You Tell 'em- I Can't: 82 Years of Ward's "Ever-Ready" Motor Record Book
While nosing around in yesterday’s ’64 Valiant wagon Junkyard Find, I spotted this little brown book on the floor beneath the rifled-by-tow-truck-driver glovebox. It looked ancient, far older than even the 48-year-old car in which I found it… but it turns out that you can still buy the Ward’s “Ever-Ready” Motor Record Book.
Actually, we may be dealing with a stash of NOS copies at The5and10.com, but it appears that this car-recordkeeping aid was printed in relatively unchanged form— including the Model A-esque talking car and disturbing cop/book mashup cartoon characters— until at least the early 21st century (the one I found in the Valiant had a 1959 copyright date). Your tire was no bargain! Your battery is dry!
The idea was that you’d have one of these books for each year of your car’s life, and you can take notes for every day; this made more sense when spark plugs and tires didn’t last for years. As you can see, the owner of the Valiant made exactly one notation, in 1990. You don’t need to maintain an A-body, anyway.
It’s probably better to stick with 1930 artwork than to update the cartoon every 25 years or so; were the Ward’s Motor Record Book to have an ’87 Tempo begging the cop/book to enforce order, it would seem depressingly dated rather than entertainingly timeless.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
Kept track of maintenance and repairs. Not ONE buyer showed much if any interest in the written records and accompanying receipts. Was the exterior/interior pretty? Shiny? Sold. Humans are, on the whole, in general, ignorant herd creatures requiring a constitutional republic since they are incapable of self-rule. Individual exceptions exist.
I keep a small spiral notebook with maintenance and oil change data in the glovebox of each car. Comes in handy when I'm trying to remember the last time I did wiper blades, LR tire, etc. Don't both with MPG stuff cause it really doesn't matter. The buyer of my 98 Bonneville was impressed with the historical data. All of the other buyers of my old cars could care less. I keep all receipts for parts in a folder inside the house. The thermal receipts most prevalent these days do not withstand summer heat.