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. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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