when a car cost $3000

[old_tv_nut]

Is a TV/Stereo combo worth $1250?

[Robert Grant]

Only if you had bought a ton of WHAM-O stock seven years earlier!

How is it that the console cabinet and audio electronics that added $ 200 to a b/w console of the day added $ 600 to a color set?

Guess there were wasteful, impulsive consumers even back then :-)

[zenithfan1]

what about the Porta Fi, ooooooh. That is kinda cool though.....

[VinylHanger]

Not much different than buying a Pioneer Kuro or Elite Plasma these days. Half the price of a car, a small one, but a car.

[AUdubon5425]

Well, the layout of the stereo looks identical to a 1965 GE console stereo I had, also with Porta-Fi. While it was solid state, it was a good performer (with 6 speakers if my memory is correct) and had two AM antennas inside the cabinet controlled by a switch - it worked pretty well for receiving distant stations. I can't comment on the performance of the TV in this ad, but I would think GE dealers must have been discounting this set, especially considering their list prices were usually $30-50 below comparable sets from the competition.

[zenith2134]

The Kuro is discontinued! Shame since those were some of the better new sets I've seen.

Hey, got a '64 Impala rusting away in the drive.....Wish cars cost 3k today. Haha is all I can say, they think we're all rich nowadays!

Cool GE article there.

[peverett]

You have to remember that the cars that sold for $3000 back then did not have a lot of the items cars now have:
Seat Belts
Electonic Fuel injection
rust protection(cars made now hold up much better)
Power disc brakes
Collapsible steering columns
Reliable clocks
Good sound systems(usually only AM radios in those days)
Air Bags.
much better handling.

I have a 1963 Falcon(cost $1700 new) and I sometimes feel like I am taking my life in my hands when I drive it on freeway to car shows. Manual drum brakes, solid shaft steering column, solid metal dash, no seat belts. However, as it has a manual choke(not an automatic choke-one of the worst things ever put on cars in my opinion) it runs ok(but still not as good as my fuel injected truck).

[nasadowsk]

Could a stereo-TV combo back then be worth $1250? Sure. From GE? Nope.

[andy]

---

[AUdubon5425]

Looking through a few old Consumer Reports I have from 1967, it seems the going price for the average large-screen console color TV (none had remotes) was $600 or so. A 19" B&W set averaged around $150. According to an inflation calculator, this translates to $3828 and $957 today. Seems a little high to me.

My '66 Newport cost $3600.99 new (have the receipt.) Only options were automatic, power steering, radio, air conditioning and the light package. Funny to think that automatic and power steering & brakes were still options in some Chryslers, Buicks and Mercurys until the early '70's. Guess they needed a price leader for the ads to lure in the customers.

On the other hand, I knew an old lady years ago who bought her house on four lots in suburban New Orleans in 1938 for $850. Today a McMansion sits on that property.

[radiotvnut]

In the late '90's, my neighbor gave me his '67 Magnavox rectangular 23" color TV/stereo combo. I think he said he paid $795 for it. He said the stereo was a good one; but, the TV was always giving trouble. He said it had a great picture when it did work; but, keeping it working was the problem. I ended up junking it.