Met someone who went to work for a small town Ford dealer in 1959, he had some interesting comments. He said that back then pickups were not very popular (I agree). In the 1960 model year Ford gave an award worth about $150 to dealers that sold 12 trucks in a year. They just made it that year. He also had some choice comments about the 1960 Ford cars as compared to the 1959 models.

 

I find that info hard to believe..as it's based solely on someone who worked for a small town 'mom & pop' Ford Dealership.

The 12 trucks a year promotion prolly only applied to Ford Dealers like this, may have been a regional promotion only.

New Ford trucks registered by year:

1960: 280,501

1959: 292,338

1958: 208,396

1957: 277,301

The "Eisenhower Recession" began mid-year 1957, lasted well into 1960. Sales were so poor in 1958, the National Auto Dealers Council came up with this ad slogan: You Auto Buy Now.

Fleet sales accounted for most of the truck sales back then. It wasn't until 1991, that the general public bought more Ford trucks than were sold to fleets.

Small town Ford Dealers, unless they had an aggressive fleet sales manager, the dealership was located close to a major metropolitan area, wouldn't have many fleet sales.

Ford has, in the past two years, bought out...then closed over 1000 dealerships. Here in Los Angeles & Orange Counties, 25 dealers have closed. Two of them had been in business since the 19teens.

The local mom & pop dealership (in La Puente) where I take our two Ford's (2008 Fusion & Edge) to be serviced has survived...because of strong fleet sales.

And the reason I take them there is...I don't have much of a choice.

The other dealers that were nearby in: Whittier, El Monte, Pasadena, Downey, San Gabriel, Norwalk and La Habra have closed.

 

Maybe the guy was referring to trucks over 1 ton. I looked at my copy of The Standard Catalog of trucks, and it breaks down units sold by series. 1/2 tons alone were almost 150,000 sold in 1960. Most small towns had a lot of farms. I could see 12 big trucks being sold to farmers for grain haulers. But pickups, I'd say more. Although IH sold a lot of pickups to farmers who bought their brand of tractors. IH also sold refrigerators to them too!!

 

For all I know, it might have been something for small dealerships. This was a small one in a small town surrounded by small to medium farms. In an area where nobody bought much of anything new. I have been in the building they were in (dealership was history by around 1970) and the showroom had room for 2 cars, and the service dept had 3 bays. The guy has been selling cars for about 50 years, has his own used car lot now.

 

Tee hee,

It's kinda hard to be a high volume dealership with only two spots on the showroom floor!

 

Truck "popularity" is a relative thing. You have to keep in mind the thinking of society, then and now. It wasn't until the late 1980's and into the '90's that driving a truck became a status symbol, and they started getting as plush as Cadillacs. Prior to that, trucks were only owned and driven by folks who had a reason to use one. And the downsizing of cars had something to do with increased sales from the RV crowd, too.

 

Did the gentleman mention the name of the dealer by chance?

 

My dad owned several pickups in the 70's & 80's but then again we lived and worked on farms in SE Idaho then and he used them a lot. We also had the Ford Station Wagon for the family of 7 to get around. Definitely a different time back then.

 

mr4speedford, he did not mention the name of the dealership. Next time I see him (might not be for a while) I will ask him. He had several photos of him in front of another dealership that is still around. It near Ashtabula.