The earliest referance I can find for Southland Motors is they are listed as an official VW dealer in VW's April 1957 dealership publication (according to The Samba). This is the earliest DATED dealership list I've found. There is one earlier list posted on The Samba, but it isn't dated. There is NO CHATTANOOGA DEALER listed in it. The 1958 Chattanooga City Directory list Southland Motors under Car Dealerships, but it just gives the address on Broad Street . . . it doesn't associate it with any particular brand or state if it sold new or used cars.
I haven't talked to Conley personally (at least not since I bought a new 1981 Chevy Chevette from him 28 years ago). A lady I work with is married to a second cousin of Conley . . . she bought a Malibu from him in the late 90's and told me about seeing the picture the next day. She said she asked Conley why he had a picture of VWs on his office wall and he said that was him and
? standing in front of the first load of VWs ever shipped to Chattanooga. A couple of months ago, I was talking to Kyle about the picture (which I still hadn't seen). Kyle said something about it to Ted Jones (of the Stevenson Bug Blast). Ted told me at the show that he had seen the picture before and asked Conley about it . . . and got the same story. A few days ago, Ted went by and asked Conley if he could take the picture and copy it and, obviously, Conley let him.
My best guess is that Southland aquired the VW franchise in early 1957 and took delivery of their first load of Beetles after the 1958 models came out. The first opportunity I get, I'll go to Stevenson and talk to Conley personally and document everything he can tell me about the picture . . . and anything related to VW's in Chattanooga and/or Southland.
Speaking of used car dealers selling nearly new Beetles, I met one of those guys a few months ago. I can't remember his name, but he has a used car lot out on Lakeview Drive. I can't remember where he said his lot used to be, but he said in the late 50's and early 60's, he bought Beetles from the dealer and resold them at his lot. I was helping my daughter shop for a car and stopped to look at a Jeep Cherokee he had for sale . . . After looking it over, we quickly decided it wasn't what she was looking for, but we were there for a couple of hours just shootting the breeze. He also used to own a parts store . . . He had a LOT of old parts in the building . . . I asked if he had any old VW parts and he said he problaby did somewhere . . . that's what got the two hour conversation started. :lol:
