Despite the rise of two other digital archives, the folks at the Old Car Manual Project still offer the best all-around source of marketing materials about American cars.
It’s true that the Old Car Brochures and Old Car Advertisements websites do not have all the bells and whistles of the Antique Automobile Club of America’s digital library, such as the ability to share posted material with social media.
Nor do the Old Car websites cover foreign automakers unless their products were affiliated with a domestic manufacturer. For imports you’ll need to check out the broader but thinner coverage of the Automotive History Preservation Society.
On the plus side, the Old Car websites generally offer a much more complete range of materials for the manufacturers that they do cover. They also have a collection of repair manuals. In addition, the Old Car Brochures website archives materials from manufacturers based in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
Recently Old Car Brochures has had some technical difficulties, such as broken links. I assume that these problems have lingered because the group is run by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis.
To celebrate the website’s 20th anniversary “we’re going to push hard to add new content and improve the collection,” writes Webmaster Rusty Petrovic. “Stay tuned for some big changes!”
One change already made is that the Old Car Brochures portion of the website has been revamped — and has a different URL (http://www.oldcarbrochures.org) than the old one (http://www.oldcarbrochures.com).
Donations of historical documents and money are invited. You can also purchase a historical DVD (go here). That raises a question: If you can only afford to donate to one of the groups that archive automotive materials, which one would be best?
I’d be inclined to support the Old Car Manual Project. However, I hope that all three of the above-discussed digital libraries eventually figure out a “win-win” way to collaborate. Since none of them are commercial enterprises, why compete with each other?
Old Car Brochures | Facebook
- Free access; donations requested
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