The way it was.

[SS Tim]

Since most of our trucks were delivered from old family dealerships long before the advent of groups and auto malls, I found a link for a trip through the past with a 1948 GM Dealership Planning Guide. While that may seem old it really represents what a then 20 year old dealership would look like.
Tell your friends with the older trucks too.

http://www.archive.org/details/planningautomobi00gene

[Southern Shaker]

Thanks tim always Exited to learn more bout chevy our trucks and the early years !

[special-K]

Yeah,those old dealerships are all gone around here,it seems. They were far more local back then,too. They didn't need to be such high-volume and located all together in a high business traffic/high exposure area. Hall Chevrolet was on a country road with the nearest town (Clarksville) more than 5 miles away. And you'd miss that town if you blinked. It was located on Hall Shop Road,if that's any indication of just how old it was. An auto group bought them and moved it to Clarksville that is now a bustling suburb of a bigger (new) city in an auto park with several brands offered.
Mullinix Motors was a Ford dealership,run by the Mullinix family who where mostly farmers and settled the area back in colonial times. It was located in Daisy way out in the country at a crossroad. Even if you didn't blink you'd never know you passed through a town. The nearest recognizable town was 5 or more miles away and you better not blink going through there. A large auto group bought them,built a new place in my town about 15 miles away,but it's the biggest little town between two bigger cities 20+ miles in either direction (by interstate). They also bought Jones Motor Co. from the Jones',shut that location down,and built a huge new place next to their Ford place. So they created their own auto park.
My Jimmy came from a GMC truck/farm implement dealership that started out selling horse-drawn farm equipment and wagons. It was in the family for over 100 years and they just closed down a couple years ago (got me some sweet N.O.S. hubcaps from the auction)
There used to be dealers all over in small town,USA and even no town,USA. Now they are regional,huge,and sell their competing brands. This is the way car dealerships have gone "big box". It's not so much that they can only survive this way,it's more that the owners can get mega rich and a smaller dealer couldn't compete with "them". I did a lot of work on a new house the owner of a network of dealerships had built. It cost 8 million dollars and is located in a private golf course community that everyone pays (paid 10 years ago) $10,000 a year for grounds maintenance. They only live there about 6 months of the year cuz they have an even nicer house in Florida. I don't think his salesmen or mechanics living any better than if they worked for a mom & pop dealer. Does it make it any better for us buyers? I sure liked the simple old way things were.

[bollybib]

Interesting reading. Thanks for the link, Tim.