Old Advertisements - how motoring has changed.

A flashback to how motoring has changed since WW2.

My plan is to feature a wide selection of old advertisements that relate to motoring back in the 1940s and 1950s, when many of the classic cars now owned were brand new vehicles.

Some of the larger automobile accessory and tool companies back then still survive today, and their advertising can often be found at vintage shows, autojumbles, and so on. Here I'd like to focus on period advertising from the less well known companies, or names that have long since disappeared, either through mergers in later years or just the natural passage of time.

To my mind, the study of old motoring literature and advertising gives some real clues to how motoring was back then, how tough it was just to keep on top of the rigorous maintenance schedules that most cars needed, and the actual cost of driving a motorcar back when it was not assumed that everyone would have one, two or even three cars outside their home.

After the war for instance, motoring was not the relatively painless experience that it is now. Fuel rationing was still big news, and much of the postwar new car production was destined for overseas markets until well into the 1950s, simply to get cash flowing into the country following the devastation of WW2. Many of the car manufacturers from before hostilities didn't make it into postwar Britain, others did, but had to merge with other concerns simply to keep afloat. Rootes and BMC were classic examples of how some one-time independent car makers had to join forces, the former comprising companies such as Hillman, Humber, Singer and Sunbeam, the latter pulling such grand marques as Riley, Austin, Morris, Wolseley and MG under one roof, so to speak.

Supplying the owners of these motorcars was a huge network of small businesses, many employing engineering skills learnt during the war and applying them to the running, maintenance, and improvement, of the automobile. Many pre-war cars were simply dusted off and pressed back into regular service, this often requiring a great deal of the 'make do and mend' philosophy to keep them running, as funds to buy a brand spanking new car were not always to hand. Nowadays many see it as a 'right' to be able to buy a new car, and get swallowed up in a mountain of credit and debt to fulfil this so called need. But sixty years ago there was no such easy credit, and, in fact, it was often looked upon as an act of ludicrous extravagance to borrow cash simply to buy a new set of wheels.

Back then owner drivers had to really work at keeping their old cars on the road, often keeping them roadworthy well beyond their natural design life.

And it is for such hands-on motorists that companies up and down the land supplied a mind-boggling array of accessories, garage equipment, luxury gadgets, and routine service items, to aid them in their bid to keep a car on the road and in decent fettle.

Gallery of period motoring and garage advertisements:
(Also see Page 2 showing yet more old car and lorry advertising)