Studebaker Accident Insurance Policy

[Carl Purdy]

http://www.archive.org/details/dmbb08803

[DEEPNHOCK]

Should read Studebaker 'paid for' accident insurance policy, shouldn't it?
Good find!

http://www.archive.org/details/dmbb08803

[BobPalma]

Yep.

From the March 12, 1956 Paris [IL] Beacon-News.

I've had this ad in Dad's dealer scrapbook ever since it was published, but 'always wondered why it didn't have the locally-added dealer tag line: Palma-Rhoads Motors: Packard-Nash-Studebaker. But it didn't. It was published in their local paper just as you see it:

[showbizkid]

Interesting marketing angle. Nowadays, the lawyers and marketers would never approve a program like this. They'd say that "it might give people the idea that they're going to be in more accidents in a Studebaker... that they need that policy." Feh.

[comatus]

What an interesting angle. Henry Kaiser started a health care company to provide an employee benefit when wages were frozen. That established the custom of getting hospitalization and health insurance through the employer. The rest of his empire is sold off, merged, traded away or shut down, but Kaiser Healthcare is Permanente.

GE couldn't wait to get out of "consumer goods" and into insurance -- then couldn't wait to get out of that, too. You have to wonder what the insurance/investment landscape would look like now if the custom had arisen of buying accident insurance through your car maker. It would have made for some darned exciting dealer meetings, that's for sure. And they'd have never crashed that '59 BelAir.

[BobPalma]

What an interesting angle. Henry Kaiser started a health care company to provide an employee benefit when wages were frozen. That established the custom of getting hospitalization and health insurance through the employer. The rest of his empire is sold off, merged, traded away or shut down, but Kaiser Healthcare is Permanente.

GE couldn't wait to get out of "consumer goods" and into insurance -- then couldn't wait to get out of that, too. You have to wonder what the insurance/investment landscape would look like now if the custom had arisen of buying accident insurance through your car maker. It would have made for some darned exciting dealer meetings, that's for sure. And they'd have never crashed that '59 BelAir.

Hear, hear; I like that idea, Mike. <GGG> BP

[BobPalma]

'Looks like the 1956 Studebaker Life Insurance Policy idea is in deep do-do, per this Rumor Mill item from the July 1956 Motor Trend.

'Better cash 'em out while you can: Hell hath no fury (Golden Commando engine notwithstanding) like an insurance broker's lobby scorned:



<GGG> BP

[Corvanti]

this may be a little OT, but another brain synapse fired...
the first time i bought a car from a dealer (gm), was in 1974 (i was 19). a '73 Opel GT... loved that car...
anyway, i recall the dealer placed in the sales contract "auto insurance" - not disability or life ins. - at a rate about 4 to 5 times my agent had quoted me before i went back in to close the deal.
of course, i said "heck, no!" or words to that meant the same , and gave them my agent's card.

was that "standard practice" back then? just curious...

[BobPalma]

this may be a little OT, but another brain synapse fired...
the first time i bought a car from a dealer (gm), was in 1974 (i was 19). a '73 Opel GT... loved that car...
anyway, i recall the dealer placed in the sales contract "auto insurance" - not disability or life ins. - at a rate about 4 to 5 times my agent had quoted me before i went back in to close the deal.
of course, i said "heck, no!" or words to that meant the same , and gave them my agent's card.

was that "standard practice" back then? just curious...

Standard Practice might be best defined as whatever you can get away with in a given market.

Especially if you (or the customer) appears young and innocent. <GGG> BP

[Corvanti]

thanks, Mr. P - that's what i thought, even back then.

[StudeRich]

The money making gimmick that MOST if not all Car Dealers used was to "help you out" by FINANCING the Car for you.
The Dealer my Dad worked for used Bank of America, and I am sure they got their cut of that.

[studegary]

The money making gimmick that MOST if not all Car Dealers used was to "help you out" by FINANCING the Car for you.
The Dealer my Dad worked for used Bank of America, and I am sure they got their cut of that.

Most car dealers give the salesman or closer a cut of the profit on in-house financing. I worked for a dealer that retained all of the profit and did not even give the salesman a token payment. Besides that, the salesman (me) had to make out all of the paperwork and deal with the bank or finance company. I financed very few cars there. I sent the customers off to their credit union or bank where they got a better deal. Every once in a while, someone wanted everything done at the dealer just to keep things simpler for them. They didn't realize that this laziness cost them hundreds of dollars over the life of the loan. The factory representative came in and asked why our dealership had so few finance deals. I told him straight out the reason. The dealer principal/owner got VERY angry with me, but retaned me because I had a good reputation and a high sales rate and CSI of 100.