spf1410

From Portland, OR

jaunty75

Pretty cool. A dealer with two locations. That had to be unusual.

I like the phone numbers. One is the old letter-number prefix (think "PEnnsylvania 6-5000"), and the other is the more modern all-number prefix.

Jamesbo

Cool I Noticed the phone number prefix changed from letters to number between 67 and 69

jaunty75

Yes, the change was gradual. In the ad, the two prefixes, "BE-2" and "232" are the same, just one with letters and the other all numbers. It looks like the writers of the ad were trying to get people to realize this. Seems kind of civic-minded of them.

spf1410

[quote=jaunty75;157721]Pretty cool. A dealer with two locations. That had to be unusual.

The main store was on SE Grand, the 28th & Sandy location was one of their used cars lots.

The prefix "BE" represented the Belmont district of Portland.

citcapp

Neat old add. Remember the letter prefixes wll My first phone number when married was Hunter 4465 seems like a long time ago

jaunty75

Not that I'm saying that you're an old guy (), but that phone number would have only six digits, HU-4465, which was not uncommon going back to the '40s and '50s. I don't know when the country standardized on 7-digit phone numbers, but I see old motel postcards at antique stores from time to time where their phone number is just four digits. The area code system was drawn up in the 1940s.

Oldsmaniac

Strange that the ad did not identify it as a W car or say it was a cut above the standard 442..... I guess I am saying I would have included these exceptions in the ad!

My442

A car like that was really expensive when making $1.60 per hour......

jaunty75

It's all relative. I don't know the exact base price of a '67 Cutlass with the 442 option, but the most expensive Cutlass that year had a base price of around $3,000. Add a few hundred or whatever to make it a 442, and you're still talking a tenth of what a similar car might cost today. But the minimum wage hasn't risen by a factor of 10 in the same time period, so, if anything, it took a smaller percentage of the average income to buy the average car back in 1966 than it does today.

Plus, keep in mind that Olds didn't target its cars to the minimum wage worker. ANY new car is expensive when you're making minimum wage.

alsip455

most of olds ads were straight to the point not a lot of hype

spf1410

I love where it says "Wild cam" -very old school cool...

aliensatemybuick

Welcome to the obvious train; last stop YOU.

A W30 was not an average car in 1967, and wasn't bought by the average person.

jaunty75

No, but my point still stands. A car costs more TODAY relative to the minimum wage than it did in 1967, and that's true regardless of the car.

Sometimes I think the aliens ate more than your Buick.

aliensatemybuick

You responded as I was editing my post...NOT before. Guess you got nothing better to do than immediately respond to anyone with an opinion that differs from your own.

On EDIT: I'm actually editing THIS post now, lets see if you beat me to the punch again...

jaunty75

I have NO idea what you're talking about. I can only respond to the posts I see. If you change it after the fact, there's nothing I can do. That's why they have the "Preview Post" button at the bottom. Get your message the way you like it before posting it.

Also, I don't mind you disagreeing with me. I just objected to the snarky way you said it while at the same time missing the point.

aliensatemybuick

I noted you edited your last post (though quickly enough that it was not indicated as such), Captain Obvious.

jaunty75

Great. Now we can move on.

aliensatemybuick

You just proved my theory. In the 1.5 minutes I took to go back and edit my post (in defiance of your instructions, sorry), you squoze one in.

jaunty75

I didn't realize that there was a message gestation period in effect. I thought I could respond to a message as soon as I see it, whether that's five seconds or five years after it's posted. I'll keep this in mind, though, when responding to your posts. I'll let them age for a little while. Maybe, like fine wine, they'll get better.

Run to Rund

Many Cutlasses in 67 ran about $4400 sticker price. The W car ads weren't out there until about 1968-9. W30 was just an option code originally and was referred to as outside air induction, cold air package, etc. By the time the W advertising came out and was on the cars, they were less (in my inflammatory opinion) than they were originally. They got heavy and had less visually "trick" stuff like the stamped steel air cleaner "shroud", battery in the trunk, sneaky routing of air intakes, etc.

aliensatemybuick

Another thing to consider is that the 5 and even 6 year terms now available for car financing were unheard of in the 60s, with logical consequence in terms of the monthly payment for those who couldn't pay cash.