sold in the US.