FORETELLING THE FOREIGN VEHICLE INVASION
Vancouver car-buying trends 60 years ago were the subject of a university thesis
Barry Claridge worked his way to a University of British Columbia bachelor of commerce degree by selling cars in the ’50s.
He began selling used cars at the Black Motors trade-in lot on Vancouver’s Kingsway, and then graduated to Black’s glassedin Mercury-Meteor-Lincoln downtown dealership. He recalls earning a $150 commission by selling a fancy 1955 Mercury station wagon to a Mr. Butt of the Butt and Bowes butcher supply business.
“We drove the car around Stanley Park on a Saturday and he bought it because he liked the exhaust note,” Claridge recalls.
Ford introduced dual exhaust on many of its V8-powered offerings starting in 1955.
The fourth-generation Vancouverite was raised by a single mom and grandparents in south Vancouver, and childhood memories include watching traffic while sitting on a box and holding an old steering wheel. Money was tight, but Claridge was so determined to graduate from university he worked multiple years to raise enough money to earn his degree. He drove a smoke-belching 1934 Ford sedan purchased in 1952 for $100. Six years later, he upgraded to a 1952 Ford twodoor sedan
In those days, writing a thesis was a requirement to graduate from the five-year commerce course. New car-buying habits was an easy subject choice. Claridge devised a survey to be filled in by the 360 new car buyers in Vancouver during December 1958. He got 149 returns and the results contained in his thesis were submitted in March of 1959, exactly 60 years ago.
He probed why buyers chose their new cars and the dealers they bought them from and, if they bought a different kind of car, why. He sought statistical information from all manufacturers. But a strike by General Motors delayed his research to the point he handed in the 65-page report meticulously typed by his wife just minutes before the deadline.
The Canadian auto industry produced just under 300,000 vehicles in 1958 with General Motors on top, Ford next and Chrysler well down in third place. The analysis shows the majority of trade-ins were four years old having been driven an average of 16,000 kilometres per year. Most buyers of 1959 models bought lower priced vehicles, ranging from $1,600 to $2,000. An equal number bought bigger and more luxurious automobiles costing from $3,600 to $4,200.
When asked what vehicle they would purchase if money was no object, top choices were Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Lincoln and Cadillac.
Dealer loyalty was a big thing with 30 per cent of new car buyers surveyed not shopping around and, if they did, the majority visited only one other dealership for comparison. The study notes Vancouver motorists were trading in their North American cars for smaller and more economical foreign-built imports at an unprecedented level.
Twenty-one per cent of survey respondents said they wanted a small car for economy. There was a recession in 1958 and car-buying trends reflected economic conditions.
Seventeen per cent of respondents who bought domestic cars were dissatisfied, while only eight per cent of import car buyers were unhappy with their purchase.
Performance was listed as the most important factor in buying domestic automobiles, while foreign car buyers favoured economy.
Of all cars, Austin received the most favourable comments, with Volkswagen second.
Complaints listed for domestic cars included: style too extreme, too big, too powerful, too long, price too high, too much chrome, not economical and too low. Less than two per cent of domestic car buyers gave favourable comments.
Of the 360 new cars bought in Vancouver during December 1958, 196 were domestic automobiles and 165 were foreign makes.
Eighty-six per cent of those surveyed who bought new cars outright without a trade-in chose foreign-built models.
“The general public is offered a bewildering and growing display of makes and models of motor cars,” Claridge wrote in his thesis. “The present interest in the functional styling of the European makes will probably bring about many changes in the offerings of American manufacturers. Probably the greatest success story of the post war automobile era is the German import Volkswagen. This automobile, without a major body or mechanical change in the last eight years is still the leading contender for supremacy in the small car import market in North America.”
He determined the largest share of the sale of imports from England went to British Motor Corporation, which produces Austin, Healey, MG, Morris and Wolseley.
The findings would accurately predict the trend to smaller, less expensive and more fuel-efficient foreign cars that would dominate new car sales in the 1960s, in the process forcing North American manufacturers to scramble together compact car offerings.
The high sales of British Ford imports and Vauxhall cars from General Motors indicates why Chrysler was forced to offer the French-built Simca.
The survey also shows North American built luxury cars had lost some of their lustre with more than half the respondents saying they would buy one of the more expensive foreign cars if money was no object.
Claridge drove a full-sized Ford Meteor sedan with an economical six-cylinder engine as a demonstrator model.
The thesis he submitted recommended North American manufacturers produce a smaller car to supplement their large models, concentrate less on elaborate styling with more emphasis on mechanical improvements, economy of operation and quality of workmanship rather than increased horsepower.
For the 1960 model year, Chrysler came up with the Plymouth Valiant followed by Ford’s Falcon and Comet and the Chevrolet Corvair.
The thesis was nearly a decade ahead of J.D. Power’s surveys of automobile customer satisfaction and product quality.
With his university degree in hand, the Vancouver dealership’s job offer was for $225 per month, $150 under the going rate. Claridge rejected the car business for a successful 20-year career in the investment business.
Now, at the age of 89, he continues to work as an export/ import broker and drives a Buick Enclave sport utility vehicle.