Word: cars
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Chicago last week, dealers were dropping "Used Cars Wanted" signs into their showroom windows; in Seattle, Dallas, Omaha and Detroit, salesmen were unable to satisfy consumers' demands for good '53-'55 models. The National Automobile Dealers Association estimated that U.S. used-car inventories, from "creampuffs" to "dogs,"* were one-third below normal...
...reason for the scarcity was the fall-off in new car sales (down 12% from a year ago), which meant fewer trade-ins. But another factor was the growing demand, especially in the suburbs, for two (or more) cars in every driveway. Said a New York dealer: "Seems like everybody in the family wants a car these days...
Competing with the used-car dealers for choice '53-'55 models are new-car dealers, who, instead of placing their trade-ins at wholesale auctions, are selling them in their own lots to make up for sagging new-car profits. A good used auto often brings a dealer as much profit as a factory-fresh '56 model. Said one Boston Ford dealer: "You take a car that we buy for $1,000. We fix it up a bit, then sell it for $1,200 to $1,250. Our profit runs $100 to $150. That's about...
...dealer parlance, a "creampuff" is a really good used car; a "dog" is just that...
...FORD CAR, to go into production next year, will sell in the $2,600-$3,700 range, the only price bracket in which Ford does not now compete with General Motors (Buick, Oldsmobile) and Chrysler (De Soto). Ford has budgeted $250 million to bring the six-model line into production, will spend up to $150 million more to build a 1,400-dealer sales and service force, may call the car the "Edsel...