There was a huge pent-up demand for cars in the years right after World War II. My dad was a veteran, and even with a veteran’s preference he was on a dealer’s waiting list for a few months before he finally gave up and bought a new car from a local gas station. It was from a Tydol station located on S. Summit Ave. right off an exit ramp from Rte. 17, and he got to choose between a dark blue chevy and a powder blue buick. He took the buick which we all liked until my Dad discovered he was only getting 6 miles per gallon with it. He traded it in for an oldsmobile a couple of years later.
Speaking of oldsmobiles, there was a dealer in Hackensack named West Oldsmobile. They used to sponsor baseball teams in Little League and Babe Ruth League during the early 1950s.
I remember that there were jeeps for sale from a dealer on the south end of Polifly Rd. Perhaps it was Kalman Motors or an earlier version of it. When I was growing up they used to sell surplus U.S. army jeeps for $100 each.
The 1948 Tucker Torpedo was a futuristic rear engine car with many advanced features that unfortunately was never mass produced. If it had been, there probably would have been a dealership in Hackensack. One of the few models that were ever made was on display in Hackensack for a short period of time. There was a lot of advertising for it, and there was a rumor at my school that it was a three-wheeled car. When I found out that the rumor was false, I lost interest in seeing it. The Tucker had a third headlight centrally located between the two regular headlights, and apparently that fact got garbled into meaning a third wheel instead. Anyway, my Dad went to see it without me, but he said he couldn’t see much because of how many people there were at the showroom.