Automotive Ads and Brochures

PF_Flyer

This is the place to post images of automotive ads (past or present), old car brochures, etc. In short, anything of an automotive promotional nature that tickles your fancy, or makes you wonder what they were thinking, or is just plain interesting.

We already have Car Commercials, the good, the bad, and the annoying! where we sort of delve into the video world, so let's reserve this one for printed materials.

PF_Flyer

And if you happen to spot something automotively obscure in your travels, I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! is the place to share

PF_Flyer

How about this selection from a 1937 GM booklet titled, We Drivers. "A series of brief discussions on driving, dedicated to the safety, comfort and pleasure of the motoring public"

Mr_Shiftright

Here's a car that probably wouldn't like hills at all: I'd imagine this ad is from around 1960?

fintail

Old ad illustrations can be amusing. By the looks of the people, this car is about 50 feet wide:

sda

Dad had a black 59 Catalina coupe with a red interior. The floors rusted and transmission issues forced him to trade it in 65 for a low mile 63 Olds Dynamic 88 Holiday coupe.

berri

I had an old 63 Olds in college. Not a good car experience and definitely used a bad trany like your Pontiac. Lots of other issues as well.

PF_Flyer

fintail said:

Old ad illustrations can be amusing. By the looks of the people, this car is about 50 feet wide:

I dunno... my '66 Newport was pretty wide

PF_Flyer

Mr_Shiftright said:

Here's a car that probably wouldn't like hills at all: I'd imagine this ad is from around 1960?

The illustration makes it look bigger

Mr_Shiftright

sda said:

Dad had a black 59 Catalina coupe with a red interior. The floors rusted and transmission issues forced him to trade it in 65 for a low mile 63 Olds Dynamic 88 Holiday coupe.

That's not rust. In advertising parlance, those holes would have been called "ground effects".

Mr_Shiftright

PF_Flyer said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

Here's a car that probably wouldn't like hills at all: I'd imagine this ad is from around 1960?

The illustration makes it look bigger

I'd actually pay to see him get in and out of that thing. Or maybe he's a long-retired NBA star and is actually 7' 4"?

PF_Flyer

Pretty sure I drove one of those at Autopia in Disneyland

Mr_Shiftright

I wonder if ad agencies were employing out-of-work poets in 1949?

ab348

Here's one for a car I am familiar with:

ab348

One more:

ab348

I wish I had this too:



Gotta love that trendy '60s gal and her style.

Funny thing about this ad - every version of it I've ever seen has this sort of golden yellow paint on the car, but they didn't offer such a shade that year. The only yellow available was a pale creamy yellow called Saffron (Chevy called it Butternut Yellow). This definitely isn't that.

Mr_Shiftright

Yikes---don't drink and dress!

omarman

I was still in HS when I first saw one of these in the wild. But it wasn't as pretty as the ad. It was loaded on a flat bed truck and looked like it had been rolled at least 1x.

edit to add: Didn't Pontiac market a black and gold Trans Am in '76 or so? I'd have to search for it but I think it was before the ('77) Bandit edition.

Mr_Shiftright

Quite a few manufacturers did:

fintail

Oh the 80s:



Something special for someone who had one of these:



And something amusing:

Mr_Shiftright

Calling a 1980s Rolls the "Best Car in the World" is pretty hilarious. Yeah, maybe if they threw in a tow truck.

sda

I like the fintail in red. The euro headlights look sleek.

ab348

I’m reminded of the old Rodney Dangerfield line in a run of jokes about his car. “I bought the perfect second car though - a tow truck!”  

Mr_Shiftright

Bada-Boom!

Mr_Shiftright

Early Hatchback?

benjaminh

I like these car ads from different eras! Fun stuff.

And here are some more from the pages of the Saturday Evening Post from the early months of 1923....

benjaminh

1923....Norman Rockwell was hired by Overland to do the art for the last ad in this set.

benjaminh

1923....The Oakland and GM advertisement states that 1 in 7 cars in the US has been built by GM as of 1923. By 1940 probably about 1 in 3 were GM cars. Rickenbacker was founded by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker

benjaminh

As we know, in 1923 many car frames were still made of wood, which made Dodge's all-steel construction advanced. As a kid I saw a car from maybe 1930 that had been abandoned in a ditch decades ago, and I was amazed that part of it were made of wood.

benjaminh

When I was a kid in the early 1970s I liked looking at my great-grandmother's old National Geographics from the 1950s. I liked the articles and pictures, but I liked the ads even more—especially the old car ads. But before the last few days I've only seen a few car ads from the teens and 20s. Here are some more from 1923....I didn't know before seeing this Hudson ad that a few cars in the 1920s used a substantial amount of aluminum.

benjaminh

In 1923 the Auburn (and most other cars) were started by pressing your foot on the starter button on the floor.

benjaminh

In 1923 trouble was already gathering again in Germany as hyperinflation overtook the county. In that same year in New York City there was a huge traffic tower that I don't quite understand. When I was a kid my great uncle had a ranch near Eureka. One day when I was about 8 he said with significance that "He was going out to get the Cat." I wondered why he was making a big deal about a little cat, but then I saw him riding in it and understood. I got to ride a little bit too which was fun.

benjaminh

Here's a photo of a traffic tower in NYC in the 1920s....

benjaminh

1923....

berri

I'm a fan of mostly the postwar era, so I particularly liked the Cutlass coupes and the Capri (may have been under powered, but I liked the look). Interesting to see a Rolls Royce ad and the Kaiser was pretty modern looking for its time when it first came out. Didn't ever recognize a Traveler hatchback even if i saw one and I think there was a Vagabond model also (but may have essentially been the same thing). I believe the Kaiser got hurt down the line by lack of styling dollars and a lack of a V8. IIRC, the 6 it used was also prone to vapor lock.

benjaminh

In the Oakland advertisement it's proudly announced that main bearings will last 40,000 miles, valves 15,000 miles, connecting rod bearings 40k etc.

berri

...and that may have been an improvement over some 70's and early 80's Detroit iron

benjaminh

1923. The electric train that went from Chicago to Seattle was a surprise to me.

ab348

As a kid I had a pile of car magazines around the house all the time from the mid-60s onward. First they were thanks to my older brother until I started buying them myself, along with things like Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated and the like. A lot of the ads from that era made an impact on my impressionable young mind. When I come across some of those online I save them in a folder, so I'll post a few here.

Here's one of my favorites. Note the fine print at the bottom.

benjaminh

ab348 said:

....Here's one of my favorites. Note the fine print at the bottom.

I'm having trouble reading the fine print at the very bottom. What does it say?

benjaminh

1923....

ab348

benjaminh said:

ab348 said:

....Here's one of my favorites. Note the fine print at the bottom.

I'm having trouble reading the fine print at the very bottom. What does it say?

You could get a package of specs and pictures by sending 30 cents to an address on “Wide Track Blvd” in Pontiac, Mi.

Michaell

@fintail - I showed my wife the MB ad, as we have three doxies ourselves. I, too, like the red.

fintail

Ad for Shifty's favorite car back when they were private imports:

benjaminh

1923....

benjaminh

1923....

benjaminh

As a child I read this book a lot, and then as a father I got to read it to my kids who also really liked it. It's the story of a c. 1922 car and a cat. Has anyone else here ever read it? Recommended. I'm seeing just now that the car in this book for kids looks somewhat like the 1924 Oakland with red wheels that's in the ad above.

benjaminh

1923. Did a Model T of 1923 still have crank starting? I guess so, which was one big reason why even with its low price other cars were gaining market share.

benjaminh

1923.

benjaminh

1923

Mr_Shiftright

The ability to make cars entirely out of steel came from the builders of railroad cars. They were the ones (like Budd) to figure out how to make very large steel stamping in one shot. Prior to that, we see cars with partially steel roofs, welded together, with a wood platform in the center. That's because they couldn't stamp the "turret roof" in one piece.