Photo by gab482.
Car companies will do just about anything to move cars in that doldrums period that starts just after the New Year and lasts until the onset of warmer weather. Witness the many and various spring specials, mid-year introductions, and other gimmicks over the decades. American Motors was no stranger to those tactics, but in the early 1960s it tried to move the metal with another scheme, one that today we’d call “cash for clunkers.”
In early 1962, American Motors dealers apparently had far more inventory on their lots than Kenosha cared for. While sales were up over the dismal year before, George Romney had ordered a hike in production capacity so as not to be caught flat-footed against increased competition in the compact car arena. In addition, American Motors had the redesigned Rambler Classic and Rambler Ambassador in the pipeline for 1963, and company executives were tiring of the company’s dowdy image in the marketplace.
Contributing to that image, the executives apparently believed, were the legions of old and tired used cars that Rambler dealers took in on trade and left on their lots. Scrapping the cars tended not to make financial sense to the dealers, but American Motors wanted them selling new cars instead of used, so AMC came up with an incentive for its dealers, the Used Car Junking Plan.
Effective from February 1 through April 30 that year, AMC agreed to pay its dealers $25 for every car that the dealers took in on partial trade for a new Rambler and then subsequently junked “to the satisfaction of the District Manager.” The dealer would also get $25 from a kitty funded essentially by the dealers themselves that came from an extra invoice of $5 per new Rambler delivered to the dealerships. So, in essence, the dealers had to sell five new cars to take advantage of every clunker they received in trade.
Used Car Junking Plan letter scans courtesy Eddie Stakes.
As AMC’s V.E. Boyd, vice president of automotive sales, put it in his letter outlining the program to dealers, the dealers got to keep whatever cash they got selling the used cars to their local junkyard, so the $50 from AMC was meant to serve as a prod to the dealers who might consider those used cars still good enough to sell on their backlots.
We believe this Plan will materially assist you during the late winter and early spring season to liquidate certain undesirable used cars which are of too poor quality to sell, either wholesale or retail, and yet which you normally feel are too good to junk. With the sale of the junker to the junkyard for an additional $15.00 to $25.00, the amount varying in different localities, this will give you a total return of $65.00 to $75.00 for such units.
It also offers many other advantages. These units usually create an unsightly appearance on your lot and detract importantly from the selling appearance of your later model used cars. The cost of keeping these units in running condition is usually greater than later model cars because of frequent battery recharges or replacements, tire repairs, and various other conditions which increase your maintenance cost while the car is in your possession. They also take up just as much room as a $1,500 unit.
Not to mention – which Boyd didn’t – that the used cars traded in on new Ramblers likely were cars that the competition built.
How many dealers took advantage of the plan and how many clunkers they scrapped as a result we’ve yet to find out. Rambler sales did increase for 1962 and 1963, however – from less than 370,000 in 1961 to 442,000 in 1962 and 453,000 in 1963 – so, perhaps it did contribute in some way to keeping Rambler afloat and competitive in those years.
