Lebanon
The longtime Upper Valley auto dealer and owner of Gerrish Honda in Lebanon has sold his remaining dealership to Gengras Motor Cars, a Connecticut-based operator of seven auto franchises.
Gerrish, 79, said that after nearly six decades in the automobile business, he and his wife, Phyllis, decided it was finally time to play golf, travel, paint and enjoy their seasonal residence in Jupiter, Fla.
“It was time to sell because we have a good life and we want to continue to have a good life in retirement,” he said by phone from his home in Woodstock.
Gengras Motor is a third-generation owner of auto dealerships in Connecticut and Massachusetts headed by brothers E. Clayton “Chip” Gengras and Jonathan Gengras. Gerrish Honda is their first dealership in the Twin States, as well as their first Honda franchise.
“We were interested in (Gerrish) because it is a great brand with a great reputation in the market and great employees,” Chip Gengras said in a phone interview. “We think this is a great opportunity.”
On Wednesday, with the deal closed, there were few outward signs of the behind-the-scenes ownership changes, other than Kevin Bowie, the new general manager who was on duty. The dealership’s name will remain Gerrish Honda, at least for the foreseeable future.
The sale of Gerrish Honda marks the second time in recent months that a car dealership has changed hands in the Upper Valley and been sold to an out-of-state group. In September, The Car Store Subaru dealership in Norwich was sold to Massachusetts-based Prime Motor Group.
Gengras said in a news release that there are “no immediate plans for significant changes” at Gerrish Honda, although the company is “committed to renovating (the) facilities in the upcoming years.”
Chip Gengras said plans call for renovating the building and lot on Miracle Mile in Lebanon to conform with Honda’s “image program” to ensure that all franchises look similar. He said he expected the renovations to be completed by 2018.
The Honda dealership sells about 1,000 new and used cars annually, Gerrish said, and has “recovered very nicely” after the 2007 to 2009 recession that cut deep into auto sales.
“It wasn’t sold under duress,” he emphasized. “It was a good, healthy business deal.”
Word had been circulating among Upper Valley dealerships since late summer that Gerrish was for sale, with the rumor even surfacing at one point on the Upper Valley Facebook page.
“The employees have known about it for months,” Gerrish said. “We didn’t try to keep it a secret.”
Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Gerrish said he has known the Gengras family for a long time and has been an “occasional” platform tennis partner with the Gengras brothers’ father, E. Clayton “Skip” Gengras. Gerrish’s ties to the Gengras family go back to the brothers’ grandfather, E. Clayton Gengras, who opened his first dealership in 1937 and became one of the largest auto dealers in New England before branching out into insurance and bus lines.
The senior Clayton Gengras was the Republican candidate for Connecticut governor in 1966, and Skip Gengras was a candidate for lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket in 1986. Both lost to Democrats.
Gerrish Honda has between 35 to 40 employees, several of whom have been with the dealership for 30 years or longer.
Bob Nicholson, who retired as general manager shortly before the sale was announced, had been with the dealership for more than 30 years, Gerrish said, and his predecessor, David Derrick, had worked there for 47 years. Phyllis Gerrish worked as a vice president and human resources manager for the company.
Gerrish, who grew up in Old Greenwich, Conn., went to work for his father’s Chevrolet dealership in Woodstock after graduating from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
Over the ensuing years he opened, sold or closed other franchises, including Mercedes, Toyota Land Cruiser, Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi as well as the ill-fated DeLorean and Bricklin sport cars.
Gerrish himself became something of a minor celebrity after appearing in his dealership’s radio and TV commercials. At the end of the commercials he would sign off with his trademark tagline, “Vroom! Vroom!”
The public caught on. “People would say ‘Vroom! Vroom!’ whenever I walked into a bar or restaurant,” Gerrish said. “Even the bank teller would say it.”
The site of Gerrish’s former Woodstock dealership on the town’s east side was for many years embroiled in legal wrangling over contamination on the property caused by a gasoline leak from an underground storage tank decades earlier.
Earlier this year, the town of Woodstock, in association with Sustainable Woodstock, approved an award to a firm to draft a “developer package” that would be used to attract investment to redevelop the area.
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com or 603-727-3219.
