Dave Cole Pontiac, Camden, NJ.
Royal Pontiac, Royal Oak, MI.
Bitner Pontiac – Vauxhall, Pasadena, CA.
Robert Lee Pontiac, Chesnut Hill, PA.
Benjamin Pontiac, Inc., Rockville Centre, Long Island, NY.
Milner Pontiac, Tulsa, OK.
Rumble Pontiac – Buick – Vauxhall, Toronto, Ontario.
Snelgrove Motors Ltd., GMC – Buick – Pontiac, Hamilton, Ontario.
Great dealer pics, but I’ll take the ’57 DeSoto parked in front of the Tempest in pic 2!
Sharp eye! That was my pick too! Forget the `62 Ponchos; that might even be an ‘Adventurer’!
I wish they’d have parked a Vauxhaull out side .
-Nate
Unfortunately, I cannot find the Biener Pontiac jingle on the internet. The radio ad has a lilt to it: “Biener is better. Yes, Biener is better. Dollar for dollar, you can’t beat a Biener Pontiac deal. B-I-E-N-E-R, B-I-E-N-E-R.” Ii think that they were in Great Neck, Long Island, NY.
At the left edge of the Dave Cole Pontiac photo, it looks like there’s a black Triumph TR-3 or some other little sports car.
Good eye! That car is being “super stealth”!
Dramatically inconsistent, or non-existent, corporate branding. But all the dealerships here, still look very marketable, and attractive.
I like the clean architectural design, and retro signage, at Royal Pontiac. The very bold presentation of Milner Pontiac, is quite progressive. More so, than what GM corporate branding, likely would have offered at the time. Very nicely done!
The strange one is Robert Lee, with no Pontiac branding not even the Indian head in what is apparently their post card picture. The only clue on this view of the building as to what types of cars they sold is Tempest in the window.
I was always surprised, the car makers took so long to homogenize, and standardize, their branding and marketing. That it took until the mid to late 1960s in many cases, to see a consistent look and feel for most dealers.
The ‘B’ and ‘P’ adjacent to the Pontiac arrow at Benjamin Pontiac, being a glaring example, of something that would later not be accepted. Easily confused with implying they sell Buick and Pontiac. Plus, it compromises the Pontiac symbol.
Ah yes….Royal Pontiac!
“I’d like to order a 421 1965 GTO, 4sp convertible”.
I would have thought they’d a used the “window space” for a more “dressed up” car” @ “Dave Cole Pontiac”.
Odd there are no “Vauxhaul’s in any of the pics.
It’s interesting to see the Robert Lee Pontiac dealership. Robert Lee was a great businessman – he purchased the Pontiac dealership in the 1950s. I think he moved the business to the Chestnut Hill location shown here (7700 Germantown Ave.) in 1960.
Robert Lee was actually more known for his venture into Subaru sales. In 1969, he became the Philadelphia area’s first Subaru dealer, and was Subaru’s distributor for the tri-state area. I’m not positive about this, but I think he may have closed the Pontiac dealership to focus on Subarus at around that time. His Subaru dealership was in South Jersey, and he stayed in business there until 1990.
The Pontiac building itself is still standing. It served as a Lincoln-Mercury dealership after Lee moved out, and then went to non-automotive uses. It’s now a Staples office supply store.
My Dad was a salesman for Dumas Milner Pontiac Tulsa, Okla. where I was born. He transferred to Dumas Milner Chevrolet in New Orleans La. in 1959 on the corner of Tulane and Carrollton Avenues where he worked for several years
I was part of the family, Tom Hatton Pontiac, before that it was Fenner Pontiac, Rockville, Maryland. Consequently, I owned alot of Pontiacs, one after another, for more then the first half of my life
That was Ace Wilson’s Royal Pontiac. Home of the Royal Bobcats GTO. We had several factory backed car dealerships in the Detroit Area back then. GM, Ford and, Chrysler dealership all in drag racing. What at time that was.
I would take anything from Royal Pontiac….I also would love to have the candy apple red ’60 Pontiac convertible in the showroom at Bitner. Beautiful Wide-Track boats…..
The Pontiac dealership in the town my mother graduated high school from, Gonzales, Texas, was a small showroom at the side of the Texaco station. It was called King Pontiac/GMC (don’t think they ever had Vauxhall in a small farming community in central Texas). The man who ran it is gone, but the building is still there in pretty much the same condition as it was in its heyday. We went back for her high school reunion this spring and we saw it’s still there. I took a few pictures but not sure how posting them works on here….
They provided the driver’s ed cars in even numbered years, and sold the cars at a discount (since they were “used”) after the program’s end. My grandma got a ’68 Tempest, 4 door sedan, in a color combo I’ve never seen another one of: teal blue metallic on top and ivory on the body, with teal blue vinyl interior. Mom and Dad bought a ’70 LeMans 4 door sedan in gold with a white top and gold vinyl interior. VERY Hot in the summer, that car broke me of wearing shorts! Both cars were 350, 2 bbl. and automatic transmissions. Grandma drove hers till she passed; then it went to her eldest daughter and son in law where it got parked once something happened to it(that no one wanted to fix, there were plenty of vehicles to drive at their place). Ours went to northern New Mexico and back on a family vacation in summer of ’75. Mom dailied it, till she quit Penney’s when we bought our auto parts store (Dad had worked there for several years and the owner wanted to get out of that business). Then Dad took it over. One night in the mid 80s it dropped a valve a couple of miles from home; he limped it home and parked it. Both cars succumbed to the tin worm a few years after being parked…..
It is fun to see a dealer from my hometown of Toronto. Rumble advertised heavily on radio so everyone knew their jingle:
Ramble into Rumble…You’ll See
My great uncle and aunt were elderly and driving from their home in Texas to visit us in Kansas. Their early 70s Grand Ville died and glided to the curb in downtown Chetopa, KS, right in front of that town’s small Pontiac dealership. The dealership was a one man operation and he did not have the needed fuel pump to get them back on the road. The pump was in stock at the next town about 15 miles away. The dealer left the old couple in charge with instructions on how to handle phone calls, customers, ect and went after the needed part. Within a few hours, they were back on the road, having successfully operated a Pontiac agency!
My dad owned Sharpe Motor sales in Greenville Mich 1946 through 1973. Drove all of the new Pontiacs and Gmc trucks. Gmc was
much different than Chevy in those days.
Ramble into Rumble……Today!
For Randerson
I’m with you re/ the Desoto but look again at the color sweep. I’m sure you will see that it is a 58.
They sorta laid an egg with the change.