Old Dealership Photo + Corvette

[Lakota]

.

[Onebadcad]

If only they knew,,,

[jw38]

If only they knew,,,

Yup...they could have charged an ADD like today's scumbag dealerships do.

[Aerovette]

Car sales then wasn't predatory.

[LATB]

Back when America was great and didn’t kowtow to minorities.

[slewfoot]

.

Bottom left corner looks like tail of a Corvair

[markids77]

Bottom left corner looks like tail of a Corvair

Correct, Grasshopper.

[ricks327]

That's one strange looking ceiling light fixture

[Frankie the Fink]

Car sales then wasn't predatory.
You're kidding right ?

My Dad and I knew a bunch of car dealers from that time and used cars especially. Many turned back speedometers, poured sawdust in transmissions to quiet them down when faulty, temporarily "lost" the keys to customers cars after a trade in test drive to have more time to "close" them and use "hard sell" tactics. Some would "wash" titles various ways to disguise "flood" or even stolen cars. I've seen cars sold back then that were welded together at the mid-frame chassis from two cars.

A few dealers had a trick where they would leave reluctant buyers in an office (typically man and wife) with the desktop intercom on and listen in on their conversation from elsewhere as the salesman left briefly under the pretext of "checking with the manager on something". Hoping to hear info about the customer's thoughts and price discussions.

Then on the "back end" of the deal there were little ploys and "add-ons" like a "doc prep" fee ($50-$100 back then) which was PURE profit for already salaried employees to get the title and tag work done.

Much of this was in Norfolk ( a Navy town) and poor Navy wives with husbands at sea might have to buy a car on their own, long before Skype, the Internet and email and some of the dealers would take disgusting advantage of the situation.

And that's just some of the stuff I know went on.