(Australian) ARN listing

[Douglas Greville]

Thanks for the info Mike.

Yes, my vehicle is in AWM 126 and the notation is in red ink.

When it says "Ford Co" was that Ford based in Geelong or would
it have been a Ford dealer in say Sydney?

[Douglas Greville]

On the same page there is a second vehicle sold with the same NMT-A-2737 notation.
A random look through book 20 shows other entries the same.
So I am guessing that Ford did a buy up at a particular auction or at many
auctions and all got grouped under SAN 2737?

[Mike Cecil]

Ford Motor Company of Australia were the buyer, but often delegated to the local dealership to shift the stock. Ford didn't buy at auction: they were offered groups of Ford vehicles at various locations and pick and chose, at predetermined prices. Same with other suppliers like Willys, GM, etc. Only what was left was sent to auction to the general public.

Mike

[Douglas Greville]

Mike

That was a nice cosy arrangement for the big end of town.....

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Douglas Greville

Mike

That was a nice cosy arrangement for the big end of town.....

Yes it was !

The Willys MBs were mostly bought by the pre-war Willys dealerships i.e. Stokoe Motors in Melbourne or Dominion Motors in QLD. Carpenter Co. is one often seen buyer of jeeps in the ARN books. Who or what was Carpenter Co. ? Pre-war, Willys didn't have a large central assembly factory in Australia like Ford or GM-H did, it appears the pre-war Willys sales were handled by smaller individual firms. GM-H were making Willys car bodies but they were not distributing Willys products.

Getting back to disposals: Did these Willys dealerships/buyers (or Ford) send their representatives out to pick out the best jeeps or were they allocated individual jeeps by the CDC ? Who decided what the fate of the individual jeeps was ?

The description of jeeps is interesting: 'TOURER' is one seen.

There was a long list of jeep recipients: Some jeeps went to the NEI forces, some were transferred to the RAN during the war . What became of those ?

This Australian newspaper advert is dated August 1942 which is quite early, Dominion motors ( Sydney branch ) were looking ahead at Willys jeep sales post war.

[Mike K]

A jeep for you Doug: at Broken Hill

Some jeeps were sold to individuals. the ARN ledger does confirm this. Maybe a relative of a politician !

125772 was purchased by a Major B Cook

125792 went to Mr. Cooper

[Douglas Greville]

Mike

Excellent find Mike.

Of all the coincidences, about 30 years ago I got the last dregs of jeep parts from that station.
Highly likely that the parts I got are from this very same jeep as it would have been the one
scavenged with the unwanted bits thrown in the dirt, which is where I picked them up from.
Absolutely nothing left at that point.

From stories I was told, he had either 3 or 4 over the years. But I had missed out on the complete ones by 5 to 10 years.

How do you know the ledge confirms it, could you point me to it please?

Besides that, how the heck did you find that newspaper clipping?

Regards
Doug