Dazed and Confused About These Numbers!

[Richard K.]

I know there was a set of zones that were spread out over the country, but DID EACH ZONE HAVE IT'S OWN SET OF DEALER NUMBERS, or was there one set of dealer numbers for the whole country? For example, could there have been three different dealers numbered #475? If you do a search on the NCRS zone/dealer database by using only a dealer number, specifically #475 in this example, you will come up with:

Zone 08, Dealer 475, Nalley Chevrolet, Atlanta ('70)
Zone 11, Dealer 475, Seip Chevrolet, Chicago ('71)
Zone 14, Dealer 475, Rosenthal Chev, Arlington, Va. ('70)

Does anyone know the answer, and/or have an opinion on the above?

[Joe L.]

Re: Dazed and Confused About These Numbers!

rich-----

As far as I know, the dealer numbers could be repeated in different zones. In fact, that's what makes the whole process so confusing. If GM had just issued a number to each dealership, then there would be no reason for that number to ever change or for the zones to have any relevence in the dealer ID process. The fact is that the dealership ID was a combination of zone and the "within zone" dealer number. So, the number for a dealership was actually a combination of the zone number + "within zone" dealer number. The COMBINATION was a unique number like 8-475 or 12-475.

[Roger Coen #30751]

Re: Dazed and Confused About These Numbers!

Think about it. If each dealer had a unique number there would certainly be more than 3 numbers in their id. How many dealerships did/does Chevrolet have around the world?

[Duke W.]

Re: Dazed and Confused About These Numbers!

Back in the fifties/sixties time frame there were close to 7000 Chevrolet dealers. The number today is probably less than 3000.

Duke

[Richard K.]

Re: Dazed and Confused About These Numbers!

Hey fellas thanks for un-confusing me. I guess I always assumed that Chevrolet had less than 1,000 dealers and that's why the dealer number never went above 999. Man, with the numbers you guys are talking about, we had a lot of Chevrolets, Moms, and apple pie back then!

[Duke W.]

Re: Dazed and Confused About These Numbers!

Back in the sixties when GM had a 50 percent market share I think that nearly one out of three cars sold was a Chevrolet. That was probably about two million a year. They really were the "Heartbeat of American". I don't think Chevrolet's total car and light truck production matches that today.

Duke

[John H.]

Re: Dazed and Confused About These Numbers!

In the mid-60's, we built 11,000 Chevrolet cars and trucks EVERY DAY in 18 different assembly plants, and almost 6,000 per day were the full-size Impala/Caprice; volume was so high on that car that all the Chevrolet front end sheet metal stampings (hood, fenders, header, rad support, inner fenders) had two full sets of dies - no stamping plant press line could keep up with just one set of dies, so Chevrolet produced them all for half the plants, and so did Budd, with the second set of dies, for the other half. GM had 54% of the market in those days - today it's 27%.