Under new ownership
Alan Reuber takes over at Marshalltown Chevrolet, formerly Gregg Young
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A well-known Marshalltown car dealership on South Center Street has officially changed hands after Alan Reuber and Matthew Barrows purchased the former Gregg Young Chevrolet, which is now known as Marshalltown Chevrolet.
Reuber, who grew up in Ohio and graduated from college there in the 1980s, bought his first dealership in 1990 and has owned 17 of them since then. His lone used vehicle store was later sold to Elon Musk and Tesla.
He has always had a strong preference for Chevy vehicles, which he described as "fantastic products," and after most recently living and working in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Reuber feels lucky to be in Iowa as he had hoped to relocate to the Midwest.
"I wanted to be in the good, hardcore middle of America. Being a kid in Ohio, and then my family and I lived in Florida, and then we've been in Dallas for 32 years. So we wanted to get back to that hardcore work ethic, Midwest, good people," he said. "This is the good, hardcore part of America, so that's why I'm here."
Another reason is that Iowans love to drive Chevy -- they account for 20 percent of all vehicles in the state, with the next closest under 14.
"So it's a great franchise in a great market in a great state. It's a formula for success," Reuber said.
The transition has been moving along smoothly as he works to incorporate service, customer and sales products and launch a new website.
"The electronics have been an incredible challenge, but a lot of great people here have been helpful, you know, the vendors, a lot of great employees have been very helpful. So it's coming together. It never moves as fast as you like, but we're making progress (and) excited to be here," Reuber said.
Currently, Marshalltown Chevrolet is the only dealership Reuber owns, so he plans to be onsite full-time and devote all of his time and energy to selling vehicles. He's working hand in hand with his wife in various areas of the business, which is a first in his career.
So far, he's already had a chance to meet vendors and other business owners in town, and he intends to become a pillar in the community through involvement in the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas activities, contributing to Marshalltown schools and the community college.
"Those little folks are our future. They're my future employees,” he said.
After looking at a dealership in another city in the state on a prior occasion, Reuber couldn't be more excited to be in Iowa for the long haul.
"No one came to me, and I'm here because I want to be here. And I'm here because it's a great place for me at this time in my life," he said. "It's a very good market. It's a hub market. In the car business, we call this a single point market. There's only one Chevy dealer... I love single point markets. They're good for the franchise, good for the customer, good for the dealer. So I intentionally knocked on doors in single point markets."
Marshalltown Chevrolet is located at 2909 S. Center St.
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.