This one is from Erie, PA. from about 1960 and features some fine Detroit iron out front, along with a Karmann-Ghia and a Renault 4CV. A Thunderbird convertible traded for a VW? Maybe a K-G convertible?
Wynn Sales in Paducah, KY has an even larger number of non-VWs, including a couple of Corvairs. Did the owners of the ’59 Cadillac trade it in on a new Beetle? Maybe a nice Samba 23-window bus with a sunroof?
No used cars here, but the tri-tone paint job on the bus on the left is a mystery, as that was not offered by the factory. In fact at the time (1956-1957), the Kombi bus was only offered in solid blue or a dark green over a very light “sand green”. Who would have their bus painted like that?
It would be interesting to see some vintage Renault, Fiat, Peugeot, Jaguar, Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota and Datsun vintage dealers postcards as well. 😉
Who’d want a tri-tone bus? Probably someone who didn’t like either of the aforementioned color choices for that model.
Even with three colours, the colour breaks still appear attractive.
It’s a looker for sure!
IMO, the Allred Bros. dealership photograph is one of the best presented/staged images, you have presented. The layout and variety of cars in front of the dealership, are nicely done. And look appealing. The building itself looks attractive, and professional, with a nice showroom. The wall-mounted callouts, highlighting VW features, is great marketing. Everyone is reminded with this signage, as they drive by. And the tri-colour VW bus exiting the building, with the grey Beetle, entering to the far right, is a nice added detail.
I like the Bus with the custom paint. Stands out, tasteful and unique colours, and better-looking than much of the genuine garishness, that passed for automotive design, in that era.
Anyone know the year of the “Pontiac” (burgundy) in the front line at “Wynn”? “64”? Was trying to date the pic, I see a “62 Chevy:”.
Would be interesting to know what the “Corvair’s” were swapped for.
’63 Gran Prix
t/y
An uncle had a red and white VW bus, But I dont remember what, year it was, he changed it for a 66 Holden wagon when my dad sold his and never went back to VW the
Holden still went ok loaded with kids the VW struggled
Christine is patiently awaiting for Arnie to eventually find her.
I guess it is possible that the owner was a business, was going to use it as a delivery vehicle, and had it painted to match their business’s color scheme and hasn’t gone to the sign painter for the lettering yet.
Otherwise it does seem rather silly to have a new or almost new vehicle painted in a new color scheme. Unless you are very good with masking tape or take a lot of the vehicle apart it seems like you always end up with the old color showing through or some paint on a piece that shouldn’t be painted. Then there are the door jambs and other areas that were color matched when it left the factory and are a pain to paint on an assembled vehicle.
Regarding the Caddillac on the lot, while my uncle didn’t trade his 64 Caddy in on a Beetle he did buy a Beetle as his “work car”. The Caddy stayed home for the wife to use when he was not home. The rest of the time the Caddy was his baby and the one that got the clear vinyl seat covers and was kept spotless. Despite the two car garage the VW lived outside so the Cadillac had a wide berth to minimize the chance of door dings ect.
The other possibility is that the Caddy was a trade in on another used car, it is one of the older kids on the block. It is interesting that they have them lined up Corvair, Beetle, Corvair, Beetle, Corvair, with another Beetle that wasn’t deemed front line material. I’m also surprised that none of the Buses were deemed front line worthy over the Ford pickup, considering the era.
Here’s a 1965 used car ad from Wynn Sales & Service advertising a 1959 Sedan deVille, so this may be the same car. The ad does identify some of the cars as a “new car trade in,” although the Cadillac is just described as “sold new locally.” No guarantee that this is the same car, but the VW dealership probably didn’t sell too many white ’59 Cadillacs in the mid 1960s.
Here’s a blow-up of the Cadillac listing, in case it’s hard to read in the full (long) ad:
Just did some research into Wynn Volkswagen (I replied to Jeff’s comment below as well). From what I can tell, Wynn’s VW dealership and his used car dealership were in separate locations, about a block apart. Mr. Wynn operated the used car dealership for several years before opening the VW franchise, and the two operated largely independently, even though there was a “VW Used Cars” sign at the used car lot.
That may explain the amount of non-VWs on the used car lot – it wasn’t exclusively a VW dealer lot. Instead Wynn’s used car dealership sold all kinds of used cars. And incidentally, after Wynn sold the VW franchise in 1968, he kept the used car dealership.
The tricolor almost look like an attempt at wood grain window rim.
Clarkdale Motors in Vancouver BC, c.1960?
VW seemed to encourage a high standard of modern design for its dealerships.
I think that the scene at Wynn Sales & Service can be explained by knowing a bit about Paducah, KY.
Paducah in the early 1960s wouldn’t have exactly been lousy with “foreign” cars. Certainly not anywhere in the numbers you might have found on the east or west coasts (particularly in the northeast on the east coast). In fact, Paducah would have been like any of the small cities in KY (with the exception of college-town Lexington) well into the 1990s when I lived in the KY city that was next higher on the population count to Paducah…Owensboro. Even then (mid 1990s), I had to drive to Lexington (2 hours away) to find a BMW dealer. If I’d lived in Paducah, 2 hours west of Owensboro, I’d probably have to have gone to St. Louis, or Lexington for the same. So, I don’t have the actual dealership listings at my fingertips, but I’m guessing that a VW dealer in Paducah was rare in the early 1960s, and it was probably the only non-domestic vehicle dealership in town.
Now, Paducah was unique in that it was (since the early 1950s) home to one of just a few uranium enrichment facilities in the US. It’s still there, and constituted for decades (certainly when I lived in KY) the main “industry” in Paducah. Now known by the lovely name of the “Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant”. Gaseous Diffusion not being something that most would want to brag about…but in Paducah, it was the main show in town (at least since the 19th century, when the show was all about riverboats). But I digress. The point being that Paducah was a place in W. KY pretty much in the middle of nowhere, except it had a (relative) pile of atomic scientists in town. Most of whom found themselves in Paducah, transplanted from shall we say “other places”. These would be the exact kind of folks ripe for VWs.
Kind of a similar situation to Huntsville, AL in the early 1960s (rocket scientists there). I’ll put money on the fact that Huntsville probably had the first VW dealership in AL…and many of the trade-ins were probably big American cars like what we see in the photo at Wynn.
It’s probably easy to forget just how parochial so much of the US was (and some might argue “is”…although I’d not be the person arguing that point) not so very long ago.
Thanks for the background on Paducah. I didn’t know about the uranium enrichment.
I was curious about this dealership so I looked into it a bit. The owner, A.O. Wynn had been a used car dealer in Paducah since about 1950, and opened up the VW franchise in late 1959. It was Western Kentucky’s first VW dealership. Oddly, he sold the franchise in 1968 (it become Dick Smiley VW), and Wynn himself continued as a used-car dealer for several more decades.
And the VW dealership building is still standing (1049 Kentucky Ave.).
Nice pictures .
The Allred Bros. is a postcard that used to be *very* popular .
I have a battered one somewhere .
-Nate
In the 50’s my Dad briefly worked for a buddy’s Nash dealership in small town Indiana. He did pretty much everything, from body work and spray jobs to engine repair. I recall he hated repairing those hydro-electric power windows on used cars because the hoses inside the doors leaked fluid that stained the door sills – that had to be repainted. Anyway, he painted a number of new Nashes whose owners wanted a two-tone or even a tri-tone done on a car that came from the factory in one or two colors. It was that post-war era when folks were really going crazy over colors after years of black and grey cars from the 40’s. I recall Papermate pens that matched Mopar color schemes.
VWs were surprisingly popular when I grew up in northern Indiana in the 50’s and 60’s. Evans Motors in Fort Wayne was an early VW dealer and that made it easier to own one. As we know, these cars had a weird kind of premier status for a lot of people and I don’t find it improbable that some were trading T-Birds and Cadillacs for a Beetle. One of our neighbors traded in her big black Buick for a new 62 red Beetle following her husband’s passing. She said it and a new hairdo gave her a whole new image!
This post sent me down Memory Lane thinking about the small downtown VW showroom in my hometown of Berkeley, California where VW may have been the top selling brand by the late 60’s. Maybe still behind Ford, Chevy and Dodge but right up there for sure. Anyway, in the course of looking it up I found that that dealership, Oliver Imported Cars, also attempted to sell a fiberglass body kit for VW that they named the Berkeley, not to be confused with the British Berkeley (no doubt pronounced “Barkley”) with motorcycle power and front wheel drive.
https://www.undiscoveredclassics.com/forgotten-fiberglass/the-berkeley-from-berkeley-is-not-a-uk-berkeley-its-vw-based-and-usa-all-the-way/
We just saw a ’56 Olds red & white hardtop coupe a couple of days ago by itself, and here it is again in the first photo.
I enjoyed this article and seeing the old VW postcards…so I thought maybe you can be of help. My car was purchased in 1980 from Myers Lincoln and Ford shop which is now Spitzers in Hartville, OH. I have not had any success in locating any emphermera or post cards of that dealership despite scanning eBay, Amazon, and even contacting the local newspaper there. I really want to have such items to go with my car. Could you tell me where you would suggest where I can find something from the now defunct Myers Ford dealership?
Thanks, and happy motoring!
Dan