Chrysler's East Coast Parts Depot was at Newark (pronounced "new ark")
Delaware, not in New Jersey. The West Coast Depot was at San Leandro. There
was a smaller Depot near Dallas, but it did not stock much in the way of
import parts, they were basically carried at the coast depots where most of
the cars were sold.
Actually, you can't lose sight of the fact that in the '60s, captive imports
were not treated as serious merchandise by the big 3. They were used (and
tolerated) as a market entry and marketing ploy. They were a way to get
"misguided" people who were interested in foreign cars to stop at a Chrysler
(Simca, Sunbeam) or GM (remember Vauxhall?) or Ford (Cortina?) dealer so that
the crafty salesmen and skillful closers could switch them to a domestic car.
(I know whereof I speak - I worked for Dodge and C-P dealers when I was in
college and went to work for C-P division of Chrysler afterwards.) Even the
factory folks (with the possible exception of Wally Swift who actually liked
the little buggers) used call then "funny cars" and treated them like step
children. Even when we had the disastrous "Cricket" they weren't interested
in improving the car or solving its problems. The important thing was not to
actually sell them, just to have one in the showroom as bait. Even the
Alpines and Tigers were just considered bait. Get'em in, let'em look,
show'em a Dart GT or a Barracuda, tell how unsafe a Tiger was and show them
how much better a value the Barracuda was. Actually, for about the same
price as an Alpine (about $2600), you could buy a Dart GT with a 273cid
Commando engine that went like blazes. For less than the price of Tiger
(about $3900 including freight), you could buy either a max'ed out 340 cid
Barracuda or a Charger with a 383cid 335hp or 440cid 375 hp engine and have
change left over. In many cases, if the buyer couldn't be dissuaded from his
insane desire to have a "true sports car" the salesmen lost interest (the
commissions were set up so we didn't make much, if anything, on the imports).
I can remember times when we were warned against selling the last Sunbeam
and got in real trouble if the did. I bought a Tiger after I got out of
college (it was one of Wally's field cars), but the folks I worked for at C-P
didn't really appreciate it (it had a Ford engine after all, a clear sign of
disloyalty). I can remember Dick Yasky, my boss at C-P for a while in 67 and
68, telling me that we made profit directly proportional to the weight of the
car we sold. It's no wonder the line was finally discontinued and it took
another 20 years for the big three to begin producing decent small cars.
Later
Tom Ballou
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