Buying a car with dad

Two aspects about growing up in the 1950s and 1960s are not repeated today-- how we buy cars and mothers who do not drive (OK, city born and raised folks still excluded.)  I accompanied my father on several car buying journeys.  He was a salesman who needed a new car every two years and, since his credit was good, never had a problem buying one.  He was a Pontiac man, although for a few years in the early 1960s he flirted with Ramblers.  But he was never a top of the line buyer.  No Super Star Chief or Bonneville for him. The Star Chief, Chieftan and Catalina were good enough.

Flush with money due to the successful 1950s economy many Americans bought new cars in record numbers. Detroit, was the icon of post-WII industriousness. (Alas, unions have done in the Big 3.) The Greatest Generation, while all not flush with cash, was looking forward to better jobs and more disposable income. And they found it.

Eager to move out of the high rise housing projects built for the men of a returning army and their new families, everyone wanted to be mobile, especially if they had their eyes on living outside the narrow confines of New York City. Not everyone could afford a new car but even purchases of used cars provided the buyer with a newer car than he ever had before.

Buying a new car in the 1950s and into the 1960s was an adventure.  Unlike today's dealerships, dealers then did not keep storage lots full of cars in stock for two-day or even next-day or same day availability. They couldn't because their credit was still tight, financing floor plans as we know them today were not in existence, and cars were sold stripped of items we today would describe as "of course it has it."  In those days, your car had to be built with the "options" your dad desired, not with packages as they are today. While a buyer today might have only 3 complete packages to choose from, a new car then might have more than a dozen options to choose from.

And what were they?

1. A heater (forget about air conditioning being standard until the 1980s.
2. Whitewall tire.

Whitewall tire

 3. An AM radio with push-button settings. FM was added later on.

Push-button Radio

4. Back-up lights.
5. Chrome trim.
6. Clock (my father never bought it because they broke after a month.)

Dashboard mounted clock

7. Side view mirror, on the driver's side.
8. Automatic transmission.
9. Windshield washers (another dubious purchase because the hoses corroded and collapsed.)
10. Manually operated Day-night review mirror.  (It had a button to switch between the two settings.)
11.  Steel belted radial tires.
12.  Air-conditioning.
13.  Lap only seat belts. (A 60s innovation.)
14.  Power steering.
15.  Power brakes.

The list can still go on but I wanted to give you a small idea of then and now.  What hasn't changed, in my humble opinion, is this fact -- no matter how much research you do, no matter what sources you review and download, no matter how much you get the sales rep to bring down the price -- the dealer is still making hefty dollars on your car purchase.  No one gives cars away at a loss.

So the next time you go shopping for a car, ask the sales rep if the car comes with back-up lights.  But, be careful, he might try to charge you for them.