The American Automobile Dealer in Crisis

The employees of Garten Motors, Hinton, West Virginia, mid-1950s.

Carlos Garten, a Hinton, West Virginia Ford dealer, handing over the keys of a drivers' education car to the local school superintendent, 1946.

Today (May 14, 2009), nearly 800 Chrysler dealers received letters ordering them to shut their doors. Coupled with the shuttering of Ford and GM dealers due to the credit-induced recession, the ending of brands like Pontiac, and the lack of consumer confidence due to the fears of bankruptcy, the loss of so many dealerships will result in increased levels of unemployment and a decline in the economy equal to the job-losses that are the consequence of closing the factories.

In larger cities, consumers will have a harder time cutting good deals in which they play one dealer against another. And the effect on small towns is most alarming. It was those dealers who sponsored little league teams, furnished driver eductation vehicles and were key to the economic vibrancy of the community.

Certainly as a result of this tumult, we as Americans have lost something of value within our society. The following is my description of the small town dealer from the past, taken from The Automobile and American Life (pages 147-49):

An example from the Mid-South serves to illustrate both the entrepreneurial spirit and integration into the social life of the community that characterized the late 1940s and early 1950s automobile boom. In 1946, Carlos Bryant Garten, already a successful local businessman in Summers and Raleigh Counties, West Virginia, obtained one of the first postwar Ford Motor Company dealer franchises. Clearly, for Ford Motor Company the period immediately following the war was a make or break time. Henry Ford II himself spent portions of 1945 and 1946 traveling extensively to visit dealerships around the country. Ford wanted to meet established and new dealers personally, wander showrooms and listen to concerns.

Meeting Mr. Ford in one of those forays outside of Dearborn was Carlos Garten, who in late 1945 built a small dealership to Ford Motor Company specifications and later in 1946 took delivery of some of the first new Fords to be shipped to dealers since the end of wartime production. Given demand, those first two Ford coupes pushed off a C & O railcar at Hinton, West Virginia, were driven to Garten Motors Ford a few miles away and already had a dozen potential buyers standing in line. Over the next decade, Mr. Garten would sell hundreds of new Ford and Mercury cars in addition to taking extensive orders for profitable mine and timber trucks. By the mid-1950s, Garten had become among the wealthiest businessmen in the community.

While Chevrolet, Dodge, and Pontiac dealerships were established later, in the early 1950s in Summers County, Garten’s dealership became a trusted mainstay within an Appalachian community of 5,460. Garten Motors Ford, not unlike many new small town dealerships in the postwar period, was a family affair. Garten’s son Magee was vice-president, son-in-law Damon was senior salesperson, son Johnny drove the company’s wrecker and managed the parts department, and the women in the family were often called upon for secretarial services and advice in ordering paint colors and upholstery trim options on the assumption that females heavily influenced their husband’s car selection!

Like many of the post-war new small town “mom-and-pop” dealers, Garten Motors Ford became a fixture in the community, a place where men and their sons would sometimes go simply to hang out and talk cars with like-minded folks. As in many communities, early September of each year brought the new model year launch and Carlos Garten was never one to let that opportunity go by. Each year in the early ‘50s he would sponsor a parade through town with grandsons on horses and banners waving to advertise the new vehicles. From dealership sponsorship of little league softball teams to playing Santa Claus in the annual Christmas parades to chairing fund-raising projects to better the area, Garten quickly became influential within the social and political life of his community. As a strong supporter of education, Mr. Garten built trust within the community through such generous acts as contributing to the Board of Education its first drivers’ education car, serving as president of the Board of Education, and leading numerous civic organizations. Such community leadership was not unlike hundreds of other 1950s car dealers who, at the time, simply viewed the cultivation of strong community relations as part of good business.

The Automobile and American Life

Watch me talk about my new book "The Automobile and American Life." I was interviewed at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio.

Audi Ingolstadt

Note how this late 1950s Audi is a close copy to the 1957 Thunderbird! The rear is just as close to the 'Bird in design.


Dash from a 1939 Audi


Dash from a 1939 Rennwagen -- this car was taken by the Soviets after WWII as reparations and only returned to Germany in 1995. It is the only surviving example.

While a slowdown in car sales has taken place in Germany to a lesser degree than perhaps in the U.S. (although I did hear an Opel ad yesterday over the radio that was touting the slash of 3000 Euros off list price of certain models), yesterday I was around dozens of new Audi buyers at the Audi Forum located at the factory in Ingolstadt. And they come as a family to pick up their new cars, whether they are from Dortmund in the Ruhr or Dresden in the former GDR. Ingolstadt is in Bavaria, halfway between Nurnburg and Munich. The Forum -- a combination museum and facility for the sales and delivery of cars -- was one of the most pleasant places I have visited so far. The facility has a cafeteria that serves excellent food and a very reasonable price -- far better than the ostentacious food service at Mercedes in Cannstadt. The staff is very helpful and friendly, parking was free (get that Mercedes and Porsche!), and the museum is excellent. This museum is different in one important respect -- careful attention has been paid to showing very large exhibit photographs that show how people in the past used the various Audi models. Terrific scenes are on the walls of women driving and riding during the 1920s, racing scenes during the 1930s, and post-WWII youth now enjoying automobility. At various points in the museum there are postcards to take along of some of the key images. The historical narratives that accompany the exhibits are extremely well done, both in terms of writing and analysis. Whoever did the research for this museum did a superior job.

I was also struck by the looming factory complex as I was driving in from the autobahn. You could see it for miles in the distance, as you are driving on a two lane highway with fields of yellow on both sides of the road. It was an awesome juxtaposition of agriculture and industry located on the rolling hills of northern Bavaria.

Porsche Museum Zuffenhausen -- the Best!

The new Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, near Stuttgart, is simply the best auto museum I have gone to. In terms of the setting, the exhibits, the ambiance, it outstrips the Petersen in Los Angeles, and that is no mean feat! If it has a weakness, however, the life of the everyday person -- although a Porsche owner is anything but common in many respects -- is a topic conspicuously absent, not only in this museum, but in virtually all automobile museums in Germany. Yet it is the people that are the most intesting to me.

With a PCA membership card the entrance fee is only four Euros, and there is also a modest charge for parking in an adjacent parking garage. Like everything Porsche does, from making their cars to racing, it is done just right. There are varied opportunities to eat here, from a snack bar to a full sit-down restaurant. And the cars! The first floor is dedicated to early Porsche cars, from autos Ferdinand Porsche designed in the 1920s to designs that ultimately crystallized as the Type 356. If you are intersted in 356s, early and later 911s, Porsche racing vehicles of every type, to water pumpers like the 924 and 928, they are here. The cars are well presented, and often you can go right up to the car and get as close as you want. Very careful attention to history takes place in this museum. Sadly, however, mention of the relationship with Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche's imprisonment after WWII is absent. Perhaps it is best forgotten, but beyond the history of technology it is the most interesting historical episode in the great man's life. I am including photos of some early Porsche designed vehicles, the 1939 Berlin to Rome vehicle -- the first car with the name Porsche on it, and several other car photos.

At the end of the visit I drove to the Mercedes Museum in nearby Cannstadt, although it took me far longer than I would have liked due to my poor map. The Mercedes Museum, in my opinion, is overly commercialized. Sure Porsche wants to sell you a car, but it seems that is all the Mercedes folks aim at doing. The Museum seems like mere gravy to them!

A Trip to the Mercedes-Benz Museum, Ladenburg

This morning I rented a car and drove about 20 km or so from Mannheim to Ladenburg. There, Carl Benz and his two sons built cars after the elder Benz had been forced out of the business back in Mannheim. The Dr. Carl Benz Museum is a superb smaller museum, located in the factory where Benz later lived and built cars. A number of the vehicles are stunning, including several race cars that go all the way up to a 1991 Sauber-Mercedes. The memorabilia in the cases include some very rare ephemeral literature; automobilia; Carl Benz's wife's wedding dress!; badges; and timing equipment. This is a side trip well-worth taking if you are in the vicinity of Mannheim.

The point about Carl Benz and his second venture in Ladenburg points to some fundamentals in the sweep of automobile history. Namely, relationships in the auto industry are rarely static or stable for long. Key people coming and going, mergers, bankruptcies, global shifts, the drying up or expansion of markets, etc., have always been a part of the history of the industry, and there are indications these phenomena will continue. We in the U.S. were blessed with considerable stability in the decades after WWII, and recent events related to GM and Chrysler seem so foreign to us. That we escaped this turbulence for so long may be the real anomaly in history. However, we are entering a new world in the American auto industry, as both the new role of the federal government as stockholder and the ownership of a large percentage of stock by the UAW truly is a new departure with unknown consequences for the future.

Note the 1955 Porsche!

Lest you think that all I am interested in is auto history, I did want to digress for a moment and say that Mannheim is a fabulous medium-sized city. On Saturday night there was a marathon right by my hotel, followed by a major city celebration at the Wasserturm (Water Tower). The music was simply great. Mannheim has plenty going on, and I highly recommend experiencing it! Tomorrow morning I will move on to Stuttgart and the Porsche Museum.

Mannheim -- the birth of the automobile industry

After landing at Frankfurt on May 8, I took a fast train to Mannheim, where the automobile was born. Incidentally, I have some origins there as well, since my mother came from Mannheim. Prior to the family's move to Mittlestrasse, her family had lived in a village within walking distance of the city going back to about 1650. My first task after getting into my hotel was to go to the Museum of Technik and Arbeit (technology and work), an excellent museum although seemingly under used and a bit ill kept. It was a further walk than I anticipated, and while the many, many exhibits on technology and industry in Baden-Wurttenburg were of value, I gravitated to the section on the automobile. I might add that while walking there I found a huge stone marker erected in honor of Benz.

If there is value in the museum it is in the material and exhibit on Felix Wankel, the inventor of the rotary engine that is still used in Mazda 8s despite their thirst for fuel. Two of his NSU vehicles with that engine were on display. The process of invention of the Wankel Rotary design is described at the Museum. Additionally there is a replica of Benz's 1886 three-wheel vehicle (how many are there over the face of the earth?). What I found of interest was an exhibit on the body fabrication of a 1989 Porsche 911 targa with automated welding equipment. Some photos are inclosed and more commentary may follow.

Why should you care about reading this Blog!

This blog will expand on themes and topics that were first mentioned in my book, although the first month and a half of my entries will comment on a trip I am taking to Germany, where I will be teaching American engineering students the history of the automobile in Leipzig. I hope to comment on recent developments in the automobile industry, reviews of my readings on the history of the automobile, descriptions of the museums and car shows that I attend, and anything else relevant that is worthwhile to a reader interested in automobiles and auto history.