Wednesday, September 29, 2010

1970s Chevrolet Small Car Guide Foreign/Domestic


Before I get to the good stuff, I want to preface this post with two points.  First, where did I get this?  I bought this guide from Bergstrom's Antique & Classic in Port Townsend, Washington.  You may remember it as the small coastal town I stayed at recently that had cars as varied as LaForza SUVs and Volvo police cars.

Well, Mr. Bergstrom is a local with a huge passion for all things automobile.  Here is just a random sampling of items you can buy at his store:

  • a classic Morgan roadster,
  • a Matchbox Citroen SM,
  • a Lotus Elite brochure,
  • a World War II-era nudie calendar (for your garage),
  • 1970s OEM Honda touch up paint,
  • this Chevrolet guide.
So what is this guide that I have?  Imports were becoming a looming menace to GM in the mid-1970s.  So corporate had a bunch of lowly employees draw every subcompact, compact, and mid-sized car in the U.S. market, and publish detailed performance specs along with what features (standard and optional) each car came with.  I'm sure every salesman memorized all the information.  Does that Mazda RX-4 come with a tach as standard equipment?  Why, of course.

Without further ado...



2 comments:

Alan said...

oh lordy, all those vintage Alfas, Mazdas, Saabs and Hondas... I need a time machine.

John L said...

And Dattos