Here’s a perfect reason to buy a new Crosley: it’s perfect for automobile pickup and delivery. Just attach a bumper hitch to your client’s car—hopefully not scratching the chrome in the process—and then attach the little Crosley.
Vintage Ad: 1949 Crosley – Perfect For Car Pickup And Delivery Service
– Posted on December 19, 2021
Gee, back in the day when you didn’t need an F-250 with four wheel drive, a lift kit, and a Diesel engine to tow something. How did vehicles ever survive back then?
We took care of ’em.
Crosleys did not survive. They were little pieces of $#@%^&. Wert that there were statistics on people surviving collisions who were in Crosley automobiles, I am sure that the loss of life and/or permanent physical damage is great. I remember these jokes being driven. I was a boy.
Smaller cars always don’t provide the protection of larger vehicles, but should all of us drive 5,000 lb tanks?
GM is bringing a new EV lifestyle pickup to market that weighs more than 9,000 pounds empty. Porsche sells EVs that weigh more than 5,000 pounds. The days of caring about resources and the safety of others are behind us. There should probably be special licensing requirements for vehicles that are three times as powerful and twice as heavy as the ones they’re replacing, but that wouldn’t help advance EV mandates.
This Crosley would have had the CIBA engine. Were they more dependable than the COBRAs?
Yes. Replacing the COpper BRAzed sheet metal engine block with a cast iron one, made the little Crosley engine a goodly reliable unit.
Just how small is a Crosley by today’s standards?
The postwar models’ 145″ overall length – Wikipedia doesn’t state a body style so I’m assuming it’s a sedan (the Hotshot and FarmORoad get their own dimension boxes) is a bit more than a Chevy Spark (143″) and less than a Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback (149″) and its’ height of 59″ is right at modern tall-hatchback proportions of 5′ or just under for those without CUV pretenses.
However the 80′ wheelbase is over a foot shorter than Spark (93.9″) and Mirage (96.5″) and the Crosley, built to fit two-abreast in a railroad boxcar, is dramatically narrower at 49″ (Spark 63″, Mirage 66″)
Duane,
Ya just gotta ask yourself one question….
This principle was in daily use in the late 1970s by Agency Rent-A-Car which delivered rental cars to clients’ homes and businesses, and to repair and body shops. A major part of their business was insurance replacement. The delivery service was an integral part of their business plan. They rented midsize cars with a subcompact in the role played here by the Crosley. A folding hitch on the front of the subcompact bolted temporarily to the larger car being rented.
Yes Agency was a competitor, I also remember Advanced, there might have been a few more that had “A” as the first letter, that way you showed up first in the yellow pages way back in the pre internet days. Snappy and Replacement were a couple of others. Many got swallowed up by Enterprise later on or went bankrupt.
Agency Rent-A-Car was convenient for me because often I traveled by train, instead of by air. Most rental car companies were airport-based and their offices in the city centers near train stations either had inconvenient options to get there, or limited hours; in some cases they didn’t actually exist outside of a dedicated phone in the train station to the airport office (“pay for a taxi to the airport to get there”).
I would place a reservation with Agency with pickup location at or near the train station; on arrival, they would come to deliver the car. On dropoff, I would notify them where I was leaving the car in the station parking lot, lock the keys inside under the floor mat, and they would pick up the car and mail me the documentation with the final charged to my credit card. It worked flawlessly.
Most of the time, I got a midsize Chrysler product…an F-body Aspen/Volare or a baseline M-body LeBaron; the subcompact delivery vehicle could be almost anything, domestic or import; but usually was NOT a Chrysler.
My first venture into automotive related employment was with All American Auto Rental, name later changed to Jiffy Auto Rental. It specialized in the insurance rental market. Headquarters were in Cleveland, CEO was Barry Davis. Peaked at around 500 offices in the country, typically with 75 to 100 cars in each office. All the rental cars were Mercurys, I believe he or his family may have owned a dealership at the time. Fleets consisted of Lynx, Topaz, Zephyr, Cougar, and Marquis (fox body). Featured free pick up and delivery. Drivers had a Lynx as their work vehicle, a two door with manual transmission with a tow bar set up. You’d have a set of brackets to attach a tow hitch to the various rentals, or in the case of the 84 and up Cougar (no metal bumper to attach to) there was a permanent tow hitch added to the car. Cars would be picked up, cleaned and gassed up by the driver and delivered on a daily basis from one customer to another, and because the rates were calendar based, you essentially double dipped when cars were turned over from one customer to the next. All the cars were leased, so having a high utilization rate was key to profits. Towing required you to keep a long range view of the road, even with a Cougar or Marquis panic stops would result in jackknifing with a good 180 spin. Marketing to insurance adjusters (low cost weekend specials, etc.) was also key, that’s where all the business referrals came from. Was a fun job, free car, free gas, decent pay and free health coverage. Sadly went belly up in 1986, rumor was an expensive cocaine habit out in the home office. Don’t know if it’s true, but our area, and the office I worked out of had typically 95% utilization right up until Equifax began the repossession process of all the cars.
Cute .
In the 1930’s through the 1950’s Harley-Davidson 45CI ‘ServiCars’ were used like this .
In 1971 The Los Angeles DWP bought three new VW Super Beetles and installed a fold out Lunette Eye tow bar in the trunks .
Every one was a sunroof and had an add on spin on typ oil filter and came in baby blue, the DWP re sprayed them to white .
I bought the last one and re conditioned it, it only had 25,000 miles on the speedo and looked grubby but ran like a brand new car .
I foolishly sold it on when I was offered $eriou$ ca$h for it .
-Nate
A body shop in McHenry IL had a Crosley tow truck out front for advertising. I don’t know if it had been a pickup or just a station wagon that had been hit in the rear. The wrecker bed and boom we’re home made and used a hand winch for a boat trailer. It probably wouldn’t work for my purposes but I had 3 SAAB Sonetts, and thought it would be perfect for towing them around.
I find it odd that no one seems to want an actual light truck anymore .
For decades this was the norm : you’d buy the light duty 1/2 ton rig that suited your needs and pocketbook, then either take good care of it and get a fantastic ROE or drive it into the ground and repeat .
As a Farm boy and working Mechanic I dislike buying too much truck for the job at hand .
Some jobs really do require the biggest and baddest truck you can get but not many .
The Crosely engine was used by Mooney in light acrobatic airplanes .
-Nate