Europa Motor Car Co., North Hollywood, c. 1964

This postcard from Europa Motor Car Company, a VW/Porsche dealer in North Hollywood, California, is another example of VW 1500 gray marketry in 1960s Los Angeles. If you look beyond the new Porsche 356s in the main window you'll see a lineup of used cars (see below) that includes a pearl white 1500 Karmann-Ghia (under the VW sign) and at least two other VW 1500s, none of which were offered to the US market by Volkswagen of America. These were more than likely "used" cars with only a few miles on the odometer.




The gray market: another reason so many early VW 1500s ended up in Southern California, where they were never available from authorized dealers. [wink]