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CMV
HISTORY (page 2)
1940’s & 1950’s – A time
of considerable growth
For a vehicle starved population during the late '40s and early '50s, the Company was able to sell virtually every new truck and tractor it could obtain. It was thus a period of considerable growth for the business.
In the early 1960’s the long association with Diamond T trucks and Case tractors regretfully came to an end following changes in the operations and ownership of both companies in America.
From 1954 until 1966, the Company distributed Humber and Hillman cars in South Australia alongside Commer which were all products of the then Rootes Group of Great Britain.
1960's - The commercial vehicle focus
In 1966 with the acquisition by the American Chrysler Corporation of the Rootes Group of Companies in both Great Britain and Australia, the Company elected to cease selling motor cars and to concentrate again on the sale of commercial vehicles, accepting from Chrysler a Dodge truck specialist dealership. The Company was also involved for many years in the distribution of Chrysler and subsequently Mitsubishi parts in S.A.
1963 was to be an important year for the Company when it became the South Australian distributor for Toyota commercial vehicles. During the 25 years to 1988, until Toyota resumed the distribution, some 40,000 new vehicles were handled by the Company.
From its distribution of Toyota commercial vehicles the Company also became involved in the retail of Toyota commercial vehicles at Flinders Street, Adelaide (CMI Toyota) and Hino Trucks at Regency Park, SA (now CMI Hino).
In 1968 and 1969 the Company was appointed S.A. distributor for both Kenworth and Volvo trucks, respectively. The reasoning for these further new vehicle responsibilities was that the franchises which were then held, namely Toyota, Dodge, Volvo and Kenworth, were very much complementary to each other, representing various capacity vehicles to enable the Company to provide the widest range of commercial vehicles to the South Australian market.
The '70s and '80s saw the emergence of Japan as a major supplier of passenger and commercial vehicles in Australia. Thus Mitsubishi replaced Dodge and Hino trucks were added by Toyota.
In 1975 the building of a completely new heavy duty truck sales and service centre in the new Regency Park Industrial Estate was a major investment for the company. This followed the sale of the extensive workshop facility at South Road, Richmond, to the Government for the subsequent ill-fated MATS Highway Plan.
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