Who knew? Beaver Cleaver’s dad was a crackerjack Ford salesman. Or at least he was in this intriguing 1949 dealer film.
You know Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver, pater familias, the wise and loving father of Beaver Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver, the classic 1957-63 television series. But in this awesome 1949 Ford dealer training film, he’s Joe Thorne, aka Trader Thorne, a hard-driving and fast-talking car salesman. In old-school dealership lingo, he’s a “trader,” a seller who works the trade-in side of the deal to make his sales. And in this film, Trader employs some classic techniques that car buyers today will find overly aggressive, if not downright sketchy. But either way, we bet you will probably find them fascinating.
The 1949 model year was an interesting one for the Ford Motor Company as well. The company launched an all-new car for ’49 with independent front suspension and thoroughly modern styling. However, under the hood was Ford’s tried-and-true flathead V8, now displacing 239 cubic inches and punching out 100 horsepower. (This final version of the venerable flathead used a conventional distributor mounted up high in easy reach, pleasing Ford dealer mechanics everywhere.) At just past the 16 minute mark, check out the office scene with the comically large portrait of Henry Ford II. We got a kick out of that. Enjoy the movie.
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Selling cars or anything else is a challenge. You’ve got to know everything about your product, then you’ve got to know everything you can about the competition. Then, when you get all that done, you’ve got to sell yourself, and that’s the most important part. Interestingly enough, it pays to have some birddogs out there. Back when I worked for the service department of a GM dealership, I brought a lot of sales leads from customers back there. I also remember bringing sales leads back from the coffee shops I frequented. It was surprising how many sales were closed with the latter. There was a guy who sold for the competition. When he signed on he wanted to specialize in trucks. He then started following the country roads, stopping at every farm along the way. He told me one time that people would rack their brains trying to think of someone they heard talking about a new truck. He got a lot of sales that way. Sales are what keeps a dealership afloat but the sales team has also got to realize that they still have to have a good relationship with the service department. So many times the sales department will make promises the service department can’t keep…
I am sure you are aware that the Ford convertible at the drive in , shown on the masthead for this great blog , is a 1950 and not a 1949. The clue is the difference in the park lamp on the front fender. I lived through that era and Ford built great cars. My first car was a 1931 Ford Model A Victoria which I bought not running for $30 . Within a week I had it on the road. I had Ford company cars as an insurance adjuster for 30 years. We were able to trade up for a new model every other year for about $1,500 difference. Those were the simple days. Great blog. Keep up the fine work. Jonathan Richards in Chesterfield, Missouri.
I saw that one myself. It’s interesting that a lot of people don’t know the difference between the ’49 and ’50 models. Park lights, door handles and gas tank access…
Yep, the film is listed as 1950, but as you can see, the Fords in frame are 1949 models. So the story was originally racked up with a 1950 lead photo and I forgot to change it. One of our contributors alerted me early and I swapped the photo. Thanks for spotting it.
In truth, we should know better than anyone that the differences in the ’49-’51 Ford are numerous and interesting. We did a Spotter’s Guide feature on it. So it hurts a little extra when we get them scrambled.
https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/mcg-car-spotters-guide-to-the-1949-to-1951-fords/
Biggest difference I look for to identify ’49 from ’50 Fords is the word “F-O-R-D is spelled out on the hood over the spinner. 1950 Fords had a Ford “Badge” (emblem).