Dealership That Time Forgot

[AR2]

I ran across this story on Fox News and thought it would make an interesting read for the forum. Some of it sounds like my grandpa's old dealership, but the building and franchise don't go back that far.

Those must have been the days. I'm just a little too young to have experienced them, but my grandpa's dealership was somewhat close.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/...ntcmp=HPBucket

[possum]

Looks like my place, and we are still open!

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by AR2

I ran across this story on Fox News and thought it would make an interesting read for the forum. Some of it sounds like my grandpa's old dealership, but the building and franchise don't go back that far.

Those must have been the days. I'm just a little too young to have experienced them, but my grandpa's dealership was somewhat close.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/...ntcmp=HPBucket

That is pretty cool. (And also a little bit sad.)

I bet there are several other stores in rural America that are in similar condition - dealerships that closed down and remained virtually untouched ever since.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by possum

Looks like my place, and we are still open!

Happy to hear you're still open and taking care of customers. It's been a tough fight for the 789 and there have been a lot of stores that closed down over the past five years.

On a different note, I was just thinking of you a few weeks ago - I found your first post on the forum when I was reading the thread about Jim Press' "meltdown" conference call.

[ohiobuckeyes]

When reading this article one dealership came to my mind. Matthews Motor Company, this 90 year old former Chevrolet dealership still family owned and operated since 1924/1925.

Here is the Google Street View of the dealership....

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by ohiobuckeyes

When reading this article one dealership came to my mind. Matthews Motor Company, this 90 year old former Chevrolet dealership still family owned and operated since 1924/1925.

That's pretty cool - keeping a business operational (and in the same family) for 90 years is no small feat.

I checked out the Matthews Motor Company website and learned that they were one of the GM OLDCO dealers that lost their franchise when GM went bankrupt.

It was interesting to read how the dealership survived the Great Depression (they operated two school buses) and WWII when there were no cars being built for public consumption. (they operated two coal trucks.)