Here's some pics of Pittsburgh area AMC dealer Verona AMC Jeep. They are about 8 miles north of Pittsburgh, along the Allegheny river. Verona is a small town, a mix of factories, homes & a shopping district. This dealership is one that had its franchise pulled a couple of days ago 5-14-09.
I was in this dealership back in the '80's. I had a job making deliveries all over the area, & would stop in when I saw an AMC dealer. I was looking for tail light lenses for my '71 Javelin AMX, so I always hit the parts department. I never did have any luck finding the lenses this way. I remember they had a body shop right next to the service entrance. They had a couple of AMC Renault Alliances being worked over in the body shop. They were welding the Alliances back together, after being cut in half!! I guess the cars were involved in some sort of catastrophic collision. I was shocked that someone would go to all that trouble for what was a used car, even if it was just a few years old. I guess them moved 'em on the used car lot, with the buyer none the wiser.
First pic is the front of the dealership, looking up Wildwood Ave. Only two Wranglers on the entire lot.
Next is a pic looking over the lot, down Wildwood Ave.
There's a former gas station building on the premises too. Inside is a '60's Barracuda & a Duster, & lots of trash. To the left of the building is a broken down 4 door Concord, a Grand Wagoneer in poor cond., & a '70 Hornet SST 2 door, powered by a 304. The Hornet is filthy & a little rough around the edges, to say the least. It looks like a refugee from the used car lot. Its really in a tight spot, so I couldn't get too good of a look at it. They have a Comanche pickup on the lot that looks like their parts runner, & a Grand Wagoneer with a snow plow for winter lot duty.
A couple more pics from different angles.
I don't know if how run down this dealership is comes thru in the pics. The windows on the "showroom" are filthy, with faded stickers & lettering on them. Inside, along the edge of the windows are old manuals, phone books, brochures, faded & covered in dust, & dead bugs. It doesn't look like much, if any, $$ has been spent on upkeep. Compare this to the Corwin Jeep pics. I'm not sure how Verona was able to get away with this, Chrysler had been making all its dealers upgrade the buildings & signage. No matter though, Verona's days as a Jeep dealer are over. At least they won't have to suffer the insult of having to peddle Fiats.
Verona has a used car lot too. Its along the main drag thru Verona, Allegheny River Blvd. Check out the repainted sign on the lot. Just paint over the AMC Jeep Renault, it'll work. The (faded) stick on lettering on the windows is advertising such products as the Premier, Talon, Comanche & Cherokee!!
