История автосалона Manteca: от Ford DeLuxe до нового гибридного Mustang

It wasn’t quite as ironic as the late night TV commercials for Manteca RV with the late Bobby Davis tipping his cigar as he signed off with his arm draped around an actress standing in for his wife, Shirley, as they proclaimed, “Man-teee-ka!” Nor was it as catchy as the TV and radio jingles for Manteca Waterslides including my favorite “Walk Like a Mantecan” that was a takeoff of the 1986 pop rock hit by Bangles dubbed “Walk Like an Egyptian.” But the Tradeway Chevrolet commercial of 2002 that ended with giving directions to the dealership that was at the corner of Highway 99 and Yosemite Avenue in Manteca with the announcer noting it’s an ugly building was right up there. After he referenced how ugly the dealership was, you could hear a dog howling followed by the announcer stating, “yes, it’s that ugly.” The dealership that was on the southeast corner of the interchange has been long gone. It was torn down in 2003. The In and Out dining room is roughly where the showroom was. The back lot where most of the new pickups and cars were stored is where the in-line retail building anchored by Chipotle’s is located today. There was no landscaping, just asphalt. Keep in mind it was 1959. The building made extensive use of sheet metal with the showroom having a liberal bank of almost to the floor and to the ceiling windows. When it opened, it was on the edge of town and was the cat’s meow in terms of architecture given it was replacing the Davis & Hellman Chevrolet dealership at Center and Grant streets in downtown. Tradeway became Sexton Chevrolet when it moved into a new building in 2003 that was light years from the one built in 1959 when it came to rankings on the architecture style scale. General Motors shut it down in 2009 when they were thinning their dealership numbers trying to avoid bankruptcy. Today, it is home to J&M Farm Equipment. Even before Tradeway became an In and Out Burger, the honor of the longest vehicle dealership in the same building/location belonged to Ford at 555 North Main Street. It was built in the 1940s. The late Jerry Knapp owned the dealership from 1957 to 1995 before it sold. Two years later, it sold again to Phil Waterford who still owns it today. A lot has changed in the auto industry since Tradeway opened in 1959 or even when Waterford 29 years ago became the Ford dealer. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, new models almost exclusively hit the market in September. They were welcomed into showrooms with “parties” from coast-to-coast with dealers serving refreshments to lure potential customers in to “ooh and aah” Detroit’s latest offerings. Perhaps no year was more exciting than when Ford rolled out its pony car in 1964, the Ford Mustang. It was the car a young Ford executive by the name of Lee Iacocca championed as the sports car for the American masses. It ended up being a runaway success. Chevrolet followed suit with the Camaro and Dodge with the Challenger. Both of those nameplates ran out of gas although Dodge has since brought the Challenger back and Chevrolet is rumored to be bringing the Camaro back as a four model. Four doors? For an iconic America sports car nameplate? Don’t snicker. Ford is toying with adding a four-door model for the Mustang and could beat Chevrolet to the punch. There are Mustang purists still recovering from the coronary they suffered when Ford rolled out an electric SUV with Mustang design genetics and dubbed it the Mustang Mach-E. It, of course, has the get up and go most Mustangs are famous for. Most, because who can forget the four-banger Mustang built on a Pinto platform Ford sold from 1974 to 1978 to adjust to market conditions created by Arab oil embargoes. The new four-door Mustang won’t just be a re-do of the two-door muscle car although it is expected to share the same body stylings. It will reportedly be available only as a gas hybrid. And it won’t be a slouch as it will go from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds. It will get Ford back into the United States sedan market and do so in manner that is definitely not ho-hum. The last Ford sedan was the Fusion that ended in the 2022 model year. There will be people that will argue it won’t be a “Mustang.” But the truth it will be pure Mustang as the pedigree has always been focused on the changing tastes and needs of the American driver. The cover may change — adding two doors, an all-electric SUV version, and body styling — but it is what inside and under the hood that counts just like at the Ford location in Manteca that has gone from selling 1948 Ford DeLuxes to 2026 Mustang Mach-Es.