Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Congratulations on your new car! Here's an interesting little mailer sent out by a Pontiac dealer in the late 1940s.
There's a quaint charm to this card--it's downright NICE. It goes, "Although it was not our good fortune to sell that new car to you, we should like you to know we are interested in helping to keep it new longer at very low cost. Our trained specialists know your car's mechanical make-up from A to Z and they have the finest tools and equipment to assure you economical transportation. They follow the recommendations of your car manufacturer from timely lubrication to mechanical adjustments. We suggest service WHEN it is needed and ONLY THEN! Whatever your requirements, drop in and see us soon!"
Now, isn't that nice? In this series of videos, we're looking at a bunch of cards that were mailed out as promotions by the Kramer-Eberts Pontiac dealership in River Rouge, Michigan. Most of these cards were created by Pennzoil and I must say that Pennzoil doesn't beat you over the head with that fact. Their name and business is just nicely present as a sort of tag at the very bottom. Car dealers or service facilities would add their name to the bottom--between the text and the Pennzoil tag, and mail these out to their customers to drum up business and stay in touch.
As noted in the first episode, the dealership's location in the town of River Rouge was right in the heart of Ford country, Ford having its huge River Rouge plant nearby. So, that would have been quite a Ford town and sales would have been an uphill battle for a Pontiac dealer. Maybe that's why they are not specific about what brands of cars they'll work on--they're hoping, I suppose, to pick off some of those Fords constantly driving by.
You've got to love the art. I can't quite make out what it means--a salesman, presumably, standing on a stack of sample cases or suitcases and stretching up to ring an out-of-reach doorbell. But I don't guess it matters what it means. It's cute, and, I guess just, as they say, art for art's sake.
And speaking of art, that's Chief Pontiac as the Pontiac logo, a chief of the Ottawa Tribe and namesake of the car brand and of the city where they were made.
Congratulations on your new car! Here's an interesting little mailer sent out by a Pontiac dealer in the late 1940s.
There's a quaint charm to this card--it's downright NICE. It goes, "Although it was not our good fortune to sell that new car to you, we should like you to know we are interested in helping to keep it new longer at very low cost. Our trained specialists know your car's mechanical make-up from A to Z and they have the finest tools and equipment to assure you economical transportation. They follow the recommendations of your car manufacturer from timely lubrication to mechanical adjustments. We suggest service WHEN it is needed and ONLY THEN! Whatever your requirements, drop in and see us soon!"
Now, isn't that nice? In this series of videos, we're looking at a bunch of cards that were mailed out as promotions by the Kramer-Eberts Pontiac dealership in River Rouge, Michigan. Most of these cards were created by Pennzoil and I must say that Pennzoil doesn't beat you over the head with that fact. Their name and business is just nicely present as a sort of tag at the very bottom. Car dealers or service facilities would add their name to the bottom--between the text and the Pennzoil tag, and mail these out to their customers to drum up business and stay in touch.
As noted in the first episode, the dealership's location in the town of River Rouge was right in the heart of Ford country, Ford having its huge River Rouge plant nearby. So, that would have been quite a Ford town and sales would have been an uphill battle for a Pontiac dealer. Maybe that's why they are not specific about what brands of cars they'll work on--they're hoping, I suppose, to pick off some of those Fords constantly driving by.
You've got to love the art. I can't quite make out what it means--a salesman, presumably, standing on a stack of sample cases or suitcases and stretching up to ring an out-of-reach doorbell. But I don't guess it matters what it means. It's cute, and, I guess just, as they say, art for art's sake.
And speaking of art, that's Chief Pontiac as the Pontiac logo, a chief of the Ottawa Tribe and namesake of the car brand and of the city where they were made.
