reason for promo cars

2000-redrider wrote:

That's the part I don't understand.  It seems like the only way to get a promo was to work (or know someone) at the dealership.  Since it seems very few actually go to potential buyers, are they more just a way to keep dealers and workers interested in the cars they sell?

Yes and no. At a Chrysler dealership I onced worked at, the promo models were usually given to 'good' customers or as a gift for buying that new car...something to keep the kids entertained in the backseat while on the ride home.

Or if a salesman reached a milestone he/she would be presented with one as a gift. The place was too cheapto give them keys to a newer demo vehicle. One salemen I knew, who was a retired GI collected them...he always believed that when his pention money ran out, he could sell the collection of promo cars  as a backup plan. He was probably right.

Back then they were pretty inexpensive, the boss would order a couple cases of every new release and were gone faster than the calendars he also gave away! If you wanted one, each employee was allowed to preorder and prepay through the parts department...but rarely did anyone ever know what they were and they were ordering them...the boss got the information in his mail and he would scribble how many cases to order on the form and hand it to his son (Parts Dept Mgr) and the order would go in straight away. The only time it didn't was if it was too late in the day to call in the order, then he would post it on the counter for everyone to read and advise if they wanted any...if he didn't get enough for a full case...you were out of luck.

The only way to get one then was to kiss some serious butt, so you'd get one as an attaboy. Needless to say since I worked in the body shop, I never got any attaboys...we were too raw...the shop was run by an old retired crusty sailor...we worked hard and partied harder...coffee in the mornings...beers all afternoon. Yet we still turned out some fine looking cars! 

I don't know how dealerships approch the promo cars, they are definitely more expensive! 

That's the part I don't understand.  It seems like the only way to get a promo was to work (or know someone) at the dealership.  Since it seems very few actually go to potential buyers, are they more just a way to keep dealers and workers interested in the cars they sell?  

As Dan mentions they were a sales aid, one much better than a brochure.

Something that maybe not everyone is aware of, they were distributed in "limited" supplies. A dealership could request however many they wanted, didn't mean that's what they got. Sometimes they were lucky to get just one. I'm not sure who really took care of the distribution of the promo models. I do know that a few of the dealerships I grewup with (both family working at when I was a little one or worked at myself) might get one to twenty of different models and colors. The owner of one of the dealerships collected them himself and would go nuts if he couldn't get even one of a certain release. He'd call all around to other dealerships looking for that certain one and hope it was the color he wanted for his collection.

I have a cousin that left car dealerships for the aircraft industry long ago, but he has always collected those dealer promo cars (since the early 1950's). He said it is almost as expensive as collecting and restoring some of his real 1:1 cars. So if you can find that special promo car at a good price, go for it!

By the way, he's the same cousin that got me started in model building and restoring cars. His collection makes me cry. My wife doesn't mind me having a few displayed or one or two real project cars, but my cousin has them all over the house and garage. I'd have to guess he has hundreds if not thousands of models on display. I don't even want to think of the cars in the yard, driveway, and garage.

The cars were exact models of the full-size car, so it gave the prospective customer something to take home to show the wife and kids.  Also, they were manufactured in the exact same paint colors as the full-size, which allowed the customer to see exactly how the car he ordered would look.  In the stylin' '50s, with those beautiful pastel colors, showing the customer a model in his chosen color was a real sales-builder.  After the sale, the kids had a car that matched Dad's - talk about building brand loyalty!  As a promotional gimme, they beat the hell out of the glossy pamphlets we get today.

In 1965, my dad got a promo model of the '65 Mustang from a friend at a dealership, and gave it to me for my 10th birthday.  Damn, I wish I still had that today.  Obviously it went to the place little boys' toys go to die.

Dan

I know as a kid it ment I got a new toy.

I wish I still had some and that I didn't destroy them.