Can somebody please tell me what a zone car is? Thank you, Joe
A zone car was either intended for use by someone in zone management, or was used for special display/demonstration purposes. When this "duty" was completed the car would likely end up at a Chevrolet dealer for sale.
Ed
The US was broken into 49 sales units and each area (zone) had an head office. A zone could cover multiple states or a bigger state could have multiple zones in them. Orders and issues from dealers were run thru the zone, info from GM was distributed thru the zone.
The zone office had cars for various reasons - management cars, visitors, etc. They would also receive cars for auto show, magazine tests, etc - these cars were generally transfers and not assignations. Some zones (think Dakotas) didn't have many cars, whereas popular destinations had fleets of visitor cars for when upper management visited or went on vacation.
Thanks guys....Joe
Zone Office info from a 1970's directory:
Paul
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Is there any way to identify a zone car? I have a 67 SS/RS convertible. I was talking with Scott Settlermire and he touught it might be a zone car because of some of the options, and build date (11/66). A/C in a convertible, headrests, shoulder harness, power windows, fold down rear seat, AM/FM, tilt, deluxe interior. 11/66 build date. There's some chalk marks around the trim tag that I've never seen on other cars. It was sold new at Courtesy Chevrolet, San Diego. Just a few blocks from the zone office
Zone cars can also be called 'Brass Hat' cars. This usually refers to what has been previously mentioned. I once owned a 'brass hat' Pontiac that was used at the GM office in Ca. The vehicles history (or warranty) info should reflect this.
Quote from: sshippe on January 22, 2019, 10:46:20 AM
Is there any way to identify a zone car? I have a 67 SS/RS convertible. I was talking with Scott Settlermire and he touught it might be a zone car because of some of the options, and build date (11/66). A/C in a convertible, headrests, shoulder harness, power windows, fold down rear seat, AM/FM, tilt, deluxe interior. 11/66 build date. There's some chalk marks around the trim tag that I've never seen on other cars. It was sold new at Courtesy Chevrolet, San Diego. Just a few blocks from the zone office
Tell me more - color combo? Engine?
My 1967 RS/SS built 01D at Norwood shows from the NCRS report that it was delivered to the Cleveland Zone Office. No dealership info is on the report. Unfortunately I do not know about its prior early history.
My '67 is a Salt Lake City zone car per the NCRS shipping report.
@BC Miller, It's a 350, powerglide car. 75,000 miles, All numbers matching, 95% original paint. White with red interior. I have the POP, and other documentation, but no window sticker. 3rd owner. Second owner bought it from the estate of a former North Island Coronado Naval Station Commander. Best part, it's a twin to my 68 SS/RS. Same color, four speed car.
I have a zone car from B'ham, Al. according to the NCRS report also.
It's a 67 convt. 6 cylinder 3-speed on the floor w/ Z21 & Z23,
Paint-Capri Cream w/ white top.
Nothing really special but cool color combo.
FSC66: Thanks for posting the information on zones and zone offices! :) Your list confirmed what I was told during my 'search' when my local long time parts manager told me that Atlanta was zone 12 and Birmingham zone 31 (and that transition occurred sometime around that period, (serving dealerships in the north Alabama area). He told me also that the parts ordered by dealerships also came in with ZONE numbers on the parts, corresponding to the regional warehouses servicing that zone's dealerships (if I worded this correctly)..? Anyway, Thanks for posting that information! :)
Here's the zone listing from 69.
It's interesting page too, because it's the number of vehicles affected by a recall. They had to figure out where the cars went, including to the Red Cross.
Quote from: sshippe on January 22, 2019, 07:04:30 PM
@BC Miller, It's a 350, powerglide car. 75,000 miles, All numbers matching, 95% original paint. White with red interior. I have the POP, and other documentation, but no window sticker. 3rd owner. Second owner bought it from the estate of a former North Island Coronado Naval Station Commander. Best part, it's a twin to my 68 SS/RS. Same color, four speed car.
Excellent!
Quote from: KurtS on January 23, 2019, 12:59:55 AMHere's the zone listing from 69.
It's interesting page too, because it's the number of vehicles affected by a recall. They had to figure out where the cars went, including to the Red Cross.
This is a cool document. Do these numbers represent just Camaro, or all of models for Chevrolet in 1969?
I think that recall was for full-size.
My '68 is a loaded 09D 396 SS/RS. I bought it from the 76 year old original owner in '86 with 47k miles on it.
The story was told to me by him when I first happened upon the car and I have no reason to doubt it as being the truth. It wasn't to get me to buy it (I was going to buy it come hell or high water and had to beg him for 3 years to sell it to me), or to up the selling price since he sold the car to me for $3,500.
His story was, he saw it being unloaded from a transporter at Charles Smith Chevrolet in Florence, South Carolina. He stopped to look at it while additional cars were being offloaded. A salesman came out as he was looking it over and they started talking. He ended up putting a deposit on the car and planned to pick it up several days later. The dealership called the following day to tell him that they couldn't sell him the car, that is was destined for CA going to a GM executive and that the salesman would be glad to order one just like it. He said he told the salesman that he committed to buying the car when signed the paperwork and they committed to selling the car when they accepted his deposit check. He said he picked up the car several days later as originally planned and that it took weeks to get all of the paperwork as it had already been forwarded to CA and had to wait for it to be sent back to South Carolina.
So I have no way of backing up the story but it seems logical.