Cool Chevy Dealership Story

[Mr. Chevy]

My Wife & I were on vacation this past week. We turned it into a road trip visting relatives in Harrow, Ontario Canada which is approx. 30 minutes east of Windsor. Went to a real cool car show at a place called Heritage Village in a neighboring comunity of Harrow called Essex. There were a ton of nice muscle cars there and a swap meet.. I'll try to post the pictures I took from the car show at a later time.
We then traveled the northern shore of Lake Erie into Niagra Falls and then into upstate New York and into the Lake Placid area which was beautiful to say the least!! There was a H.O.G.(Harley Davidson Rally) that was going on in the Lake Placid area which was very cool!!

I told my wife that one of the stops we must make was to Gillogly Chevrolet in West Seneca, New York which is a suburb of Buffalo. This is where my 1970 Nova SS 396 car was originally purchased. I had never visited the dealership and was fortunate that it was still in business and has been in the same location since 1954 when Fred Gillogly opened it. While inside the dealership I met an older salesman who had been selling cars since 1970. He has only worked at Gillogly for the past 7 years. I proceeded to tell him about my car and its history to the dealership having been delivered there on March 6, 1970. I inquired as to any old dealership memorabilia that may be there from the late 60s/early 70s. At first he looked at me like I was speaking Chinese to him. Here we are my Wife and I sitting at this guys desk and he was probably thinking we were there to buy a new car!! I began to think that I was getting no where with him because he just did not seem to be interested in what I was talking about. After about ten minutes of speaking to him he seemed to finally catch on as to what I was looking for & talking about. I told him I was willing to pay for any old items. He said, "what a few minutes and I'll be right back." He left his desk and returned a short while later with a back pack, ball cap, T-shirt, front license plate, dealer sticker for the rear of the vehicles, license plate bracket, and an old early 70s vintage ink pen and key chain with the dealer name on it. The other items were fairly new but still cool and all had the dealer name on same. He stated that there was also some old dealership coupon books he located in an old desk drawer while in a meeting in the dealership that date back to the early 70s or late 60s. He stated he would send them to me and could not find them at the time I was there.

He turned out to be the nicest fella and wanted me to bring my car there for the annual car show that they have there every July. He took the time to give my Wife and I a tour of the dealership. He showed me the older sections of same. There were some very neat plaques hanging on the walls that dated back to the 1950s and early 1970s that were dealer recognitions and awards from Chevrolet. I was taking pictures of all this stuff and the older part of the showroom which is now a waiting area and parts counter. The parts guys were looking at me like I was some kind of GOOF!! I had to laugh because I guess they just didn't understand what was going on through my brain at the time and probably were not REAL car guys!!

P.S. this was the best part of the trip but I would not tell my Wife that!!

Rich

[mockingbird812]

Rich

Terrific story. Can't wait to see your pix. It sure is nice piecing together the history on these neat old rides.

[Mr70]

Cool experience.

[bowtie3168]

That was very a very cool story. Since this seems like a good time for show and tell, back in 1994 "Vette" magazine did a story on a 1969 Corvette that (at that time) resides in Australia. Rare car, far away, but what made it special was that it had orginally been delivered to the dealer that I worked for. I showed the article to my boss Thomas J. Defelice Sr. who sold the car new. He got the biggest charge out of the fact that the car and paperwork were in the magazine, he told me that he thought originally that the guy (who bought the car) was crazy because the L88 option was "pricey". I still have the article, hopefully someday I will get to tell the owner the story as Tom Sr. has passed on, great guy honest as the day is long, told me some good stories of cars ordered and owned, his father, T.C Defelice, the founder of the store was great too, told me never to buy a car or work for a dealer: "who will not put his home phone number in the local phone book". TC Defelice also told me that his 53 Corvette demo was a "a real disappointment".

[bashton]

Two awesome stories indeed. Thanks!

Only difference if it was me would be that my wife would KNOW that I would consider that the best part of the vacation!

BA

[mockingbird812]

[ QUOTE ]
told me never to buy a car or work for a dealer: "who will not put his home phone number in the local phone book".

[/ QUOTE ]

Now if that don't just cut to the quick.