Here's a few pics of Benke AMC Jeep Renault GMC truck, located at 1488 Saxonburg Blvd, Tarentum Pa 15084.
This is roughly 20-25 miles north of Pittsburgh, & about 10 miles from my home. Benke is the dealership I went to in the mid 80's, looking for parts for my 68 AMX. The parts manager, & owner was Carl Benke, as nice of a guy as you will ever meet. He was very friendly to a kid like me, who really didn't know too much about cars. Talk to any of the local AMCer's & mention Carls name, you're sure to get a story about what a great guy he was. I remember one of my buddys stopping at the dealership for parts for his 74 Javelin. It was close to lunch time, so Carl took him home & had the Mrs make lunch for them. Afterwards he showed my buddy his personal Javelin tucked away in his garage.
Oddly, I can't remember much about the outside of the building, such as what signs there were, or where they were placed. I can remember the glass display cases in the back of the showroom, where the parts dept was. They were full of Rambler & AM marked accesories, all the group 15 stuff & racks of ancient touchup paint on the top of the counter. The showroom was small, one or two cars, acessed thru the garage door you see on the left hand side of the front of the building. I also remember an ancient soda machine in the showroom, the type that dispensed 7 oz bottles. There was a case on the floor next to it for the empties. To the left of the building was the parking lot for new & used cars, & a driveway that went up to the upper level of the building. I remember stopping by when the Jeep Cherokee Limiteds came out. There were 6 or so lined up, looking sharp in Black with gold trim.
Around 87 or so my mom bought a used SX/4 from Benke. I went out with her to look it over before she signed the papers, & everyone there was really nice. They knew how to treat the custome right!
After the Chrysler takeover, Benke moved a couple of times to a higher visibility location. They closed 3-4 years ago.
Somewhere I still have one of Carl's business cars. And thru a friend, I was able to buy the 4' X 4' Select Used Cars sign. It hangs in my living room.
