Autocar was in Ardmore...until it burnt down. This is a really cool piece of our history. Please read this article, and you know what I wish? That we have an Autocar reunion in Ardmore some day!

Posted on Thu, Oct 9, 2008
Reunion brings 'Friends of Autocar'
By Cheryl Allison

Its Ardmore factory closed in 1954. Just two years later, the building itself vanished in a spectacular fire. Then , in 1980, its new, larger plant in Exton also closed.

Nearly 30 years later, though, Autocar, the company that brought the pulse of industry to Ardmore and helped shape it in a way quite different from other Main Line towns, is far from fading away.

A truck manufacturer in Indiana recently bought the rights to use the Autocar name, so brand new 2009 models carrying its famous “bowtie” logo are rolling off the assembly line today.

And the company lives on in another way – in the memories of former employees and collectors. About a hundred of these Autocar loyalists turned out late last month at the Goshen Fire Co. near West Chester for the 11th annual “Friends of Autocar” reunion.

They come, as they have each September since 1997, for the show of dozens of impeccably restored Autocar trucks and other vehicles. Volumes of photos and other company memorabilia are also always on display.

The biggest attraction, though, is the opportunity for former co-workers to get together and catch up.