Sconda

Scott Honda Bid Sale's Moving: End of an Era

After 7 years Scott Honda will be moving it's bid sale from 18 Wilson Avenue in West Chester, a half mile down the road to a brand new facility at 716 E. Union Street.

What is a bid sale you ask?  It's where Scott Honda sells the cars taken in trade that are not suitable for the retail used car lot, either because they are too old, too beat up, have a bad accident in their history or are too pricey.  These cars are then bid on by other car dealers and the highest bidder gets the prize.

"We get all makes, all models and all walks of life that come through our sale," says Douglas P. Scott, Bid Sale Manager.  "Universally though they all loved this old house.  I keep telling them they'll like the new place too, but they are creatures of habit."

The Scott Honda Bid Sale, which was established in 1990 has been in no less than 7 locations in it's 20 year history, from empty parking lots, to full parking lots, it's been run out of trailers or out of a car according to Jack Welsh the first Bid Sale Manager.

"We've been all over the place," the now retired Welsh recalls.  He came back today  for the last sale held at the location he opened in 2003 and was greeted with a hero's welcome, which reminded him what he loved most about the sales for all those years.  "The guys are what made it fun, they're who I really miss."

The 58-year-old house, lovingly referred to as "Wilson Avenue" may have character, but Scott Honda has outgrown this 55 car parking lot.  The new bid sale lot can hold 175 cars and the renovated 3 car garage will have an office, a computer room, a lunch area, a waiting area and a bathroom (an amenity more rare then you might expect at bid sales).

The first sale using the new facility will be held on March 25th, marking the begining of a new chapter in the migretory life of the Scott Honda Bid Sale.  Stay tuned for more news on a possible name change for the Scott Honda Bid Sale.

Scott Honda Finishes on Top in PA...again

The numbers have been crunched, the results have been tallied and Scott Honda is proud to announce we finished 2009 where we left off in 2008, as the #1 volume new and Certified Honda dealer in Pennsylvania.

With a total of 2534 new Hondas sold we were the 42nd largest new car Honda dealer in the country. Even more impressive was Scott Honda finishing #2 in the country in Certified Hondas, with 1002 sold.

It was an impressive December that catapulted Scott ahead of the pack, with only 8 other Honda dealers in the country selling more than our 369.

Nationally it was a great month for Honda as well, finishing 24% ahead of last years dismal numbers.  In the end Honda was down 19.5% for the year, while Scott was only down 9.9% in new Honda sales, but up in Certified Hondas sales by 6.4%.

"All in all we braved a tough year, we worked hard and we were able to reach on of our goals, which was retaining our position as #1 in Pennsylvania," says Vice President Duke Scott.  "We look forward to doing that again in 2010, but this time with some more growth on the new car side as well."

Scott Sailboat Logo gets Facelift for 2010

For over 80 years a family selling cars has been represented by a sailboat.  It makes no sense, but it's worked like a charm for four generations of Scott's.

It is often said that good logos must consist of five characteristics.  They must be simple, memorable, timeless, appropriate and versatile.  So often logos trend more towards cheesy, ugly, forced, complicated and confusing.

"Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning. A logo derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that which it symbolizes. If a company is second rate, the logo will eventually be perceived as second rate." 

     -Paul Rand, designer the logos for IBM, ABC, UPS, Enron and more

The evolution of the sailboat has been slow, subtle and simple and this enhancement falls in the same boat (pun intended).  The change revolved around the word "SCOTT" under the boat.  The previous font, called Textile (I'm told, never actually found it), appeared to be nothing more than a emboldened version of its predecessor had no connection to other fonts in the Sconda lineup.  The improvement centered around the use of the "SCOTT" font from the front of our license plates in place of the old "SCOTT".

The update, besides adding consistency to our logo marketing imagery, is easier to read on the backs of our cars, which is paramount in the end.

With logos on the brain, look for the new logo for our new, used car superstore.  Name, new logo and details surrounding this exciting news will be coming soon.  Stay tuned!

Andy Scott's 1st TV Ad in 1987: 80's Gold

Did you ever wonder what your parents really looked and sounded like when you were young?  Were they "cool"?  Did they dress with style?  Did they have to try to sell an overstock of 1987 Chrysler LeBarons?

For Andy Scott the answers were "Yes, Yes and Yes!"

When I stumbled upon this piece of pure 80's gold I wanted to immediately show it to all my brothers and sisters (and the entire interweb).  I announced to our family during Thanksgiving to check in on Sconda Blog in the coming week for this little piece history to make it's debut.  The whole table was a buzz as my Dad just smiled, blushed a bit (family trait) and immediately recalled the over order of 100 LeBerons that year that was the focus of his very first commercial.

My Dad has been writing and appearing in his own commercials for his Scott Family of Dealerships for over 20 years.  I remember when I was in elementary school, listening to him read his scripts out loud from his yellow legal pad at the breakfast table.

If you want to know what your parental units were really like back in the day, go into their attic, grab that box of VHS tapes or 8mm film get it digitized asap.  It's fast, cheap and makes the perfect Holiday gift.

Old School Scott Honda Ads Unearthed

The only good thing about moving is sometimes you stumble upon something of value, an old envelope of photos, some love notes from your high school sweetheart, a wad of birthday money you hid from yourself, a box of vintage car commercials from the 80's and 90's. Ok the latter may not hold true for everyone, but you understand my point.

Scott Honda is in the midst of selling an old property and while moving items from the upstairs I hit the mother load.  Inside a desk drawer were 20 VHS tapes, 1 Beta max tape and a reel to reel.  They were all old commercials made from 1987 to 2001.  I couldn't find a VCR fast enough to watch these puppies and once I hit the play button they did not disappoint.

With titles like "Young Couple" and "Freshly Squeezed Prices" they are priceless.  The graphics are awesome, the music is classic and our tag line "Come catch the feeling with Scott", doesn't read as well as it sounds at the end of most of these ads. 

I ran the box of VHS tapes down to Disc Hounds in West Chester and in 3 days, for less then 8 American dollars, I got all the commercials put on disc...what a deal.

As an added bonus I found the 1 second appearance of your humble Sconda blogger, Douglas P. Scott, circa 1984 when I was a mere 4 1/2 years old.  I remember the day we shot that commercial and my sister Emily, 3-years old at the time, was afraid she would get sucked into the television forever (a notion I had never considered and soon became concerned about as well, but as the big, brave older brother I was obligated to take the risk).  Our mother, who appears with me in the spot, tried to bribe her with M+M's, but even candy coated chocolate didn't do the trick.

The commercial above, dubbed "New Used Car" is a teaser of what is to be unveiled in the weeks to come.  There are 16 spots in all, some are better than this, some are cheesier, some are actually pretty good, so stay tuned for some TV greatness and keep an eye out for a young Duke Scott as well.

WWII Poster from 40's Service Shop Found

This story comes from the most interesting chapter in the 80 year history of Scott Family's time in the car business.  Our founder Raymond P. Scott Sr. converted the service shop of his Plymouth Dodge dealership during World War II to build aileron controls for Grumman F4F Wildcats and Hellcats, as well as catapult carts for Naval ships.

Ray would load the smaller aileron controls into his station wagon and race them up to Grumman’s plant in Bethpage,N.Y. where they were installed in planes that would soon take off to fight over Europe and the Pacific.

I recently posted over 20 historical photos on to our Facebook Fan page and in a caption below the above photo was written, "In the right corner below the "United States" sign is what appears to be one of the classic WWII U.S. propaganda posters. However only the top left side of the poster is visible and I have combed through 100's of the posters from that era and have yet to find a match. I have not given up yet though."

This is where the power of social media took hold.  Sconda Fan and fellow car guy, Al Marie saw the photo and decided to help our cause.  He did in 3 minutes what I couldn't do in hours of searching.  He Googled "World War II posters" as well as the only visible word in the poster "Men" and he came upon the a vast database provided by Northwestern University.  Sure enough, there it was "Men Working Together", the mystery had been solved.

The poster is officially described as, "A helmeted soldier, a factory worker, and a sailor stand proudly together."  This poster, produced by the United States, Office for Emergency Management, Division of Information, in 1941 was perfect for our converted machine shop because my Great Grandfather's employees represented the factory workers, doing their part to help the military win the war.

Ironically the three men "standing together" never stood together until 1942 when they posed for a picture taken by Alfred T. Palmer, an Office of War Information photographer from 1941 to 1943.  The threesome met at Sergeant Vineyard's army post (left), and assumed their famous order with welder George Woolslayer in the middle and Aviation-radio Chief John Marshall Evans on the right.

Special thanks again to Sconda Sleuth, Al Marie who helped bring all this information to light and put together one more piece of the Scott history puzzle.

Scott Founder & Sons Honored by Lower Merion H.S.

On Friday September 25, the founder of the Scott dealerships, Raymond P. Scott Sr., and his three oldest sons were honored by Lower Merion High School for their contributions to the school's athletic program, both on and off the field.

Craig C. Scott Sr. and Warren B. Scott Sr., were on hand to receive their "Outstanding Athletic Achievement Awards" at halftime of the high school football match up between Lower Merion and Harriton.  Their oldest brother Raymond P. Scott Jr. was also given the honor, for his athletic accomplishments as a Lower Merion Ace.

As the President of the of the Lower Merion School District Board of Education (School Board) from 1950-1951 and  Director on the School Board from 1952-1955, Raymond P. Scott Sr., always oversaw the athletic program with great care according to his sons.

"It was nice, after all these years to recognize my Dad for his service to the  Lower Merion School District and in particular his interest and support for the athletic programs in the school district," says Craig, President of Scott Honda.  "He encouraged all his boys to participate in athletics and I was proud that I played a small part participating on some very outstanding teams."

Craig and Warren had over 15 family members in attendance to cheering them on during the ceremony, some coming from as far as Florida for the event.

Scott Creates Historic Ad for Rotorfest '09

This ad will appear in the program guide at this years Rotorfest, held on Saturday, October 3rd and Sunday, October 4th at The American Helicopter Museum & Education Center in West Chester.  This is the 13th annual All Helicopter Air Show and it's sure to be another crowd pleaser.

Scott Honda, with help from Enterprise Rent-a-Car will once again be providing 10 cars for the pilots who will be in town just for this special event.

In this year's ad we focused on our aeronautical history during World War II, when our founder, Raymond P. Scott Sr., kept his Dodge Plymouth dealership open, his employees employed and helped win the war, all with one decision.  Read about it above and see more in our Sconda photo album devoted just to this episode in our rich history.

Location of 1920's Scott Dealership Discovered

One piece of Scott's dealership history was revealed last evening when my Grandfather Raymond P. Scott Jr., (aka Who Who) found a buyer's order from August 8th, 1935.  At the top of this document was the address "Lancaster Avenue at Church Road, Ardmore, Pa" presumably belonging to one of our old dealerships'.

So I jumped on to Google Maps, typed in the address, hit "street view" and there it was.  It seems corny, but I was so excited that it had not been torn down or altered beyond recognition, as I fear our two other stores from that era were. The unique ridges on the roof line and the downward slopping sidewalk going down to the right as you face the store shows that this is indeed the same store my great Grandfather Raymond P. Scott Sr., sold cars in the 1930's.

My plan is to drive down there, take a better photograph and present the Napa folks with a framed picture of our dealership from nearly 80 years ago to hang on the wall.

The old bill of sale is a great artifact in itself.  The older something is, the more interesting I find each piece of information.  This bill of sale shows "R.P. Scott" as salesperson.  It has those great old Dodge and Plymouth logos in the corners.  It shows the type of car sold, a "Dodge four door sedan 'A' group". It is overflowing with great information, all on a tatered piece of paper nearly 74 years old.

A new single day record!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to check out our new venture in web logging.  I got a lot of great feedback and everyone in general seems to be excited about Sconda's potential.

We set a new record of 288 visits in 1 day!

Some folks inquired about where I got all of the amazing photographs...the answer is my Grandfather, Raymond P. Scott Jr., or as I call him, Who Who (the story behind that name is a whole other post). 

My grandparents were moving from their home of 50 years back in late 2007 and I asked him to save any old photos of the early dealerships.  I came over to the house a week later to find a manila folder overflowing with all of these priceless photographs.

 As I combed through the pile and began asking questions, all of the sudden I was learning incredible facts about my family's history in the auto industry that I had never heard before.  So I compiled everything, asked 1000 questions and I am still to this day learning more and compiling more in the hopes of created a neat documentary and/or professionally done photo album.

Keep a look out for more photos, letters and artifacts in the weeks to come.  Below is a photo of the Scott History Wall, located in the Service waiting area near parts.