Goodbye Spot!

[Harbourmaster]

The last of Cal Worthingtons car dealerships has been sold.... So Long Spot!

[Ca Bob]

Yeah, originally there was Leon Ames Ford. Ames had been a successful movie, radio, and television actor. Then there was Ralph Williams, who did the dog Storm commercials as part of his sponsorship of all night movies. It must have been hard to follow that act in the local car sales business, so Cal Worthington started doing a different kind of animal each week or so. Neither Ralph nor Cal had a good reputation in terms of ethical business activities. One neighbor of mine referred to one of them: "They have to screw him into his shoes," referring to him being crooked. I would imagine that both of the dealerships did the things that car dealers became infamous about.

Once, long ago, I dropped in on Worthington Ford to look at a pickup truck. The young sales guy did everything that car salesmen are infamous for. I couldn't get him to answer one simple question: What does it cost? Apparently this is not a known quantity in the world of car sales. I recall that he kept trying to get me to discuss how much I wanted to pay monthly, and various other car sales games that I had read about. Anyway, I actually started to get a headache (rare for me) from all the irritation, and somebody on the lot told me about a different dealership that had a "pay one price" system.

So I never got to become one of the thousands of people who could say they bought a car from Cal Worthington.

[bfd]

Go See Cal…Go See Cal…Go See Cal

Once he'd start in …

Here's a 1965 Chevy, Here's a 1967 Ford, Here's a … hey, just give me first crack at a deal! I'll eat a bug!

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/b...rthington/



In a car driven culture like Southern California, Calvin Coolidge "Cal" Worthington was a cultural icon.

Go See Cal…Go See Cal…Go See Cal!

[Ombligo]

For those of us who were not blessed to have a local Ron Worthington dealership, this will lets us know what we missed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOsLdT4slsk&ab_channel=FauxMcCoy

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Ombligo wrote:
For those of us who were not blessed to have a local Ron Worthington dealership, this will lets us know what we missed

RON Worthington? Blasphemer!

[hal]

I remember really hating moving from the LA area when I was a kid, but the silver lining was that we'd be leaving Spot behind and would never have to watch those commercials again!

But just a few months after we moved, Cal opened a new dealership in the Sacramento area - ARGH!

[N-OS X-tasy!]

hal wrote:
I remember really hating moving from the LA area when I was a kid, but the silver lining was that we'd be leaving Spot behind and would never have to watch those commercials again!

But just a few months after we moved, Cal opened a new dealership in the Sacramento area - ARGH!

At least up there, you could pretend they were exhorting you to go see a UC Berkeley football or basketball game. miley-laughing001:

[Cary]

I lived/worked in LA in the mid 80s. One day, at work, I get a call from Cal. He was looking at a new key cutting machine (I sold computers and PBXs). After some initial confusion, we realized it was a misdail. but we had a nice conversation.

Never went to one of his car lots, but remember the commercials...

[jonny]

My ears are turning red
Just from reading this thread!