In 1970, how long could dealer hold cars before sold ?

I would like to know, from those of you who KNOW:

Back in the 70's, if a dealer special ordered a car and used it for a demo, how long have you seen that they were used/held before being sold ?
I know there is not law governing it, and a special order car COULD have sit there for months if the dealer did not want to sell it, but what have you actually seen or heard of ?

Specifically, have you seen dealer-ordered cars that were build and delivered to a dealer lot but it used as a demo and not sold for 8-10 months before being sold ?


Many Thanks,

Here is a first hand anecdotal story; Our small town had 2 Plymouth dealerships which were a hold over from days when the town was bigger and busier. One of the dealerships had a new Super Bird on their lot for at least a couple of years. Their oldest son was in my high school class and he would break the car out for prom and homecoming and the like. It actually sat outside in back of the dealership for quite some time.

So that car sat new on the lot for several years and was driven ever so often by the owner's son. And maybe others, too.

You may have to clarify your definition of 'special order', since it normally applies to items not on the normal menu?

T99 special order tires, 9999 special order interior, 999 special order paint, etc.

Dealerships often ordered cars via the normal menu for 'lot stock' though.

Mr. Norm's as an example ordered 100's of 1970 Challenger T/As & some were still being sold as late as the summer of 1971.

"Special order" is a term that gets thrown around a lot.
If a car's got colors & options that were regularly available, that's not "special".
Some were customer-ordered - I've done that myself - and I'd bet most were dealer-ordered for stock.
A buddy's Dad was a Dodge & Plymouth Sales Manager in the '60s-'70s, and he ordered cars in bunches; and sometimes the zone dropped cars in his lap.
He told us about some weird combinations that he had to take at model-year end.
If a customer wanted something truly special, it had to be cleared from above, and a deposit paid.

Makes sense, my mistake for saying it was special order, it was only Y05. Hard to see the other codes on the BC sheet under sales bank, but you can see the y05 - so it wasn't special order.

The purpose for me asking is that I have dealer docs that show my 1970 V-Code Challenger "B07 build / Nov 1969" wasn't sold until 9/25/70, almost 10 months later and it didn't make sense.
It was sold with 2600 miles on it..

Good information, Thank you both !

Dave wasn't there a similar story with a '69 Daytona that the dealership (Virginia?) couldn't sell then didn't want to sell and stored it either on the second floor of the dealership or somewhere like that. Seem to remember it was there for decades?

Mike

Good info - Thanks !

There are several examples of Y05 cars that were also Y39 - Special Order.

Does the VON start with a letter or a number?

VON: 0324XX
Here is a clip of the BC Sheet, I could send you the whole thing if needed.
See attachment....

Thank you

I vaguely remember this story from maybe a Mopar Action mag or alike...it stuck in my memory as they recalled burying the speedo on more than one occasion and it was never titled as having been sold.

I know of a Chevy dealer that kept a 25th Anniversary Corvette for almost 30 years. They used to bring it out every year for the Homecoming parade, and it usually got towed back to the dealer because everything was dry rotted on it.

Having worked at the Dodge dealership in 70,2 come to mind. One was the TA purple 4 speed, I put the pipes on it in dec I think, sat there till August. The other was a Superbee (came in before I got there) plain Jane car no stripes regular hubcaps, but, it had the 440 six pac, bench seat car auto on the column, weird blue color. Salesman tried read hard to get me to buy one or the other at cost. No deal. Surprisingly I was not a Dodge guy but a Plymouth guy. Both sat till the new models came out in September. Bank held the notes dealer payed interest on the ‘floor plan’

Back at the time, the Superbirds and the Daytonas were not easy cars to sell, many sat on lots for a very long time.

The Chrysler Plymouth dealership in our town made trips to the Belvidere Assembly Plant and would personally pick out about 20 new cars or trucks off the inventory lot to buy, every few months. He wrote them a certified check, the cars were his. He sold them whenever he wanted, for however much he decided they were worth. If he liked you, you could get a really good deal, but if he didn't like you, you probably couldn't buy any car from him, he just wouldn't sell you one. Chrysler didn't especially like him as one of their dealerships, but they never turned down his checks.

The guy's wife and close friends drove some really nice cars that were probably never sold or titled.

Burgunder Dodge outside of Pittsburgh had a first gen Viper in their showroom, maybe first or second production year, brand new. Lost it in a flood in 2004/05 and the big rumor going around was Jay Leno was in the works to purchase it before hand.

the broadcast sheet shows both Y05 (US Spec.) & Y14 ("SOLD" car)

there are hundreds of scenarios that could explain your paperwork - does it state SOLD "new" with 2,600 miles & the September date?

The sum of the stories seems to be that there are LOTS of reasons for the a vehicle to remain unsold at the dealer. To throw 2 more out there, there's a white 1976 Eldorado Convertible sitting in the showroom of the local dealer that's still on the MSO (Manufacturer's Statement of Origin), never titled. It's been out of the showroom a couple of times for remodeling work on the building, but has less than 5 miles (I've seen the odometer myself), an has allegedly never left the lot since it rolled off the hauler.

My own story was a 2013 Mini Clubman ClubVan. These things are big sellers throughout Europe, and Mini decided to try selling them here (full story HERE). Because of the Chicken Tax they only imported 50 of them. I found one in 2018 that sat on a dealer's lot unsold until 2015 (over 2 years) as verified by both CarFax and the warranty information from Mini. It was still under factory warranty (4 years) when I bought it.

My old business partner lived in Plymouth, MI. since he was a kid - he was born in 1935. The local Plymouth dealer - Colony Chrysler-Plymouth, had several Superbirds - two I remember him telling me about distinctly. Neither one of them sold until 1974. One of them they removed the wing & front clip, & replaced the front with a 70 RR front end to try & sell. They even repainted it In-Violet. I don't remember the original colors of either. Anyway, by 1974, the cars were both finally gone so he assumed SOMEONE must have bought them. Most people back then looked at Daytonas & Superbirds as circus wagons.

Spring of 1982, my GF (now wife) & I were in the Michigan UP & we were near Cedarville & drove past a Chrysler dealer. As we drove by, there were TWO 1979 300's sitting on the front lawn for sale - both were new & never sold cars. I did a U-turn & went back to check them out. As we got there & started checking them out, one of the salesmen almost came running out to meet us & he said "I'll make you a REALLY good deal on either of these!" Man, he wanted to sell them BAD! I can imagine. We took one of them for a ride - it ran like crap - probably 3 year-old gas in it! I didn't have two nickles to rub together back then, so there was no way I could afford one. I don't remember the sticker prices on the cars, but they were knocking off about $1500 per car as I remember. Wish I could have afforded one.

I was going to mention that car. About 15 years ago they decided to sell it and asked 500k. It had about 7500 miles on it and never titled. Had the same mechanic caring for it for many years as they used it for parades etc. I remember the ads for it after the article came out. Never heard what happened with it after that.

I bought a 79 D300 with a 360 four barrel from a dealer in 1999. It had 22,000 miles on it. It was a pretty cool truck the dealer principal ordered in new. I was always bummed it wasn’t a 78 as I love the 77-78 and I’m sure he’d have checked off the 440. I bet it was never titled until me.

i have worked at a GM dealership for almost 40 years. they lost the franchise in the downturn.
the owners relative has several Corvette Indy 500 pace cars that has never been titled. from what i understand he has 78, 86, 98, 04, 06, 08, 15 pace cars and ALL have never been titled.

about 10 years ago i was attending a mopar show at Quaden auto, formally a Dodge dealership. one of the owners sons had a never titled little red express pickup that he was showing. still had the delivery plastic in the interior. stated it had never been titled.

Our 70 Super Bee has a scheduled build date of 8/11/1969. It carries no Y codes on the upper right hand section of the broadcast sheet which I think means the car was ordered by the dealer for their use? The paperwork with the car, and verified by the original owner, is he purchased the car in September of 1970. It remained in possession of the dealer for about a year.

One thing about the car a friend pointed out: It has several all of the new for 70 options: Rallye wheels, FK5 paint and interior, c-stripe, pistol grip, among a couple others I am forgetting right now.

It was sold new at:

Motor Sales and Service
Lincoln Way at Kellogg
Ames Iowa

The original owner bought the car and immediately moved to Norfolk Virginia. Kept it out of the snow

A picture I found on line of the dealership.

The dealership owns the cars they buy from the manufacturer. They can do what ever they want with them.

Our '68 GTS convertible carries an 8/28/67 SPD. According to the original owner's manual it was first sold in May 1969 from Northwestern Dodge in Detroit (Ferndale). It was also sold again in early 1970 in San Francisco with about 13,000 miles. That's a lot of miles in such a short time in those days. I suspect without any proof that it was used as a demo even though it has so few options. It was also, as far as I understand the codes, a sales bank car.

Even with those miles on it, it was still sold as a New car.
It's still new UNTIL 1st titled.

I don't think there was any time limit per dealership agreement; but it probably was good practise to sell within 90 days.

However, I used to own a particular red 1971 Dart Swinger, SPD of 802, VIN ending in 100331.... documentation found inside the glove box indicate the car was not sold until May of 1972.

We're pretty sure it was a fire sale car. They HAD to get rid of it. Was an FE5 car, black top, black&white vinyl interior. Must've been a sharp car when new but probably way too "loud" for the time. One of very few mopars I'd encountered that were BLACK under the bonnet and in the boot. The rest of the body was also a that very-common-for-the-70s shade of metallic lime/gold. 99% certain the dealership had it resprayed a more conservative color to unload it.

I'd actually seen the car around town most of my life. I believe it was a High School teachers' car as I remember it being parked there. Always thought they had to be pretty hip with a KZZU sticker from a radio station out of Spokane.

Wasn't just mopars. My Cyclone was built in April 69 and didn't sell until March 70. I'm thinking it was a Bank Order car though and must have sat around on one of their lots. It was sold out of Newport Washington which looks to have been a very small dealership and the buyers were in their mid-40's. Nothing too special with a 351 2 bbl, but it was a GT. Might have sat because it was orange. Owners wife was killed in car accident in Nov 69 and he got remarried in Feb 70 so I'm thinking she needed a car(he died in 2001 and it was sold in 2004) and they bought it because the dealer must have offered one heck of a deal on a year old model. She must have loved that car as they kept it for over 30 years.

70 shelby's are 69's that were unsold and were returned and had a front spoiler and hood stripes added to them. They had to get permission to do this because all 70 car needed to have a locked steering wheel. These still have the key in the dash. They oked it because the dealers not only couldn't sell the 69 but still had new 68"s too.

For Dan:

.....Owners wife was killed in car accident in Nov 69 and he got remarried in Feb 70 so I'm thinking she needed a car.....

Sound like he had his new schupt all lined up in advance!!!!

I've thought the same thing too. I believe they got married around 20 Feb 1970. He had 2 daughters that were over 20 at that time so I wonder how they felt? Perhaps they told him he needed to get remarried as he didn't know how to cook for himself. Newport is a pretty small place.