Re: IML: dealership attitudes to Imperials back in the day

[santiam oregon <santiamoregon@xxxxxxxxx>]

The part aboiut the difficulty in working on these cars struck a chord with me. My dad

took a 59' Imperial 2HT in midnight blue in trade for a valve job back around 1977.  I was

enamored with the car even though they were considered ridiculously flamboyant at the time.  A few years later, as it sat in the field (still in fairly good shape at that point), I would make trips out to work on it and attempt to resurect it back onto the highway.  It was an incredibly difficult car to work on under the dash and the electro-mechanical gremlins that accompanied such things. 

I conveniently forgot that part several years ago when I started

to look for another 57-59 Imperial.  Having one in the garage now, I have to say that they can be a real pain w/ some of the oddball-complex stuff that doesn't interchange to other mopar.

Not to mention the brakes and of course working under the dash again.  Not easy for someone who is 6'10".  

"Hugh, 58 Imperial" <imperial58@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> While I briefly sold new MOPARS a few years ago, I was working with a 
> semi-retired former dealership owner whose establishment was in Karnes City, 
> Texas, the county seat of Karnes County, a rural and none too affluent part 
> of the state maybe half way between San Antonio and Corpus Christi. His 
> business dealt mainly with Plymouths. It is important to note that Chrysler 
> Corp. never had a separate Imperial distribution chain. Imperials were 
> tacked onto existing dealerships. The guy who started this thread actually 
> enlightened me as to who sold Imperials in San Antonio as I could not find 
> that out going through old business directories and stuff like that. Often 
> there was some arm twisting involved
>  in getting a dealer to carry, and 
> therefore service, Imperials.
>
> My friend from Karnes City refused to carry the name plate for a number of 
> very good business reasons. He mainly sold Plymouths. A Plymouth buyer 
> knew he was at the low end of the spectrum and his or her demands were 
> relatively manageable. An Imperial buyer was a different breed altogether. 
> Much fussier and more particular about every aspect of the car. It took far 
> more time and effort to sell an Imperial than it did to get a Plymouth off 
> the lot. I went through this myself with the Dodge Viper. In my seven 
> months at possibly the worst job I ever had in my life, I could sell new 
> Dodge Ram pick ups all day with little hassle. I finally managed to unload 
> the dealer's one and only Viper, but it took months and months. Loads of 
> rotten test drives involving way too much testosterone and far too little 
> actual skill but that's a different story. The second reason
>  why selling 
> Imperials was bad deal was servicing them. He would have to send his 
> mechanics for additional training, at his own expense, plus carry a whole 
> different set of parts in his already crammed service area.
>
> So, even back then, dealerships were trading off the prestige value of 
> carrying the Imperial against considerable additional extra costs. The 
> dealership where my car was originally purchased sold Plymouths and used 
> cars. I was told by the niece of the original owner he bought a new 
> Imperial every year, which made the additional effort worth it for the 
> dealer.
>
> Hugh Hemphill
> 58 Imperial
> San Antonio, Texas 
>
>
>
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