The pristine and original 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air – in Breton Blue and Ivory paint and lavishly trimmed in chrome and stainless steel – has clicked up just 23,000 miles on its odometer in its 56 years, in the hands of just three owners.
And with tires and some other consumables the only things replaced in that minimal mileage, it's a rolling time capsule of what motoring was like a little over half a century ago in Canada.
When this trim little two-door rolled out of an Oshawa, Ont., plant and soon thereafter sold in Toronto, a Chevrolet-Ford-Chrysler oligarchy ruled American and Canadian roads.
Imports were only deemed important by the handful of foreign car makers hopefully shipping them here in their hundreds. The hundreds of thousands that would follow and eventually tip the American-based industry on to its collective roof weren't even static on anyone's AM radio.
In those days, family car buyers were – in much the same way they viewed their politics – one brand/one party people. Most stuck with what they knew or at least believed in. And for many, that was a Chevrolet.
Chevrolet has been General Motors' top-selling brand for almost as long as it's been in business. And its bow-tie badge is currently leading the way in the rebirth of the company.
Chevrolet was created in 1911 by GM founder William Crapo Durant – on the rebound after his ouster from the corporation – and Swiss-born immigrant, car racer, mechanic and designer Louis Chevrolet.
Durant had put GM together from Buick and Oldsmobile in 1908, soon expanded it with other makes, then over-reached his backers' fiscal tolerance and was booted out in 1910.
Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland in 1878, later moving to France with his family where he acquired little formal education but became a mechanic. In his early 20s he immigrated to Montreal and worked as a mechanic but soon moved to New York. Five years later, he began his racing career and soon had a well-earned reputation as a winner and a daredevil.
Among those who hired him and his brothers Arthur and Gaston to race their cars was Billy Durant. Chevrolet decided to hang up his goggles and gauntlets in 1910 and create a car of his own.
This would turn out to be a high-priced, six-cylinder tourer, created with financial assistance from Durant. Chevrolet Motors Co. was established late in 1911 to build and sell the car. That began early in 1912, followed by a Durant deal to also produce the less-expensive Little brand. Durant soon determined cheap cars were the way to go, Chevrolet disagreed and they parted company.
The Chevrolet brand rapidly became a success and Durant quietly traded his Chevrolet stock for enough GM shares that he could walk into its boardroom in 1916 and announce he was the boss again. He was gone, for good, by 1920.
Louis Chevrolet had returned to racing and ran the Indy 500 four times, but never won, although brother Gaston did in 1920 in a car of Louis' design. He died in obscurity in 1941. Durant ended up managing a bowling alley and died in 1947.
The brand came to Canada in 1915 following an agreement between Durant and Canadian automotive legend Col. Sam McLaughlin, who had been building Buicks in Canada, which were now, as part of GM, a rival brand for Durant.
But this didn't stop the two of them from creating Chevrolet Motor Car Co. of Canada, which began to build Chevrolets for Canadians with unique McLaughlan-designed bodies.
McLaughlan Motors and the Canadian Chevrolet company were merged into GM's operations in 1919 and it's still cranking out Chevys from its Oshawa operation.
