For years, even before World War II, John Comollo had an auto repair garage on Vallejo St., near Stockton.  The old garage building he occupied at 753 Vallejo survived until 10 years ago.

In the years around WWII, John acquired the Nash automobile franchise, which supported his family in the Marina very nicely.

He had a lovely daughter, Gloria, who fell for a young man, Bob Ragozzino, whose family had moved from New York a few years before.  Bob was one of eleven children.  John Comollo wasn’t too pleased with his daughter’s choice; one of eleven North Beach kids wasn’t likely to have any money.

Bob and Gloria graduated from Galileo High School – he in ‘38, she in ’41, and married in 1942.  After a stint in the Army, Bob went to work for his father-in-law.  John quickly came to respect Bob’s ability.  Their Nash business thrived, and in 1954 they moved to a fine, new showroom (later Tower Records) at Bay and Columbus (see photo).

Nash morphed into Rambler, and the car business was changing.  Little neighborhood dealerships were dying out.  San Francisco had two main auto rows, Van Ness Avenue and Geary Blvd.  Bob moved Reynolds Rambler to 2nd and Geary (the Ragozzino family had previously anglicized their name to Reynolds).  It was 1960, and while Rambler was prospering, new brand names were appearing and growing.  Volkswagen was, by 1960, a force to be reckoned with, but many of their import competitors lacked a good product, or good service, or both.  VW was as dominant in the import market, with about a 70% market share, as the Model T Ford had been in the overall market forty years before.

Toyotas and Datsuns had appeared in 1958, with products ill-suited to the US.  They withdrew, and went home to plan a better attack on the market.  By the mid-60s, they had some very acceptable cars.  Bob Reynolds noticed, and took on the Toyota franchise in 1966.

In 1972, a young SF State student named John Horton applied for an entry-level job at Reynolds Toyota.  Bob always had a good nose for the future, and in a few years he decided to make John his successor.

Years later, John had completed his buy-out of the dealership.  Bob had retired, but continued to be a valued counselor.  Toyota had become the top-selling auto brand in San Francisco and San Francisco Toyota was the top-selling dealership in San Francisco.

Sadly, my good friend Bob Reynolds passed away earlier this year.  Recently, Gloria agreed to let me look through her comprehensive scrapbook.  It’s a history of the car business in San Francisco – way too much to reproduce here.  But the three photos – Nash at Bay and Columbus, Rambler at 2nd and Geary, and Toyota, also at 2nd and Geary, tell the story of Bob Reynold’s tenacity and vision.

BMW M3: Today’s Olds 88

Back when GM mattered, and Oldsmobile was a million-car-a-year-brand, real people who loved cars bought three-carb Olds 88’s called J2’s.  They could hold their own at the dragstrip or the drive-in.  No one ever imagined that Olds would ever by anything but a hot brand.

Now they’re gone, and replacing Olds 88’s, Buick Centuries and quick, handsome Caddies is the German trio of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. They are the top prestige brands in most world markets.  They’ve achieved international dominance that no car brands have ever enjoyed before.

This BMW shows why.  It’s 420 hp V8, seven speed dual-clutch transmission (a manual transmission shifted automatically), 19” wheels and wi-i-i-de tires are every little boys’ dream – if little boys still dream about cars. It’s a handsome, if not restrained, body design, with a tastefully trimmed interior.  It’s the best looking of all the folding metal roof convertibles.  Every detail of this car reeks of quality and competence.

BMW may know their target customer better than any other car maker. They’ve brought worldwide sales up to a million a year, and still manage to be regarded as exclusive.  They’ve figured out how to develop cars that command a premium price (this M3 is about $70,000!) that customers regard as fair.  Even though the German trio are not as totally defect-free as their Japanese competitors, they’re close enough that the difference doesn’t matter.

Their greatest competition is with one another, or even their own other models.  As much as I liked the M3, it’s a “hard” car, tilted very much to competitive driving. For some drivers, occasional doses of this car would be enough.  A recent test car, the BMW 128 convertible, actually attracted me more because of its simplicity and directness, not to mention a price one-third lower.

You could experiment up and down, throughout the BMW range.  You’d find every model very well executed, and fit for its intended task.  The big 7-series sedans are fine executive transport.  Any M-labeled car, the hot variation in each series, is an edgy, exciting car for road or track.  The middle range 3-series, in standard form, is the defining sport sedan.  The C-class Mercedes, A-4 Audi, G35 Infiniti and the IS Lexus all want to be a 3-series.  They all come close – the Infiniti perhaps the closest.  But the 3-series is the indisputable benchmark.