Triangle Motors _ KF Distributor

[JoeKeys2010]

My grandmother kept a scrap book that documented my grandfather's KF dealership.  Here is a picture of the earliest newspaper advertisement she kept.  Unfortunately she did not keep the newspaper heading (most likely the Florida Times Union) or date so I am not sure where it dates to but I do know he got involved with them right after the war and so I would guess 1947-1498.

Prior to KF he owned three used car lots and in one of the home movies I have you can see one of the car lots has KF cars on the lot and a sigh saying KF Distributor.  He later built a nice show room that I also have movie of and the cars on the show room floor look to be 49-50.  I can see posters on the wall and one say "Virginian".  It's been a while since I have seen the movies so I will take another look and see if I can pick out other details.

I know he stayed in business long enough to sell Henry J's but he ultimately went out of business and lost everything he owned in the process of trying to keep the business going.  I heard him say once it took him too long to get a car when someone ordered one. 

Anyway thought this would be interesting to others.

[pnw_oldmags]

Any Chance you can come to the 2014 KFOCI Convention in Puyallup, WA and bring all this Dealership information??  It would really fit in with our displays.

Do you have any 53 Carolina advertisements you could share??

[JoeKeys2010]

I don't have any of the signs that show up in the home movies. I mostly have newspaper advertisements and a short write up about the formation of the KF dealer.  I think my grandfather was out of business by 1952 perhaps earlier.  I'd be glad to share anything I have.  My wife has family in WA so it might be possible to come.  I went to a meet one time in Mobile Alabama probably about 2002 given the dates on the pictures I took.  I knew my grandparents well and knew the about the KF part of their lives.  In 2002 I discovered the home moves a great aunt had and I re-discovered the scrap book my grandmother had.  That along with the Mobile show made me want one and I finally got one a few months ago, a 1949 Kaiser Deluxe.  The car came from Brunswick and before that Jacksonville.  It would be neat if I could tie it to my grandfather's dealership.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The TRIANGLE MOTORS I show for Florida was in Jacksonville.  Do any of the ads you have show the various K-F dealers in the Jacksonville territory.  These kinds of ads would run from time to time in 1947-48 as well as when the new model year cars came out.

[JoeKeys2010]

Triangle motors was in Jacksonville at 2036 N Main Street. At the bottom of this ad you cans see various car dealers that were sellers of KF but who would have gotten their cars from my grandfather. My understanding was that my grandfather got cars and parts and fed the smaller dealers. I think in those days a distributor/dealership should place a small number of cars at other lots , some of which were used car lots in order to sell their cars. Most of the ads I have were to do with my grandfather since it was my grandmother who was keeping the scrap book.

I think his thinking was that he would sell a lot of cars at the dealership and would also sell some through these smaller lots. He told his brother he was going to be a millionaire or broke. He ended up the latter.

He sold used cars from three different lots during the war and badly wanted to own a new car dealer. I think it was a status thing for him. He was 35 years old when he built his show room. I'm 49 and could not swing that.

[JoeKeys2010]

Here is a snapshot from the home movies I have that shows the show room on main st in Jacksonville, Fl.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Sorry, I did not catch them...The only version I'm familiar with of this ad was just the single dealer that was appointed to sell in the area.

Newspaper ads run in the cities distributors were located are one of the best sources of locating dealers for K-F or Willys. 

[JoeKeys2010]

see all the address at the bottom of the ad?  My understanding is those locations sold KF.  I think they had only small numbers of cars, one or two, whereas my grandfather sold only KF and had several to chose from.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Thanks, I missed that.  Do you happen to have any others that show the dealers in the territory?

Small dealers with limited capital normally used their distributor as a "storage lot".  They would run the distributor inventory list for color, trim, etc and if a customer wanted one, the dealer would arrange with the distributor to get the car (sometimes even prepped for retail delivery) and get a driver on the train or bus to get it & bring the car back to the dealership.  This allowed the smaller dealers to deliver within a generally reasonable time. 

The only time dealers had to order cars is when they signed up or new model year cars came out; they were expected to order one of each make (Kaiser, Frazer and so on) and that was it.  That's why the smallest markets were expected to sell 0-49 or so cars per year.

[JoeKeys2010]

I have a home movie of one of my grandfathers used car lots and in the background you can see a KF sign and 3or 4 cars. I'd guess they were 47 models.  The lot address is the same as the newspaper ad and was on Park street. He later built a showroom similar in size an appointments as the Cadillac dealer (small by today's standard but large for the time) that was located on North Main Street. The cars in the home movies of that lot look to be either 1949 or 1950 cars.  I'm not sure what KF required in order for a person to sell their cars, how much money a person had to have, how many cars they had to take, what kind of a facility they had to have, etc. My grandfather had two partners.   I wish I would have asked more questions.

The scrap book is in my cedar chest I had this image on my computer. I'll dig it out and take a look at what is in there and post some more online.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Kaiser-Frazer expectations varied based on being a dealer or distributor & if a distributor, what were the sales expectations for the territory covered.  You were expected to maintain a stock of new cars to fill dealer orders as well as your own retail sales operation plus parts and accessories inventories for your retail dealer needs, the other dealers in the territory & any sales to garages and other trade accounts. 

[JoeKeys2010]

So it would take a lot to keep a distributor running.  Did they buy the cars at wholesale from KF and then retail them to the public or was there some type of inventory finance?  I know my grandfather sold all of his used cars, and two of the three lots he owned.  He built his showroom on the third lot.  Eventually he mortgaged his house and sold his beach house to dump money into the company, but it was throwing good money after bad. 

The showroom build housed a television channel when I was a kid/teenager and was later knocked down.  Nothing left now but memories.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Floorplanning through Commercial Investment Trust who could also finance new car retail purchases was available to qualifying distributors.  Others were able to set up revolving lines of credit through their banks with the bank normally financing 80% of the cost including freight, etc.   I know of one dealer who went to Willow Run with a certified bank check for over $7,000,000 to cover the cost of his initial stock of new cars!   This was Walter Benicke who had the distributorship in Newark NJ covering the northern half of that state. 

I may have a couple of pictures of Triangle Motors from issues of DEALER NEWS.  Let me see what I can find.

[JoeKeys2010]

I would be grateful if you did. My grandfather had two partners Jack Larue and Johnny Garrison. Garrison was bought out prior to the collapse of the business so he escaped the ill effects of a business. He did not get to spend much of the money though as he died shortly afterwards.