Just got my new SS. Check out the small B & W insert picture on page 13. They were ALREADY tow trucks! One looks like a conv. cpe. V8,12,16? Maybe some of you guys with eagle eyes can ID them? Pretty sad.
Bob
The big "problem" back in those days was that the makers changed their designs so often, like every year, that the older-looking vehicles became outdated and everyone wanted the "fresh" new look.
These days, with so many models for each manufacturer per year, it is too costly to make the changes each and every year. That is why it is difficult to instantly recognise vehicles unless you are up close, and can read the name, and model.
Bruce. >:D
My father worked in a salvage yard in his teens (during the depression) and he tells me that they would pay between $2.00 and $4.00 for lesser cars (Model 'T's and such), but for luxury cars, they would pay as much as $12.00 (Locomobiles which had brass stanchions for the spare tires were a favorite find). The cars would be set on fire to burn out the wood frames, then they would salvage the metal. When he thinks of some of the cars he torched in that junk yard........
Times have changed.
Remember that there was a depression on and that these cars cost a lot to maintain and to keep in gas and tires. Cars wore out a lot faster in those days.
If you could buy a new Ford or Chevy for $600. bucks or so, you would have at least a couple of years of trouble free use. The used luxury car that some rich guy wore out before you must have seemed pretty unattractive.
Hence the low prices.
Even most trucks were not as heavy and strong as the big Cadillacs.
(https://forums.cadillaclasalle.club/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi238.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fff142%2Fwombvette%2Fcadtowtruck.jpg&hash=f09411864cabb2e2166f974191889327eb2ce211)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154369/Crash-bang-wallop-Fascinating-photos-capture-thrills--spills-golden-age-American-motoring.html
Just goes to show that the Auto Industry was thinking about the safety of occupants when the change from Timber to Steel in the construction of vehicles progressed to what we have now.
Imagine how many pedestrians were impaled by flying splinters, even though they weren't involved. ;)
Plus, notice how many tyres were bald.
Bruce. >:D