Dealer list

[Barry Wolk]

The servicing Lincoln dealer list in the Mark II Encyclopedia published in an Owners Manual contains over 400 cities with dealers, but it doesn't account for the dozens of dealers in large metropolitan areas. Just a WAG, but there were probably 1,000 Lincoln dealers in this country.

Interestingly, Pat only finds just over 200 Introductory Units placed in showrooms on consignment. How did they pare down the distribution of 200 cars over 1,000 dealers? What qualifications were there? If I were a Lincoln dealer and my competition across town got one and I didn't, there'd be a revolt.

Were there even enough cars built by introduction to put one in each dealer, Pat?

[Barry Wolk]

Were all Lincoln dealers Continental Dealers?

I love the Continental Script. Due to the age of the cars I'd say this was before the '55 Introduction.

23940

[Milsteads Garage]

A couple things since this is being brought up. From what I understand, there are huge gaps in the documentation we (or should I say, Pat) has up until this point. Most of it was from the files that Axel Holm and Bob Davis found back in the 1960s and was for the regular production MarkII’s. I do feel this is a question that needs answered and the only way to solve it is to go to the Benson Ford research center and one/all of us need to go digging. I know that the research center is closed due to COVID but didn’t you have a contact in the research center that would help us Barry? Any other word on that?

[Barry Wolk]

No in-person research, and our request to have them research the subject is impossible with their short hours or staff.

[Pat Marshall]

I believe that the Introductory Units were documented beyond 'Introductory Unit' notations on Production Orders. There had to be Dealer Invoices or similar documents for the Inro Units - that's just how Corporations do business.

In his writings Axel Holmes assumed that documentations was somewhere else, and that he and Bob Davis just weren't able to find it. It seems that that since the Intro Units were handled differently, the documentation probably was in a separate file.

We do know that many records were destroyed when the Continental Division was disbanded and that more were lost in the Rotunda fire. It's probable that the documentation was lost long ago!

What remains are the Production Orders, which the Benson Ford has. Since the Intro Units were identified on the PO's, once all the PO's can be accessed, we would be able to (barring clerical issues) make a definitive list of the actual number of Intro Units. It should be an easy process. Since we know which invoices are missing all one would have to do is scroll though the PO's and note the VIN of any PO that DOES NOT say Introductory Unit.

I've seen the PO's, they're all together. I think this could be done in half an hour without making a copy of anything.

It would be great to have all the PO's but the key information is known. What we don't have now is which were INTROs, Dealer Information and dates.

I have posted before, that when Barry and I were there we offered to exchange copies of my invoice set (which BF doesn't have) for copies of the Production Orders and we got a sniffy answer that the 'Committee" was very particular about what the Benson Ford accepts, and it died right there.

[Barry Wolk]

What we don't have is the information in the mystery box of cancelled P.O.s I found. I'm keen to take another look there. Maybe if people are more cooperative we will get back to normal faster and get us some answers.