Yes Dave. The first poster is correct. The picture of Harry Truman operating his own car is not a Dodge as depicted in your caption. It is in fact a 1955 Chrysler, very likely the New Yorker model as well.On our celebrities page we also have a photo of President Truman getting a 1970 Chrysler!
http://www.allpar.co...elebrities.html
We have President Eisenhower (he bought a Dodge wagon while in office) who was a lifetime Chrysler man, and many others, in the list. We are missing some. President Obama himself went from a Neon to a Chrysler 300 before (like many candidates) an election-time swap to a "more correct" Ford hybrid. Colin Powell had a PT. President Roosevelt was a Plymouth man... Bob Dole, a big-LH man.
He didn't even get some secret service people to maintain that fence either.As I recall, they even built him a nice little white fence around his house for security.
and fixed the roof......As I recall, they even built him a nice little white fence around his house for security.
Two different actions. Moroney stickers claried, and codifed the original intent of Congress in fixing the "dumping" situations. Still took 4 years of chicanery to get through to law. Original stickers did not look anything like the Moroney does. Manufacturers acted quickly to still the voices of those who were being disenfranchised by the overall effect of the dumping. Largely independents, such as Packard, Studebaker, Kaiser, etc. As well as some pretty big Ford - GM dealers that had excess inventory in markets that were already saturated with new sales. Couldn't give them away!Good point. We will need to fix that.
I am not certain what you are asking about. When the Congressional debate and threat of investigation began, manufacturers were quick to respond to the scandalous factory behavior. One of the issues was the lack of clear pricing on new vehicles. The Moroney codifed how ALL window stickers should be made. Prior to this, all manufacturers followed their own designs for MSRP window displays. Needless to say, it made for some interesting styles, as well as being in compliance, sort of, to the intent of the nature of the proposed law. Some stickers were well made, clearly showing MSRP.......but some had additional information or.....lacked the same that became quite a chore to detect amd put it all together. Ford, which originated the "dumping" pricing war upon it's own dealers, was keen on making MSRP window pricing not so easy to detect, and was not so fast in adoption of the pricing stickers. Not surprising. Even given it's all out effort to beat GM Chevrolet division, it did not succeed. By a fluke, Ford did finally outsell Chevrolet......in 1959, and not by all that much. However, by then, the damage to the industry had been incurred, and Moroney was the law of the land.Curtis, can you supply revised text?
Congress finally stepped in, to a degree, requiring clearly posted window stickers from the factory to clarify prices. Nash, Hudson, Kaiser, Packard, Studebaker, and other independents could not stand the pressure of the price wars. Many would soon pass from the scene.
Agreed! However, a smart shopper should check out many sources BEFORE accepting the MSRP Monroney sticker. MSRP is hardly "the bottom line." And do not fall for dealer price or invoice price or below sticker price.Gotcha. So basically the stickers started in 1954 but the standardization was 1958.
I never objected to the Monroney. I thought it made sense -- a trivial cost to the manufacturer but given how low dealership ethics became in the 1970s and 1980s, the only way for an average customer to know when they were paying over list. Before the Internet, it wasn't easy to figure out a car from books; you'd basically have to buy the book, take it to the dealership, and add every option up while there (and you couldn't be sure what options the car had without a window sticker.) In the 1930s it may have been unnecessary, or the 1940s, but as options and models proliferated... 'course before the 1940s, there were so many different body styles, ...
I never object to customers having more (relevant) information. A trip to the store shouldn't take more research than a dissertation.
What you said about dealers and MSRP is so absolutely correct!! In my opinion, for the most part, a dealer, doing an honest business, really selling to customers, gets burned right in the shorts due to the actions of those MANY fast track stores that just "want to sell you a car" and hope it is good enough to get through warranty without a claim. Go back to any one of those kinds of places, and the entire selling staff will have turned over every couple of months. Must move units or die! Customer be hooted!The good thing about Monroney is it does tell you exactly what options are on the car, and where the packages cut costs. The packages and options are often bewildering. And of course the list price... generally speaking, gives you a place to start.
As for the actual cost of production -- yes, it's relatively low -- but then look at the cost of engineering and marketing and warranty work! Engineering is probably the big one on a lot of cars.
Dart is a special case, I'd argue -- other than power, it's really a premium compact. There are a lot of places they spend more than competitors -- the seats for example. Its big issue, IMHO, is weight. There's no cost effective way, I suspect, to reduce weight, but they wanted it to be the quietest car in its class, because Chryslers are seen as rubbish by most non-Chrysler buyers, and low noise is associated with high quality by most Americans. (So is heavy weight, by the way.)
But yes, when things go well, automakers make lots of money. So do the dealers but they do not get the car at, say, 50% of MSRP! What the customer can never know is how much any particular dealer really profits on a car, between holdbacks, incentives, invoice, etc.