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Chrysler Historical Letter, and help requested from Spokane area members Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [50 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
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sconut1 |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 782 Location: Edmonton, Alberta | I recieved my historical documents from Chrysler today, and it's a little like Christmas for me today! I'm pleased and relieved to find out that my Fury, is indeed a Fury! I did quite a bit of research before I bought the car, checking body numbers to see if things were as they should be, they checked out, but I still had some worries that someone had "made" a Fury. The final word is, that my Fury was built on May 2nd, 1957 and shipped on May 3rd, 1957. My Car is a farily low optioned model, having being built with a 3-speed automatic, power steering, power brakes, tinted solex glass, a base radio and antenna (not search tune), and a heater. These items are not listed as standard equipement on my December 3rd, 1956 product bulletin, so I'm assuming they were optional. The Spokane Connection? My car was delivered to Dealer 37818, Bill Brown Plymouth, Inc. Some poking around on the internet tells me that this dealer may have been located on E6800 Sprague Avenue, Spokane, WA. Some assumptions lead me to belive that this dealer moved to E6818 Sprague, became Spokane Chrysler Plymouth and is now part of Dishman Dodge. The latest "real" peice of information I was able to get was that they were apparently still in business in 1977 and they had won a Dealer of the Year award from the Washington State Auto Dealers association. Is anyone here familiar with Bill Brown Plymouth, where they were located, and what ultimately happened to the dealership? I'd greatly appreciate any help! Edited by sconut1 2011-03-13 9:55 PM | ||
Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Hit me backchannel and I'll give you a friend's number who can likely fill in the blanks. | ||
sconut1 |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 782 Location: Edmonton, Alberta | Dr.D gave me the name of a friend of his, who helped me fill in a few blanks. He asked me to post what I found here on the FL website. The story so far: After recieving my letter from Chrysler, I found out that my car was originaly sold to Bill Brown Plymouth Chrysler of Spokane, WA So, I had to ask.... does or did anyone know of this place, and (insert smart-alec good luck comment here), any old sales records kicking around? I started looking around and found this: http://www.desoto.org/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3648 This thread says that a dealer by by the name of Hull Rodell Motors existed, (and that they were located at either 1102 Sprague Avenue or the corner of Sprague and Madison....I'm getting different info here) and that they became Bill Brown Plymouth in 1960. Something's not quite right with this thread though. I know for sure that Bill Brown Plymouth existed in 1957, because that's the selling dealer of my car. However, it's quite possible that they both existed at the same time and Bill Brown Plymouth purchaed Hull Rodell Motors. Enter Dr.D's contact. I spoke with this gentleman for almost an hour one evening. Apparently, some time after 1977, Bill Brown Plymouth became Spokane Chrysler Plymouth, and then became, simply Spokane Chrysler. I was quite pleased to hear that they were stil in business! The other peice of encouraging news was that Bill Brown Plymouth was located at E6800 Sprague, and that Spokane Chrysler's address is E. 6818 Sprague. Unfortunately I began to wonder about some stuff I'd seen on the Internet... mainly, when I seached Spokane Chrysler, I'd see a lot of links to Dishman Dodge. After attempting to contact Spokane Chrysler, I found out that they had been one of the many casualties of the recession. I called Dishman Dodge and asked if I could speak with someone there. I was given the General Sales manager's name, who I still need to contact. The receptionist was very helpful and she did indeed confirm that Dishman Dodge bought Spokane Chrysler, but she also made it clear that Dishman did not purchase the physical assets of Spokane Chrysler. This isn't good news in the attempt to reasearch my car's ownership trail. In fact, this probobly is the "brick wall". However, there might a remote possibility of a detour around the brick wall. Spokane Chrysler's last owner is a man by the name of Jay Lee. There may be another invididual by the name of Yoon Yi who might have been involved with the dealership as well. With the Spokane Chrysler name gone, and based on a news article that I found online, it appears that Mr. Lee started a used vehicle dealership called Spokane Auto Sales that is operating from the same address as Spokane Chrysler was. I've tried calling them several times, but I get a busy signal every time I call. I'm simply curious at this point if there's any old records still kicking around. It's a long shot I'm not holding my breath to take. So that's where this thing is stalled at. I'm going to continue reasearching, for the time being. If anyone is interested in how this little history lesson proceeds, let me know. If not, I won't update the thread further. This whole excersise proves one other unfortunate fact.... I really , really need to get a life! LOL Edited by sconut1 2011-04-25 9:35 PM | ||
Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Well, I am interested. But I must caution, dealerships were not much for keeping records ... at least keeping them THAT long ! .... unless they got stuffed in a forgotten attic somewhere. Also, while Spokane might be fairly large in population, there are not very many dedicated old Mopar fans, and those that are, are not the least bit organized. You need to know just the right guy to ask the right questions in the hope that someone remembers something. Yeah, ... I remember that car .... Still, I dig this stuff and am doing the same thing with my new 58 Plaza. Wish I were home to be of more help. How about posting some pix of this car to get the "juices flowing" ? | ||
GaryS |
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Expert Posts: 1207 Location: Ponder, TX | Always interesting to hear about these projects...especially if they are successful. FWIW, my dad purchased his one-year-old 1966 Chrysler New Yorker from Bill Brown Chrysler. | ||
d500neil |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil! Posts: 19146 Location: bishop, ca | Just to titillate you, a tad, Gord...there are (or, should be) Plymouth monthly in-house newspapers (such as the Dodge Reporters and the DeSoto Dailes---whatever...) which reveal a lot of neat Corporate insider-information to the dealerships. Various dealerships are profiled in them, and there is a decent chance that your car's dealership is shown or discussed in them. I just don't know of anyone who has access to the late-50's Plymouth newspapers. I have a complete set of the 57-58 Dodge Reporters. | ||
Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | I have a mixed lot of DeSoto-Plymouth magazines. They are VERY cool ! | ||
sconut1 |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 782 Location: Edmonton, Alberta | I retained an working "e-mail" relationship with the very helpful lady at Chrysler who researched my car for me. I didn't want to bother her again, as this request is a little bit out of scope from the original research request., and I know darn well she's a very busy person. I maybe should drop her a line and see if I can pay for some additional research on the dealership and possibly the in-house newsletter. | ||
Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | The in-house magazine - and it was a glossy magazine - is hard to find, as they were not offered to the public and got tossed when the next issue arrived. I got mine buying old dealer stock and a few were tossed in here and there. No telling what CHS might know about the dealership history. Now, how about some pictures of this tub of yours ? | ||
edsel8 |
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New User Posts: 3 | Bill Brown Plymouth (also DeSoto briefly) opened in the late fifties at 1102 W. Sprague Ave. in Spokane in the former home of Hull-Rodell Motors (DeSoto-Plymouth), which apparently closed in 1958. I show Bill Brown Chrysler-Plymouth at 6800 E. Sprague Ave., but I'm not sure of the dates (1960s?). I have that dealership listed also at 6818 E. Sprague Avenue from 1970 to 1980, followed by Tom Price Chrysler-Plymouth, West Valley Chrysler-Plymouth, then Spokane Chrysler-Plymouth. The dealership apparently operated as a standalone Chrysler dealership from 2001 to 2007 after the demise of Plymouth. I hope this is helpful. | ||
edsel8 |
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New User Posts: 3 | Here's a link to a Hull-Rodell DeSoto postcard image on my flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/6378874543/in/photolist-... This appears to be from the 30s, but Hull-Rodell was at 1130 W. Sprague Ave. (at Jefferson) in 1936 and this postcard clearly states Sprague at Madison, which would have been their later location: 1102 W. Sprague Ave. (at Madison). However, my records show a Studebaker dealer at 1102 until 1941, so Hull-Rodell must have moved there sometime after that. Furthermore I have Hull-Rodell listed at 1102 until 1958 and Bill Brown opening there in 1959 (possibly late 1958). So where does that leave Bill Brown Plymouth in 1957? Darned if I know. I'm quite sure Bill Brown acquired the Hull-Rodell DeSoto-Plymouth franchise, but the dates are confusing, especially concerning your 1957 Fury, sconut1. Can anyone clarify this? Edited by edsel8 2016-03-27 8:13 PM | ||
sconut1 |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 782 Location: Edmonton, Alberta | Thank you for digging up this very old post of mine. This is some interesting new information and I appreciate you taking the time to look and post. There's also some other posts here that I missed. Apparently, Dr. D asked me twice for a photo which I haven't produced yet, so here's the car in question. Edited by sconut1 2016-04-03 1:52 AM (WP_20140809_003.jpg) Attachments ---------------- WP_20140809_003.jpg (467KB - 231 downloads) | ||
kams25 |
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New User Posts: 1 | Are you still looking for info on Hull-Rodell Motors? | ||
sconut1 |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 782 Location: Edmonton, Alberta | Hello....glad you found this old post. Yes, definitely looking for info on Hull Rodell and Bill Brown Plymouth Chrysler | ||
C331 |
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New User Posts: 1 | Here is a little more information about the Spokane dealers. In the 1960 phone book there are the following listings: Bill Brown Plymouth W 1102 Sprague; DeSoto Sales & Service Bill Brown; George R Jones W 1201 Sprague Chrysler-Imperial-Plymouth-Valiant. In the 1964 phone book there are the following listings: Bill Brown Chrysler-Plymouth E 6818 Sprague; Chrysler-Plymouth City W 1201 Sprague. Bill Brown was still at the West Sprague location in 1963. My dad took me down there one evening when they were tuning a 1963 Fury with a stage II 426, 3 speed stick. You can see the car on the Dukes Club website. Also in the current Hemming’s on page 66 is the 1962 413 car Bill Brown sponsored. There was a 1957 Fury with a 3 speed stick in Spokane. My dad knew the guy and he gave us a demonstration ride. It may have been ordered with a higher ratio (lower numerically) rear end as it would do over 90 in second gear, unless that was normal for those cars. | ||
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