New owner takes the wheel of Zumbrota's Grover Auto

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Feb. 26—ZUMBROTA — A new owner took the wheel at a longtime car dealership — Grover Auto — last week.

After almost 70 years of selling cars in Zumbrota, the Grover family sold their Chevrolet and Buick dealership along US Highway 52 to John Buelow. Buelow, who owns Flagship Ford in Baldwin, Wis., is renaming the Zumbrota dealership as Flagship Chevy Buick.

"This has been a dream for years," Buelow said of the deal, which started as a casual conversation in a Wisconsin cafe.

While eating at a restaurant, Gary Grover mentioned to someone linked to Flagship that the leaders of Grover Auto were thinking of selling and retiring.

"When I heard that, my eyes just lit up," Buelow said. "This is about one hour from my Baldwin dealership and one hour from my home. It is in just a great location between Rochester and the Twin Cities."

Gary Grover said he, Brad Grover and Jim Syverson were getting to an age when coming in early and leaving late every day was not as appealing as spending more time with family. Plus the auto industry has changed quite a bit since they all started, and more changes are on the way with the rise of electric cars.

"We're in good health now. We thought this is the time to do it," Gary Grover said. "And then we found a buyer that we think is going to be a good fit."

Longtime Grover customers will still see many familiar faces in the dealership's team of 25 service and sales staff. However, Buelow does have some changes planned.

"We're going to expand the inventory with more used vehicles and as many new ones as we can get," he said of filling up the seven-acre dealership. "We're also going to increase the service capacity and parts department."

Buelow described the change as going from one family to another, with two of his sons working at the dealership in the same tradition as the Grover family.

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