Old Dealer Codes

[PeugFra]

Maybe by "holding lot" you mean something like this?

Many Chrysler-internal codes can be found in a block starting at 90000, but these are not included in the 1986 file that is my primary source of information, because that is a Dealer Directory.

 

[PeugFra]

You set me off on a different trail there. Here are two more cars intended for Chrysler-internal use.

This 1969 Dodge Daytona started life as a show car:

And this 1965 Plymouth Barracuda was a company car:

Now we have three codes in the 90000 block:

90051/51 Chrysler Motors Corporation - Sales Bank, Fenton, MO
92734/34 Chrysler Corporation - New York Zone
92873/73 Chrysler Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI

Note that the region codes repeat the last two numbers of the account code. Region 73 "San Francisco" corresponds to the region code of the shipping address. Region 34 is unknown, and New York City actually has region code 32. Region 51 "Chicago" exists, only Fenton, MO, a suburb of St. Louis, is in region 54 "St. Louis". Very fishy!

 

[rapidtrans]

At Dodge Main a punch card just like that would be placed in vehicles right after paint as they’re fed onto the trim shop line. As one worker manually fed a car onto the trim line, another reads the vin off the vehicle, finds the matching punch card in a file draw and tapes it to underside of hood.

 

[rapidtrans]

Here's a window sticker I ginned up for my car using a scanned blank for 65 models.
Priced are guesses taken from window stickers found online. Simply for display purposes at shows.
The "NC" I'm saying are "no cost" items 'till I find otherwise.
Very little info for this dealer is available online beyond what I show. I have perused this vast thread with hopes of finding a dealer code.

 

[1970cat]

that's interesting. looks like a charger daytona shipped to a warehouse on a pier to be hidden from sight until a salesman's show?

 

[PeugFra]

Very little info for this dealer is available online beyond what I show. I have perused this vast thread with hopes of finding a dealer code.

Padre Dodge is not included in the info I have collected.

Surely you tried to contact FCA Historical Services about this? Yours being a 1965 Dodge they must have something.

 

[LocuMob]

Here's a window sticker I ginned up for my car using a scanned blank for 65 models.
Priced are guesses taken from window stickers found online. Simply for display purposes at shows.
The "NC" I'm saying are "no cost" items 'till I find otherwise.
Very little info for this dealer is available online beyond what I show. I have perused this vast thread with hopes of finding a dealer code.

View attachment 414413

Send a photo of the title in your name, and FCA Historical will send you a picture of the IBM card and name and city of the dealer.

 

[PeugFra]

It turned out that 1950s timestamps in the 1986 file are generally associated with dealerships that deviate from the geographical ordering (see post #59). Let's check that by looking at them as a separate group. I leave out dealerships located between one geographical group and another and not belonging to either, as those could be part of groupings that went unrecognized because of gaps in the data. So cases like

53619/41 Spitzer Columbus, Inc., Columbus, OH, orig. date 07-55;
54591/44 Dansville Dodge, Inc., Dansville, NY, orig. date 04-56.

(again, see post #59) are not considered here, as they do not stand out clearly enough as deviations from the geographical ordering.

In fact, out of the 14 dealerships that satisfy the selection criterium, 11 have 1950s timestamps:

51346/61 Addy Dodge, Inc., Lexington, SC, orig. date 05-54;
51773/42 Helle Garage, Gibsonburg, OH, orig. date 07-54;
51933/33 Geisel Motors, Pleasantville, NJ, orig date 09-54;
52317/71 Stanley Dodge, Inc., National City, CA, orig. date 02-57;
52560/62 Mielsch Motor Co., Inc., Bay City, TX, orig. date 12-54;
52807/33 Tally's Sales & Service, Inc., Point Pleasant, NJ, orig. date 01-55;
52918/41 Spitzer Motors of Mansfield, Inc., Mansfield, OH, orig. date 01-55;
53444/32 Winfield Motors, Jersey City, NJ, orig. date 05-55;
53973/42 Glavic Motors, Inc., Wickliffe, OH, orig. date 12-55;
53990/31 Card-McDonald Motors, Inc., Norwich, CT, orig. date 01-56;
54856/73 Marasti Motors, Merced, CA, orig. date 06-56.

On top of that, having blended out the (chronologically irregular) geographical groups, a chronological order now shows up. The sole exception is #52317. In fact, when toward the middle of the 51000 code block chronological ordering becomes the prevalent method and geographical ordering fades away, the first recorded dealership neatly picks up where the above list ends:

55140/51 Wilson Bros Dubuque, Inc., Dubuque, IA, orig. date 08-56.

The list starts at 05-54, so by the first half of 1954 geographical ordering had already been abandoned.

There are three exceptions that do not fit this pattern, all family-owned companies right from the start until at least 1986. Generally such dealerships maintain their original account number for long stretches of time, the company and its liabilities being handed down from one generation to the next. Therefore one would not expect to see the pairing of older timestamps with newer codes (see post #56). Yet, for two of these exceptions I googled business events that relate to the mid-1950s, so probably an account number change did occur:

52487/33 H.A. Rodenbach & Son, Brodheadsville, PA, orig. date 06-41:
No additional information found.

53221/33 VanCampen Motors, Inc., Williamsport, PA, orig. date 12-43:
"Chrysler Motors approved the sale of the Dodge-Plymouth-Dodge Truck franchise by the then current owner W.U. Mussina to Charles B. Van Campen on December 15, 1943. October 30, 1954, Charles Van Campen son of Charles B. Van Campen then active in the business was approved by Chrysler Motor Corporation to become the New Dealer. Charles Van Campen (no middle initial) operated the dealership from October 30, 1954 until January 1, 1991." (from the company history)

54720/32 Swartz Motors, Dover, NJ, orig. date 01-33:
"Swartz Motors was begun in 1933 as a partnership consisting of the father, grandfather and uncle of the present President of the corporation, Herbert C. Swartz. From 1933 until 1955 Swartz acted as a dealer for Chrysler in both the Plymouth and Dodge lines of cars. In 1954, Mr. Herbert Swartz' father died, and, as a condition of continuing the dealership, Chrysler required that Swartz Motors incorporate and add a new shop. This was done. Then, in 1955, the Plymouth franchise was taken away, leaving Swartz with only its Dodge franchise." (from a law suit) Swartz Motors finally incorporated March 5, 1956. (see opencorporates.com)

 

[PeugFra]

Almost perfect chronological ordering, from 1954 upwards, was revealed when selecting timestamps that clearly are not subject to geographical ordering. Now what happens if 1950s timestamps that do belong to a geographical group are listed as a separate subset?

Out of 20 such cases, 17 show an irregular chronological order:

51395/31 Donahue Motor Co., Inc., Newburyport, MA, orig. date 06-50;
51560/35 Dressler Motors, Inc., Covington, VA, orig. date 03-50;
51699/51 Jenkins Motor Sales, Inc., Portage, WI, orig. date 10-51;
51844/51 Berning Motors, Baraboo, WI, orig. date 11-51;
52689/42 Pigeon Motor Sales, Inc., Pigeon, MI, orig. date 04-50;
52699/42 Sliman's Sales & Service, Inc., Amherst, OH, orig. date 12-50;
52861/52 Howard Moyer Motors, Inc., Pratt, KS, orig. date 05-50;
53483/53 Lyle Monson Motors, Inc., Granite Falls, MN, orig. date 12-53;
53720/32 Beloff Motors, Inc., DBA Parsippany Chrysler Plymouth, Parsippany, NJ, orig. date 10-53;
54194/35 Tate Dodge, Inc., Glen Burnie, MD, orig. date 10-52;
54387/43 Hughes-Starr, Inc., Dubois, PA, orig. date 02-51;
54556/72 Dobbs Motor, Inc., DBA Dobbs Motor Co., Nampa, ID, orig. date 04-52;
54574/72 Knoll Motor Co., Inc., Hood River, OR, orig. date 04-53;
54749/54 Shaon Motors, Inc., Bowling Green, MO, orig. date 06-50;
54914/44 Paul Brown Motors, Inc., Olean, NY, orig. date 06-52;
54920/44 Penn York Valley Motors Co., Sayre, PA, orig. date 10-52;
55099/73 Butler-Conti, Inc., Lafayette, CA, orig. date 11-50.

The timestamps are concentrated between March, 1950 and December, 1953 and show no appreciable chronological order. The latter is what one would expect, but the limitation to the 1950-1953 time span is interesting enough.

Three out of 20 are ordered, however:

52436/41 Paul Goeke, Inc., Noblesville, IN, origin 11-54;
52535/42 Specker Motor Sales Co., Marquette, MI, origin 12-54;
55013/35 Holden & Mundy, Inc., Dover, DE, orig. date 08-57.

That may be coincidence, but they all date from after the supposed changeover to chronological ordering, so actually these need not be exceptions at all.

Conclusion: Geographical ordering was abandoned in favour of chronological ordering between December, 1953 and May, 1954.

 

[PeugFra]

Not all is well, however. We've already seen that the timestamp may be out of sync, leaping back in time when it refers to the origination date of a dealership relation for which a new account number has been issued (see post #56). Let's call that "late number/early date".

In the lower half of the 51000-59000 block you can have out-of-sync timestamps in two different ways. Besides "late number/early date" (see post #68) there are also cases of "early number/late date", where the timestamp leaps forward in time. With their 1957 and 1959 timestamps the following two dealerships should have appeared in the chronologically organized tail of the lower half that starts at about #55140, orig. date 08-56, but they show up much earlier:

52317/71 Stanley Dodge, Inc., National City, CA, orig. date 02-57 [but actual period late 1954]:
The firm incorporated October, 21, 1954 although, according to another source, E.M. Stanley opened Stanley Dodge-Plymouth only in 1955. An amendment to the incorporation act was filed November 8, 1956.

53118/65 Lafayette Motor Co., Inc., Lafayette, LA, orig. date 09-59 [but actual period early 1955]:
Active at least from 1955 as a Dodge-Plymouth dealer and around 1959 for Dodge-Plymouth-Simca.

Both these dealership numbers do not belong to an identifiable geographical group, so chronological ordering is expected for them. In fact, Stanley Dodge would have been in sync (late 1954) if the timestamp would have referred to the origination date of the newly-openend dealership, so that explains its position within the code list. Also for Lafayette Motor Co. the dealership relation could well have originated in early 1955, again placing it in sync.

Then you get

55013/35 Holden & Mundy, Inc., Dover, DE, orig. date 08-57 [but actual period summer 1956]:
Active at least from 1949 as a Dodge-Plymouth dealer.

This is a different story, because the entry belongs to a Delaware-Maryland-Eastern Virginia geographical group. It's no use talking about being in or out of sync here. However, the fact that the dealership was active already in 1949 makes it a perfect member of a geographical group, that generally contains dealership origination dates from before 1954.

The three timestamps clearly do not refer to the origination of the dealership relation, whereas the entry points indirectly do.

It is not clear why for these three dealerships a timestamp has been recorded that does not correspond to the start of the dealership relation but to some unknown event thereafter. My best guess (with the emphasis on "guess") is that the franchise contract had been replaced with a new one and that the timestamp refers to the replacement date. Based on law suits I read, things like a company name change, a new address and incorporation automatically trigger the writing of a new Dealership Agreement. The business relation and so the account number in most cases remain unaffected by this. Only when one of the parties choses to terminate the business relation and start a new one, a new dealership number is issued.

 

[69CoronetRT]

Again, great research. Keep it up!

 

[1970cat]

what would happen if a dealership moved to a new, presumably larger location within the same city? they would keep the same orig date but would it be updated at a later time due to the new address?

 

[PeugFra]

Only the 1986 file contains the origination dates, so I have no way of tracing changes in that field. For the dealership number I can say that it is relatively immune to address changes. Leaving aside the many moves to a different address within the same town, there are also examples of dealerships moving to adjacent towns without a change in dealership number:

51448 John P. Hughes Motor Co., Inc., 800 Commerce St/Route 29 N. & Seminole Ave, Lynchburg, VA 24505 [1986 file]
51448 John P. Hughes Motor Co., Inc., Route 29 N. & Lakeview Dr., Madison Heights, VA 24572 [2009 file]
The 1986 address is southwest of the Lynchburg city center, the 2009 address is on the other side of the James River at a distance of about 7 miles.

08658 D.E. Resnik Motor Co., 219 N. Main St, Whitewater, KS 67154 [1986 file]
08658 Resnik Motors, Inc., 1515 E. Broadway, Newton, KS 67114 [2009 file]
A distance of about 17 miles along straight country roads.

You did need consent from ChryCo before moving to a new location. A Dealership Agreement contains a lot of plain vanilla text, but determined for every single contract is the Minimum Sales Responsability (MSR) based on the Sales Location. The Sales Location is a geographical area for which ChryCo yearly calculates the average sales for a given make. Those sales should be matched by the actual dealership sales. If you have a Dodge franchise, a Chrysler franchise and a Plymouth franchise you have three differently defined Sales Locations with three MSRs. Redefining a Sales Location by adding new post office addresses, a new ChryCo dealership opening in the same Sales Location are things that can modify your MSR.

The original text from a 1960s Agreement:

"From time to time, but at least once a year, Dodge will compute the ratio of the number of new Dodge passenger cars or Dodge trucks, as the case may be, registered for the most recent 12-month period for which registration figures are available in the Dodge Sales Region in which Direct Dealer is located to the number of all new passenger cars or trucks, as the case may be, so registered in that Region. The ratio thus obtained will be applied to the number of all new passenger cars or trucks, as the case may be, registered during the same 12-month period in Direct Dealer's Sales Locality. The resulting number (and the percentage share of market that such number represents for the Sales Locality) will be Direct Dealer's Minimum Sales Responsibility for this same twelve (12) month period, subject to such adjustment as is described below. * * *

If Direct Dealer's Sales Locality is in a metropolitan or other market area where there are located one or more authorized dealers in the passenger car or truck as to which the Minimum Sales Responsibility computation is made * * * Direct Dealer's fair share will be determined on the basis of recent trends in sales performance, availability of motor vehicles, local conditions, revisions in Direct Dealer's Sales Locality description, location of facilities, and the other factors, if any, directly affecting sales opportunity."

So yes, a move may require a non-trivial update of the Dealer Agreement, and theoretically that could provide a reason for recording when it was updated.

 

[PeugFra]

With the experience gained in the Dodge-Plymouth block let's tackle the 35000-39999 block with DeSoto dealerships again (see post #48 and post #52). Right away it must be said that it is actually a 36000-39999 block, because the 35000-35999 namespace contains only three entries right at the start, at #35043, #35058 and #35059, whereas the remaining partial blocks (36000-36999, 37000-37000, 38000-38999 and 39000-39999) each contain 50 or more entries. So I will concentrate on these four partial blocks.

It is a bit more chaotic, but by and large the same patterns as those found for Dodge-Plymouth dealerships can be seen. I will only list the 1950s dealership numbers up to the point where the ordering becomes mainly chronological, at the start of the 39000-39999 partial block. We now know we have to look out for three cases:

- the 1950-1953 timestamps that are not expected to be in chronological order (marked "<-" in the listing):
- the 1954-and-up timestamps that should be (not marked);
- timestamps of the "early number/late date" type (marked "->"), that are out of sync because they leap forward in time.

36041/32 Liccardi Motors, Inc., Green Brook, NJ, orig. date 02-54;
36148/32 Brodlieb Motors, Inc., Woodmere, NY, orig. date 03-54;
36285/74 Poll Motor Co., Inc., Sheridan, WY, orig. date 05-54;
36315/53 Iverson-Max Motors, Mitchell, SD, orig. date 06-54;
36347/51 Central Motors, Inc., Evanstown, IL, orig. date 06-54;
36485/52 Repp Motor Co., Higginsville, MO, orig. date 08-58: ->
Operative as a dealership since 1953.
36537/33 Lombardi Brothers, Inc., Lakewood, NJ, orig. date 08-54;
36589/33 La Flam-Jentsch, Inc., Runnemede, NJ, orig. date 09-54;
36764/54 Marten Motors, Inc., Emden, IL, orig. date 03-50; <-
37104/35 King Motor Co. Inc., Reidsville, NC, orig. date 12-54;
37345/31 Manchester Plymouth, Talcottville, CT, orig. date 02-55;
37447/32 McKenzie Motors, Inc., Bronx, NY, orig. date 02-55;
37694/42 Vanandel-Flikkema Motor Sales, Grand Rapids, MI, orig. date 01-50; <-
37959/43 Lonaconing Motors, Inc., Lonaconing, MD, orig. date 04-55;
37997/51 Burton Motor Sales, Belvidere, IL, orig. date 08-58: ->
Active at least from 1950-1951 as a DeSoto-Plymouth dealer.
38023/69 Brown Auto Sales, Silver City, NM, orig. date 05-55;
38107/33 Barr Motor Co., Oxford, PA, orig. date 05-55;
38165/41 Gray Sales, Inc., Connersville, IN, orig. date 07-50; <-
38175/42 Northern Auto, Inc., Hancock, MI, orig. date 07-50; <-
38304/32 Main Auto Sales, Inc., Madison, NJ, orig. date 05-55;
38513/42 Beacon Sales & Service, Charlotte, MI, orig. date 05-55;
38622/42 Naylor Motor Sales, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI, orig. date 06-50; <-
38637/42 Unverferth Motor Sales, Kalida, orig. date 12-51; <-
38752/54 Harper-Lankheit Motor Co., Sikeston, MO, orig. date 07-55;
38923/35 Falls Church Chrysler Plymouth, Inc., Falls Church, VA, orig. date 11-52; <-
38999/53 Adamson Motors, Inc., Rochester, MN, orig. date 05-53; <-
39062/44 Van Dyke Motors, Middleburg, NY, orig. date 12-55;
39075/32 Buhler & Bitter, Inc., Hazlet, NJ, orig. date 01-56.

The 1954-1956 timestamps behave as expected, as they conform to a chronological order. The two timestamps from August, 1958 are out of sync and should have been listed in the chronological tail in the 39000-39999 partial block (1956 and up). From background information it's clear that the timestamps do not refer to the start of the dealership relation. Two out of three cases in the DeSoto-Plymouth block then behave exactly like they do in the Dodge-Plymouth block.

The third case is a surprise: the 1950-1953 timestamp series also seems to follow a chronological order. The two exceptions to this statement are the sequence #36764 - #37694 and #38622. Now, #38622 is part of a Southern Michigan-Ohio-Northwestern Pennsylvania geographical group, so it doesn't necessarily count as an exception. You can't have geographical and chronological ordering at the same time. That leaves us only with the sequence

36764/54 orig. date 03-50;
37694/42 orig. date 01-50;

as the counter example against a possible chronological grouping also in the 1950-1953 series. To the best of my knowledge, both these timestamps indicate the start of the dealership relation, so it's a rather strong counter example that on its own invalidates the presence of chronological ordering here. The apparent chronology is likely coincidental.

 

[PeugFra]

As we all know November, 1960 the DeSoto make was terminated and consequently the DeSoto-Plymouth code block finishes with some timestamps from early 1960. At that point the code block must have contained about 1,600 active entries, because that was the number of dealerships affected by ChryCo's decision.

Three "early number/late date" cases, not listed in the previous post with 1950s timestamps, overshoot that ominous November, 1960 date:

38718/31 Chorches Auto Sales, Inc., Windsor Locks, CT, orig. date 11-61;
39497/51 Harold Motors, Inc., Olympia Fields, IL, orig. date 11-61;
39516/51 Beverly Chrysler Plymouth Corp., Chicago, IL, orig. date 03-62.

As no DeSoto franchises can have been sold later than 1960, these timestamps record business events different from the origination date of the franchise. Going by ads, the first two dealerships were already DeSoto dealers by 1959 and the Chicago dealership, judging by its position in the chronological part of the code block, must have originated under a different name between November, 1957 and January, 1958.

And like before, one can only guess which business events have been recorded here. Maybe adding a new franchise after having been left with only Plymouth(-Valiant)? At least the first two dealerships were still advertising as Plymouth-Valiant dealerships during 1961. But let's not get carried away. With the vast majority of ex DeSoto dealerships that eventually took out another franchise no such thing ever happened! The ones that survived to be included in the 1986 file generally appear without such late dates.

 

[PeugFra]

The Sad Story of Rezza Motors.

May, 1960 Thomas Rezza paid $25,000 for a DeSoto franchise for his newly-opened firm Rezza Motors, located in 514 River Drive, Garfield, NJ. He had faith in the future of the make, having been assured by Chrysler executives that DeSotos would continue to roll off production lines at least until 1963. In Rezza's words he was told that "'62 and ‘63 DeSotos were on the drawing boards and were going to be better than ever" and "whatever I had heard, whatever I had read in the Wall Street Journal about the car's production being stopped, was untrue".

November 18, 1960 it turned out to be otherwise. That's why February 28, 1962 Rezza Motors joined a series of almost identical law suits filed by ten long-time New Jersey DeSoto dealers from the New York Zone, using Buono Sales, Paterson, later Hawthorne, NJ, as a test case. One of the complaints was that Dodge had put out a brochure aimed at DeSoto owners telling them that they could obtain parts and service from Dodge dealerships.

The other former DeSoto dealerships settled the case with Chrysler by the early 1970s, after a judge had determined that Chrysler had already started to wind down DeSoto in 1958 by reducing the number of models, thus causing harm to the sales possibilities of the suing dealerships.
But Rezza Motors pressed on, probably because of his late franchise purchase and the stubborn character of owner Thomas Rezza. February 21, 1975 he had to concede defeat, after he had failed to prove the court that he lost any money by not having DeSotos to sell. November, 1961 he had added a Simca franchise to the Plymouth and Valiant lines he had been left with and December, 1967 he had become a typical Chrysler-Plymouth dealer. Three years after the final verdict, at the age of 51, Thomas Rezza sold his dealership to Anthony Andrioli.

The other dealerships involved in the original law suits were: Clem Liccardi Motors, Plainfield, later Green Brook; Liccardi Motor Sales, Manville; Ed Muller Motors, Little Falls; Englewood Motors, Englewood; Millburn Motor Sales Company, Millburn; Richard Motors, Bergenfield; Main Auto Sales, Summit, later Madison; Ten Broeck Motors, Jersey City, and Labriola Motors, Red Bank.

 

[PeugFra]

By now it will come as no surprise that Chrysler-Plymouth(-Imperial) dealerships have their own code blocks too. The oldest, with timestamps running from 1924 to 1962, are in the 05000-09999 block and the youngest, running up to 1978 and beyond, in the 61000-and-up range.

The 05000-09999 block has been mainly filled during the same period as the Dodge-Plymouth and DeSoto-Plymouth blocks, but is does not always behave in the same way. At first glance, it is the most chaotic block of all and that's why I put it back for a while. Geographical grouping is yet more difficult to pin down here, the first being a Minnesota group at #06455-06535 and the last a Pennsylvania group at #08837-08948. But there are large stretches in between where nothing of the kind emerges.

As to timestamp ordering, the 05000-09999 block also has its quirks. The block starts off with a clear chronological order running from 1948 all the way up to November, 1954. Only it does this by running down the code range! Examples:

06333 McCune Motors, National City, CA, orig. date 01-48;
06045 Novo Motors, Inc., Bernardsville, NJ, orig. date 12-49;
05762 Burnside Motors, Inc., East Hartford, CT, orig. date 11-50;
05607 Highway Motors, Inc., Harrisonburg, VA, orig. date 11-51;
05438 M. & M. Motor Co., Byrdstown, TN, orig. date 12-52;
05239 McClane Motor Sales, Inc., Newton, IL, orig. date 11-53;
05002 Frank C. Videon, Inc., Newton Square, PA, orig. date 11-54.

These were mainly newly opened dealerships. Checking for new starters from later dates it appears that those are strewn throughout the rest of the code block, in between much older dealerships. Like was seen for mid-1950s-and-later dealerships in the Dodge-Plymouth and DeSoto-Plymouth blocks, they follow their own chronological order:

06171 Wallace McKay Motor Co., North Platte, NE, orig. date 01-55;
06317 Hartford Motors, Inc., White River Junction, VT, orig. date 03-55;
06347 Newburgh Park Motors, Inc., Newburgh, NY, orig. date 04-55;
07168 Garsten Motors, Inc., Riverhead, NY, orig. date 05-56;
07445 Ira Young Auto Co., Inc., Temple, TX, orig. date 08-56;
07941 Collins Motor Co., Laurel, DE, orig. date 10-56;
08789 C.F. Schwartz Motor Co., Inc., Dover, DE, orig. date 08-57;
09125 County Car Center, Inc., Baltimore, MD, orig. date 11-57;
09610 Mid City Chrysler Plymouth Co., Arlington, TX, orig. date 06-58;
09765 Scully & McDonald, Windsor, CT, orig. date 09-58;
09825 E.M. Rinehart, Inc., Stroudsburg, PA, orig. date 10-59;
09829 Sollock-Turner, Inc., Houston, TX, orig. date 03-59;
09861 Griffin Motors Co., Meadville, PA, orig. date 05-59;
09866 Lewis Goodman, Inc., Syracuse, NY, orig. date 05-59.

They become more frequent toward the end of the 05000-09999 range, with the last three actually slightly predating their common predecessor (#09825, orig. date 10-59). The end of this code block is not so clearly chronological like was seen with the Dodge-Plymouth and DeSoto-Plymouth blocks.

The start however shows an unexpected similarity to the DeSoto-Plymouth block. Each in its own way appears to have been put to use at a later date with respect to the central part of their blocks. As a consequence, 35000-35999 remained almost empty and 05000-05999 was filled up backwards. Also note this parallel:

06000 start Chrysler-Plymouth (hypothetical)
36000 start DeSoto-Plymouth (hypothetical)
41000 continuation Dodge (observed)
51000 start Dodge-Plymouth (observed)
61000 continuation Chrysler-Plymouth (observed)

 

[PeugFra]

Timestamps recorded in the 05000-09999 range do not finish in 1959. Again interspersed throughout the block, and thus unconnected to the 1955-1959 timestamp series, are:

06149 Bigelow Motors, Inc., Belleville, NJ, orig. date 01-60, ex DeSoto dealer;
06365 Cline Chrysler Plymouth, Inc., Southgate, KY, orig. date 03-60;
06413 Byrne Motors, Inc., Princeton, IN, orig. date 04-60, Chrysler-Plymouth-Imperial dealer since 1955;
07203 West Motor Company, Inc., Preston, ID, orig. date 05-61, ex DeSoto dealer;
07236 Reedman Corp., Langhorne PA, orig. date 05-61, ex DeSoto dealer;
07346 Cheney Motor Sales, Inc., Crestline, OH, orig. date 11-60, ex DeSoto dealer;
08069 Scism Motor Co., Bloomfield, MO, orig. date 06-62, ex DeSoto dealer.

The ex DeSoto dealers here have changed code block and have been assigned a Chrysler dealership number, much unlike the majority of ex DeSoto-Plymouth dealerships, whose account numbers stayed in the 35000-39999 block after adding a Chrysler(-Imperial) franchise. This runs against the general practice of sticking to the originally assigned dealership number, whatever franchises may have been added later on. #06413 has an updated timestamp, so #06365 is possibly the only dealership in this group that newly opened with a Chrysler-Plymouth franchise.

 

[69CoronetRT]

Amazing work. Thank you.

 

[PeugFra]

The last chapter begins ...

The start of the 61000-and-up code block also contains timestamps between 1956 and 1960, so during that period both Chrysler-Plymouth blocks were being managed simultaneously. From the dealership numbers I was able to check, it appears that Plymouth(-Valiant) franchises were exclusively recorded in the 61000-and-up block whereas Chrysler-Plymouth(-Imperial) franchises went into the 05000-09999 block. So for four years Plymouth had a code block all of its own:

61016 Kuhn Motors, Inc., Hanover, PA, orig. date 04-56; "First Plymouth Dealer In Penna.";
61116 Bales Motor Co., Inc., Jeffersonville, IN, orig. date 04-57; "Meet your newest Plymouth dealer: Get his "grand opening" deal on a big, new Plymouth!";
61210 Baxter Chrysler Plymouth, Inc., Omaha, NE, orig. date 11-57; formerly Baxter Plymouth, Inc., a Plymouth-Renault dealership;
61296 Whipple & Ruff Plymouth Center, Ventura, CA; opened June 1, 1959 as Plymouth-Valiant dealer;
61339 Jack Powell Chrysler Plymouth, Inc., Escondido, CA; orig. date 10-59; formerly Jack Powell Motors, active around 1959-1961 as Plymouth-Valiant dealer;
61401 Alley's Plymouth Center, Inc., Kingsport, TN, orig. date 01-60; "New Sales and Service Center for PLYMOUTH, VALIANT".

The first newly aquired Chrysler-Plymouth franchise in this block comes up in August, 1960, when Edward P. Owens, an ex FBI agent, settles down in Winston-Salem, NC, to buy the Motor Sales Co., Inc.:

61482 Ed Owens Chrysler Plymouth, Winston-Salem, NC; acquired August 14, 1960

I especially like this info in the link: "The business deal included the inventory, fixtures, equipment, and used cars of Motor Sales Company, “everything but the accounts and notes receivable.”" New dealership number due!

Another one from the summer of 1960 is:

61506 Mark Motors, Inc., Arlington Heights, IL; opened September 24, 1960 as "Authorized Dealer for CHRYSLER-IMPERIAL-PLYMOUTH-VALIANT ... and MERCEDES-BENZ"

Yes, one of the first MB dealers in the States.