Hemmings Motor News Blog Blog

Hemmings Motor News Blog

Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

Previous in Blog: We're Running Out of Roads!   Next in Blog: Hemmings Find of the Day – 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396
Close
Close
Close
4 comments
Rate Comments: Nested

At The Pumps, 1973

Posted October 30, 2012 10:00 AM by dstrohl
Pathfinder Tags: gasoline mpg petrol throwback

Where exactly today's street scene (parking lot scene? gas station scene?) was shot, we don't know. It comes from a 1973 ad for the Volkswagen Beetle trumpeting the Bug's superior (25 MPG) gas mileage, but as it turns out, it makes for a good carspotting image. What do you see here?

View the original article here.

Reply

Interested in this topic? By joining CR4 you can "subscribe" to
this discussion and receive notification when new comments are added.
Guru
Hobbies - DIY Welding - Don't Know What Made The Old Title Attractive... Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member United States - US - Statue of Liberty - 60 Year Member

Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Yellowstone Valley, in Big Sky Country
Posts: 7425
Good Answers: 295
#1

Re: At The Pumps, 1973

10/30/2012 10:30 AM

Well let's see...

4 door chevy pickup; '59 Plymouth Fury; '73 Malibu / Chevelle wagon with the Laguna package; '68 Torino Squire; '66 Bonneville convertible; '66 Catalina convertible; '61 Ventura Bubble Top; '61 Olds F85 Cutlass; '71 Olds 88; Plymouth Duster; Plymouth Scamp; '67 Buick Skylark; '63 Ford Fairlane; '64 New Yorker; '68 Newport; '69 Biscayne; '71 LeMans; '68 Chevy Wagon.

Don't vote this a GA... not too hard to figure out how I did it

I can't remember the last time I saw a cardboard can of engine oil (stored at the pump island, no less)... early '80s I guess.

__________________
Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
Reply
Guru
Hobbies - CNC - New Member Hobbies - DIY Welding - New Member Engineering Fields - Electromechanical Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 23647
Good Answers: 420
#2
In reply to #1

Re: At The Pumps, 1973

10/30/2012 1:59 PM

I can't remember the last time I saw a cardboard can of engine oil (stored at the pump island, no less)... early '80s I guess.

The last time I saw that was in Steve Martins flick "The Jerk". "Hey, These cans are Defective"

__________________
“ When people get what they want, they are often surprised when they get what they deserve " - James Wood
Reply
Guru
Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member Fans of Old Computers - PDP 11 - New Member Technical Fields - Architecture - New Member Hobbies - HAM Radio - New Member

Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Maine, USA
Posts: 2168
Good Answers: 71
#3

Re: At The Pumps, 1973

10/31/2012 9:37 AM

And what you DON'T see

No self service - note the uniformed attendants

No "roof/weather" cover

No speakers to yell at the customers

No videos playing stupid ads on the pumps

No safety equipment at the pumps - spray heads etc.

__________________
Tom - "Hoping my ship will come in before the dock rots!"
Reply
Guru
Engineering Fields - Electrical Engineering - Hmmm...

Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Maryland
Posts: 567
Good Answers: 29
#4

Re: At The Pumps, 1973

11/01/2012 1:28 PM

Cardboard oil cans... I just recently found a spout for those while digging in my garage. The type that punctures the can top and sticks up a few inches. Funny because I don't remember when they stopped making them, plastic bottles being the norm today.

As for attendants, it might be New Jersey. You are still prohibited from pumping your own fuel there even today. I get a kick out of that because the local service station where I grew up let us pump our own fuel. The trick was to get it just past the number but not let him charge you the extra penny!

Reply
Reply to Blog Entry 4 comments
Copy to Clipboard

Users who posted comments:

Doorman (1); Lo_Volt (1); phoenix911 (1); Tom_Consulting (1)

Previous in Blog: We're Running Out of Roads!   Next in Blog: Hemmings Find of the Day – 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396

Advertisement