Uniontown, Pennsylvania's Superior Drive

In the early 2000's, a couple had purchsed the Buick-Pontiac-GMC franchise in Morgantown, West Virginia and the Ford franchise in Uniontown, Pennsylvania as well as Dunbar Honda outside of Uniontown. They branded these dealerships under the Superior name. In Uniontown they had purchased land and graded the hillside about a mile from Uniontown Mall and christened the roadway "Superior Drive". There they bult three showrooms and service facilities, one for Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge, another for Honda-Nissan, and a third for Ford. Within 3 years, Nissan elected to move the local franchise to John Howard in Morgantown, Honda had closed shop as well as the Ford dealership. The Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge showroom in 2007 was taken over by Tri-Star which in turn closed their Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge showroom in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. In 2009, the hill has seen a sort of a revival with Nissan returning to the hill but to the Tri-Star Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge building. The Honda franchise was restored under the name of "Fayette Honda" and Ford returned under the name "Ford of Uniontown". In 2007, the Morgantown GM franchises became "Premier Pontiac-GMC-Buick" and has since dropped Pontiac due to the demise given to Pontiac from GM.

Cash For Clunkers

The U.S. Government's program of paying $3500 or $4500 per car turned in for the purchase of a new car was taken advantage of. There was an initial budget of $1 billion and that was spent in a week or two. Then Congress appropriated an additional $2 billion. This lasted for about 2 more weeks.
There have been over 400,000 vehicles that were traded for this program. Most of the vehicles I have seen redeemed were SUVs, full-size pickups, and vans. The program is ending on Monday.
There are dealers complaining. What are they complaining about. They are complaining that they are not being reimbursed for the money they put up front for pay $3500 to $4500. Just like typical government red tape! Dealers are also complaining that it has depleted their supplies. Today, I saw GM, Toyota, Ford, and Chrysler dealerships without any new cars and just a handful of trucks. It is true that some factories were shut down or put on hiatus this summer. But the factories have been able to supply the dealerships with 2010s yet. It is going to take several weeks to get the dealerships back up to typical supply. Hopefully the dealerships will be able to sell cars once this program is over.
Also, others are complaining because there will be less access to used parts. Those Cash for Clunkers (C4C) cars that are in dealer lots are going to be scrapped. No parts will be stripped from them and the engine is disabled. The cars will be crushed. I have seen many lots in the area and there was one car that was a rarity. It was a 1986 Merkur XR4Ti. That was a car that has some history in the United States as it was built in Germany to be a sports competitor to BMW in the Mid-1980s. Some others are complaining that in our recession with a credit crunch, people are extending their credit to buy a new car that they may not be able to afford. I hope that this isn't true as I'm hoping people were looking for a good time to trade in their old vehicles.

Country Club Chrysler - Dodge, Clarksburg, West Virginia

Country Club Chrysler-Dodge is located on U.S. Route 19 South of Clarksburg. This dealership formerly sold Plymouth prior to the phaseout of that brand. This dealership is different from other Chrysler dealerships as they are a Sprinter and a BusinessLink dealership. Much of their service is devoted to fleets needing repair. This is the only Sprinter dealership in the area. This dealership has not changed much in past 30 years except for some signage. There is currently a body shop on the hill adjacent to the main showroom. This dealership changed hands in the past couple of years as Jack Stewart is the current owner of this dealership.
This dealership in the past had local print and television advertisement with spokesmen being West Virginia University Football coaches Don Nehlen and Rich Rodriguez.

PS 12-27-09 In November 2009, Country Club added Jeep to their lineup following Chrysler pulling Jeep from Harry Green in Clarksburg during the summer. At this point, much the advertising in print and TV is focussing on the Jeep brand as well as placement of Jeep vehicles close to the showroom.

Star Motor Company - Clarksburg, West Virginia

Star Motor Company is an Audi-Volkwagen-Saturn dealership near United Hospital Center in Clarksburg. This dealership has been in existence since at least 1990. They used to sell Mercedes-Benz until the late 1990s. This dealership had been operated by another operator prior to Star taking over. Star Motor Company had been a used car dealer that had a location at the current Eat n' Park at Eastpointe II in Clarksburg. After Eat n' Park purchased that lot, they moved their used car lot to Eastpointe Shopping Center to the location where Enterprise Car Rental and Sales is now. They had a sales trailer at this location that has since been moved to Bridgeport Hill Road and operated by another used car dealer.
Back to the location near United Hospital Center, the Saturn dealership was added around 1995. A couple of years ago, the hill in back of the dealership has been leveled to create more storage for vehicles. Around the same time they took over the former Stoneybrooke Medical building and converted it to an Enterprise car rental agency. That building has since been leveled and the lot is being used for used car sales.
Star Motor Company services vehicles in the service bays at the rear of the main showroom and they also have a body shop. The Saturn showroom will be empty by 2011 with the demise of the Saturn brand. It will be interesting to see if another brand will replace it in that location.

Al Schoroeth Oldsmobile - Subaru - Isuzu Clarksburg, West Virginia

Al Schoroeth (sic) was an Oldsmobile and Subaru dealership in Clarksburg near the United Hospital Center. It was taken over by Cowan and added an Isuzu franchise in 1987. About 1993, L & S from southern West Virginia took over the dealership and it had finished up as Mountaineer before it closed in the late 1990s. The facility had a showroom and service bays as well as a body shop. Cowan had invested in a new Isuzu showroom out of former service bays in the rear of the main showroom. Cowan had painted on the side of the service bays "The Service Professionals" whose signage still exists today. The building is in miserable shape and had been emtpy for several years before a trailer sales company moved in (they also rent U-Haul).

Chenoweth Ford - Clarksburg, West Virginia

Chenoweth Ford is located on Bridgeport Hill Road in the former Wilson Ford location. Wilson Ford had moved to Fairmont in 1978. Chenoweth currently has Ford-Lincoln-Mercury franchises in one location. They had the Lincoln-Mercury franchises at a separate location until the mid-1990s. This former location was located at Park Boulevard in Clarksburg. The fomer location is now a Vito's Pizzaria and a used car lot. The current Chenoweth dealersip has a showroom with a parts and service department in the rear. The the 1990s, a separate truck sales building was build (now being used for used car sales). Also inthe 1990s, a service waiting area/reception area was added to the showroom building.
Across Bridgpeort Hill Road is where Chenoweth's body shop and prep facility is located up the hill. there are stairs for easy access up the hill. Chenoweth's dealership displays their vehicles over a couple of hundred yards on either side of Bridgeport Hill Road.
This dealership formerly sold heavy duty Ford Trucks and transitioned to Sterling. They had dropped Sterling a couple of years ago when a truck equipment company up the hill took over the franchise. Daimler had announced in recent months that the Sterling brand with disappear after the 2009 model year.

Exit 132 Buick-Pontiac-GMC - Fairmont, West Virginia

This facility was originally a RV dealership until Astro Buick-Pontiac-GMC relocated here from downtown Fairmont to get close proximity to Interstate 79. Astro had renovated the facility to make it into its current iteration. The dealership changed hands approximately 2005 and changed its name to Exit 132 B-P-G to reflect its location of Exit 132 of Interstate 79. They have a body shop located about 2 miles away.

Wilson Ford - Fairmont, West Virginia

Wilson Ford has been located in Fairmont since 1978. It had been in Clarksburg prior to that (now Chenoweth Ford). Wilson also has a Mercury and Lincoln franchises.

Dan Cava's Toyota World - Fairmont, West Virginia

Dan Cava's Toyota World is located in Fairmont, West Virginia. The facility was built in the mid-1990s by Penn Auto Toyota that had been located in the Belleview section of Fairmont. Dan Cava had purchased the franchise in 2003. Last year, additional service bays were added.

Anthony Chevrolet-Cadillac - Fairmont, West Virginia

Anthony Chevrolet-Cadillac is located on Country Club Road in Fairmont. It has been located there since the late 1970s. It has two large glass showrooms and a pre-owned lot adjacent to it. Its facade was remodeled around 2000 to fit GM's new image. It was pasted over the the mansard roof that acts as its facade.

Urse Chrsyler-Jeep-Dodge - Fairmont, West Virginia

Urse Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge (CJD) is the sister dealership to Urse Honda of the Urse Automotive Group. This dealership has been open since the 1970s in its current location. It was a Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge for many years. It had picked up the Jeep franchise from Larry Myers in the mid-1990s to make Urse in Fairmont carry all of the Chrysler franchises.
This facility was renovated inside and outside a couple of years ago with the addition of a service reception area and service bays. Around 2000, the hill behind the dealership was leveled to make room for additional vehicles. Today it serves as pre-owned cars and overflow new vehicles. There is also a flagpole on this hill as well to be used as a landmark.

Larry Myers Hyundai/Subaru - Bridgeport, West Virginia

Larry Myers relocated to a site near Interstate 79 in Bridgeport in 2006 after being located on Locust Avenue in Fairmont, West Virginia. They currently sell Hyundai and Subaru. As I understand it, the new site was supposed to be just Hyundai with the Subaru franchise staying in Fairmont. The Fairmont facility had been remodeled in the early 2000s to reflect the new Subaru image but they had decided to move with the Hyundai franchise. In the new facility, there is no Subaru image with the "stone chimney". Larry Myers had sold Jeeps until the early 1990s until the Jeep franchise had moved to Urse Chrsysler-Plymouth-Dodge.
This new facility has visability from Interstate 79 and is located on Lodgeville Road. Lodgeville Road is difficult to get out of on either end of it. There used to be a Subaru franchise located in Clarksburg until the mid-1990s and it had closed altogether and did not move.

Urse Honda - Bridgeport, West Virginia

Urse Honda is located in Bridgeport, West Virginia. It's General Manager is Matt Urse. This dealership is part of the Urse Automotive group with its other dealership being Urse Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in Fairmont, West Virginia. Urse Honda was originally Plohal Honda and built approximately 1998. Plohal Honda had been located on Fairmont Avenue in Fairmont prior to moving to Bridgeport. This facility is located on Barnett Run Road in Bridgeport below Meadowbrook Mall. Urse had taken over this dealership approximatley 2005 and in 2007 had the facility renovated and modernized to fit in with the Honda look. Included in this renovation was the addition of service bays, delivery bays, and enclosing the service reception area. Along with the main lot, there is a holding lot below the facility where semi-trucks would drop off vehicles to be delivered as the main lot is a tight turnaround for trucks.

Former Dick Morgan/John Oliverio Buick-GMC

Dick Morgan Buick-GMC was sold to John Oliverio in the early 1990s. This dealership was located on Bridgeport Hill Road in Clarksburg, West Virginia. They had sold Buicks and GMC Trucks until 2003 or 2004. Then the Buick and GMC franchises were moved down the road to Bob Trickett Cadillac/Pontiac. When John Oliverio took over, they attempted to sell Suzuki automobiles in an adjacent building that had been a Picway/Payless Shoe Souce Store. That is a current flooring store. The main Buick-GMC showroom is currently a doctor's office. John Oliverio had built a two story garage/office building approximately 2000 and is currently used by JD Byrider. There are also the former service garages at the top of the hill behind the former main showroom.

Harry Green Chevrolet - Clarksburg, WV

Harry Green is a Chevrolet-Nissan-Jeep dealership in Clarksburg, West Virginia. It has been in business since the late 1960s. Harry Green's advertising tag line is "7 Acres" noting the size of its lot. Radio and television advertising plays a spoof of "Green Acres" song to "Harry Green Seven Acres is the Place to Be". It's current General Manager is Hal Green. There are three building on its campus. The main showroom has the original Chevrolet showroom on its east end. In the early 1990s, Nissa was added after RG Motors in Nutter Fort dropped Nissan and Harry Green added the Nissan Showroom after acquiring the Nissan franchise. Each showroom will normally park about 6 cars. The main building also contains the dealership's service center and body shop. The facility was expanded approximatley 2003 to add a moden fascade as well as more service bays.
The truck sales building replaced an older wooden building about 10 years ago. It is located on the western end of the lot. There is no space to display vehicles. On the western end of the lot up a short hill is the dealership prep building. Newly delivered vehicles are parked and prepped here. This building was formally a car wash and a gas station operated by the dealership for the public prior to 1985.

What about this new blog?!?

I am starting this new blog to catalog the car dealerships in my general area. I currently live in the Clarksburg, West Virginia area and I hope to add pictures and a brief history about those dealerships. With the economy and the auto industry changing, I want to share my experiences on-line. I just found out today with General Motors restructuring that the Saturn and Pontiac brands will be history in a couple of years.
If you have any pictures, new or old, of car dealerships - e-mail them to me and I'll post them to the site.