Cadillac Dealership Monopolies

[Paul Tesone]

A recent post in this section showed a photo of a 1960 Eldo in a dealership identified as possibly being the Peter Fuller dealership in Boston . Having grown up in the Boston area, I remember that dealership well and I agree with that observation . The post said it was one of the biggest dealerships in Boston at the time . I remember people telling me it used to be THE dealership in Boston . In fact , I remember being told that ALL cadilacs delivered to the Boston area had to go thru Peter Fuller before being distributed to other suburban dealerships . I was also told of a family friend who bought a 48 Caddy from Peter Fuller and was not allowed to buy another Caddy in 1952 because he sold his 48 privately instead of trading it back in to Peter Fuller or some other cadillac dealership . Are these just "urban legends " or did dealerships like Peter Fuller really have that kind of  control over sales and distribution during the 40's and early 50's ?  Not a bad deal for Mr Fuller if true . ..Paul Tesone CLC #6876

[Guidematic]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cadillac set up zone officies and all sales had to go through that office for any other dealer in that particular zone. I'm sure someone here can elaborate more on this.

In the 40's and 50's Cadillacs were in great demand. Resale values were very high. So much so that once you bought a new Cadillac, cost of ownership was on par, or even less than lesser makes. I can see that a dealer might try to monopolise the used market in some way in order to keep that cash rolling in. But that they actually did do what you heard is a matter of conjecture.

Mike

[76eldo]

In different parts of the country there were distributors that were also dealers. I'm not an authority on this but I know that Packard had a deal like this too.

[Paul Tesone]

Mike - thanks for your input . Your description of a zone distribution thru a main dealership is essentially what I was told . By the way , that family friend did eventually get his 52 Caddy . Not at first , and apparently only after much complaining . Not certain he got it from Peter Fuller's dealership - maybe another one outside of Boston . Whatever difficulties he had , those things would never happen today .  Paul Tesone CLC # 6876

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

I believe somewhere around 1960, Cadillac discontinued the distributor program. As I understand it, big distributers would receive x days supply of inventory for their territory and out of that, they would wholesale to the smaller dealerships. This put the big dealer-distributors in an advantageous position relative to the smaller dealerships. They could keep as much as they wanted for themselves for retail as well as having the first pick of the more choice units- spinning off the "duds" to the dealers- ie: less desireable colors, models etc. Smaller dealers would even have to "grease" the distributor above and beyond the set wholesale price in order to obtain a unit they particularly needed. All new car orders would have to go through the distributor as well and the distributor made money on every unit channelled through it. Even parts supply was funnelled through the distributor. The smaller dealers grew increasingly dismayed with the practice (and corruption), finally culminating with GM dismantling the distributor program with every dealer having equal access to factory supply and at uniform cost. It eliminated the unfair price advantage previously enjoyed by the distributorships.

This had been covered in an issue of the Self Starter a while back and this is the gist of what I had gotten from it.