The Ten Best/Worst Local Car Ads

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Carmakers spend millions developing perfect ad campaigns for their cars, yet the ads you actually end up seeing are made for ten bucks by your local dealer. As Jalopnik readers know, the local spots are usually better.

Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

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Is there any local dealership ad that we missed? Do you have a tiny dealership in your town that advertises by driving around town shouting at people through a loudspeaker? Do they have wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men? Let us know in Kinja below.

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Photo Credit: The Truth About Cars


10.) Maxie Price Chevrolet

This, dear friends, is how the Corvette C7 is going to be sold in a few years. Think of all the money GM is spending on PR and marketing now, and then imagine this guy doing another ad with the Stingray in mind.

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Suggested By: dai_bb

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9.) Eastern Motors Alexander Ovechkin

Eastern Motors serving the D.C. area manages to get some fairly high-profile athletes to be in its ads. Whether or not they grease them with free booze is unknown.

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Suggested By: molotovmaz

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8.) Gary Busey For Century 3 Kia

We've seen Gary Busey's car dealership ads before and we are still just as horrified by them today.

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Suggested By: dml955i

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7.) Ralph Williams Bay Shore Chrysler-Plymouth

Ah, a classic angry, swearing car dealer in the Bay Area. We miss late night TV from back in the day.

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Suggested By: $kaycog

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6.) Winnebago Man

Technically this isn't a dealership ad, but outtakes for dealership commercials.We don't care, Winnebago Man still brings us to tears.

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Suggested By: Stig-a-saw-us-wrecks

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5.) Danbury Volkswagen, Connecticut

This "Matchmaker" spot is actually a pretty good ad. Surprising, I know.

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4.) Johnson Automotive Badger

Again, this is one of the better ad campaigns we've seen about cars. Why is it that regular carmakers can't do something this clever?

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Suggested By: SupahMaing

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3.) Cuban Gynecologist

Well, not all local car ads can be as good as those last two. Sometimes they elevate themselves to greatness by their unimaginable terribleness.

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Suggested By: Biased Waffles

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2.) Trunk Monkey

What started as a series of local ads for Suburban Auto Group in lovely Sandy, Oregon, these trunk monkey spots have become a business in and of themselves. You could see the trunk monkey as far out as New Zealand.

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Suggested By: El_Chingaso

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1.) Go See Cal!

Cal Worthington is a legend. You can say "go see Cal" to anyone in the American West and they will immediately revert to their five year old self sitting in front of the TV watching some guy in a big hat play with tigers and elephants and whatever else he could get out of his presumable dealership zoo. Did you know he ended up married to and divorced from an Icelandic singer? We're not surprised.

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Suggested By: Wheatieboy