Did all Chev dealers use same invoice in 63?

[Stan E.]

Did Chevrolet dealers use a standard new car sale invoice in the middle 60's? Thanks

[Tom H.]

Re: Did all Chev dealers use same invoice in 63?

I don't think there was a "standard". There were common sales invoices though. A typical form used by many dealers. The difference usually included the dealer name at the top. Often you will see it is a Reynolds and Reynolds form printed in Celina, Ohio. My home town !

[Jack H.]

Re: Did all Chev dealers use same invoice in 63?

The auto manufacturers were extremely reticent to 'dictate' how dealerships conducted business. These were independent business entities and there are US anti-trust laws against 'tie sales'.

What I'm getting at is it's one thing to 'dictate' how a dealer buys cars/parts from the manufacturer and a horse of a different color when it comes to what forms/accounting systems that dealer uses in-house to conduct their business. Invoicing a new car purchase falls into the later category.

There were (are) several service bureaus (The Reynolds & Reynolds Company being one of the larger) who provided dealership accounting and inventory control services. Plus, some dealerships were SO LARGE that they cost justified owing and operating their own IBM 360/370 mainframes using off-the-shelf IBM accounting software!

So, the bottom line answer is, NO. There was no standardized format for invoicing sales transactions...

[Kenneth S.]

Re: Did all Chev dealers use same invoice in 63?

Here is the invoice for my 63 purchased from Don Allen Chevrolet in Miami. Although the scan did not pick it up, it is actually on yellow paper. By the way, if anyone knows the owner of 101221, they can have this bill of sale.

[Duke W.]

Re: Did all Chev dealers use same invoice in 63?

I usually refer to that document as the "sales contract" to distinguish it from "invoice" as in "dealer invoice", which GM produced and sent to the dealer.

The sales contract for my SWC from Alan Green Chevrolet in Seattle is very similar - not exactly the same - but a very simlar layout with basically the same information.

The Bow Tie with embedded "Chevrolet" at the top of my sales contract is exactly the same. Since the Bowtie and "Chevrolet" are registered GM trademarks, the use of such would have had to be authorized by GM.

Jack - back when I was working toward my MBA at UCLA in the seventies I had a finance professor who was a former Chevrolet dealer - in the early post war era when my dad was a Pontiac dealer.

One day after class I asked him why he gave up the Chevrolet franchise - it was a license to make money! In so many words his response was that he got tired of being micromanaged by GM. Though dealers are "independent businessman", GM still has tremendous leverage over them and makes them jump through all kinds of hoops, which are all spelled out in the franchise contract.

Duke

[Stuart F.]

Re: Did all Chev dealers use same invoice in 63?

I have my original;
1) Dealer Quote Letter (on dealer stationary)
2) Car Invoice (8-1/2" x 11" landscape form, not portrait),
3) Motor Vehicle Purchase Contract (yellow form),
4) Conditional Sale Contract (copies in green and pink),

but nothing like what is shown or spoken of. Mine was purchased at a dealership in Jefferson, WI (now defunct), and we were lucky to get such a good deal (friend of a friend) as there were "Dealer Markups" on them and long delivery lead times (ordered in April, took delivery in August).

Stu Fox