Selling Used Cars in the 1950s

A Contribution from Ed! --

Yep, low cost transportation!  Notice in the advertisement, below, the '52 Buick marked down from $250 to fifty bucks at a Dodge dealership around 1968.  

For a number of years in the 1950s my grandfather had a novel way of selling his used cars at Garten Motors Ford - Mercury in Hinton, West Virginia.  I recall that he had three rows of used cars at any given time.  The front row consisted of five to seven used Fords and Mercurys that were no more than a few years old.  All trade-ins and all typically very clean.

The second row consisted of around five to seven or so General Motors branded vehicles and a few Chrysler products that the dealership had taken in on trade.  

The third row in the back always consisted of used (really used!) Nashes, Studebakers, Willys, Kaisers, and maybe a Hudson.  Always they had price tags on the windshields in even numbers: $200, $300, or perhaps at the most $400. I think I was perhaps nine years ago when I was walking around the used car lot on a Saturday morning and spied, in that third row, 

a Henry J that had a price tag of $100. Henry J's got no love!