From the Roundtable: Drewing moves Machens into the league of industry pioneer

Every time I pass by a Joe Machens showroom, I’m reminded of what the late Ralph Reedman and his brothers began assembling in the mid-1940s. Among the first of the so-called auto malls, the Reedman Corporations came to be a collection of competitive vehicle dealerships occupying a 123-acre tract that lined US Route 1 in Langhorne, a suburb of Philadelphia.
Drawn by an extensive advertising program up and down the Eastern Seaboard, customers often traveled hundreds of miles to look over the 8,000 or so vehicles parked on Reedman’s lots. They typically took a test drive on one of two tracks within the sprawling facility.
At its peak
, the Reedman Corporations were selling 60,000 vehicles a year, and Chevrolet was their leading marque. With the Joe Machens Dealerships poised to sell about 20,000 vehicles this year, our local enterprise in the same league with one of the true pioneers of the automotive industry.
Vehicle sales in the Columbia area have come a long way from the time Tom Allton was selling Fords at 1107 E. Broadway (currently the Field House), while one block north, a handful of Chevrolet cars were parked on a lot in front of 1103 E. Walnut St., where the Central Missouri Computer Center is today.
Gary Drewing, who owns and captains the Machens enterprise, has just acquired Estes Motors at 1300 Vandiver Drive, a dealership that sells Hyundai vehicles, and opened Joe Machens East Collision Center not far from there at 1609 Commerce Court.
The growth and forward motion of various entities within the Machens empire fascinates me because it mixes an aggressive sales and marketing campaign with a future-oriented program of real estate development and facility construction. The enterprise includes seven “stores,” or showrooms, packed car lots and service facilities. With six dealerships and 12 new car franchises, Machens now employs about 600 people.
Estes M
otors fits very nicely into the Machens operation from the real estate perspective because the Hyundai lot is next to the large vacant site at Vandiver and Range Line where the Ramada Inn used to be. Coupled with property Drewing owns at US Highway 63 and Stadium Boulevard in the Cross Creek development, the purchases indicate there is plenty of construction activity to come.
By year’s end, Drewing intends to figure out where to relocate some of the brands currently sharing places with one another in the complex of the existing stores. Vehicle manufacturers today insist on having a distinctly separate showroom and lot with signage as well as a service facility for each marque.
It will be interesting to see under which new roofs some of the Machens marques will end up being housed. Drewing has mentioned that the Toyota dealership might end up at Cross Creek. Then there are whispers about Lexus coming to Columbia as the area attains a population that qualifies it for consideration.
Three items of interest stand out about the Machens Dealerships.
The first is their overwhelming presence on the Internet; some time ago, they established an Internet “war room” staffed to solicit business online. We’re told this generates significant business for Machens, with purchases consummated and vehicles shipped to points all across the continent via www.joemachens.com.
The second is the greatly ramped-up stock of new and used vehicles. Cars, trucks and vans are parked all over the main lots, and visitors to each showroom are admonished to check out the expan
ded selection of vehicles on various satellite lots.
Finally, there are the service departments, which, as any vehicle dealer will acknowledge, have become significant profit centers. From courtesy vans and a heightened level of courtesy to communication at various stages of the procedure, service has come to be practiced to a high degree at the various Machens Dealerships, according to my experience.
The Machens organization is obviously on the right track as they look toward the future. What happened to the Reedman Corporations is instructive. Understandably distraught by the death of their brother in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, the surviving Reedmans refused to sell Japanese vehicles for years and thus lost a significant opportunity to grow even more. Although the business still exists under new ownership, one senses the excitement of the past is somewhat diminished.
If I were really prescient about the Machens Dealerships, I say that maybe there’s a hundred-acre auto mall with a test track or two in their future, perhaps with a hotel for prospective buyers from all over to spend a night in and an adjoining complex of shops. One never knows what’ll happen at the pace they’re moving these days. Whatever and however it happens, though, likely will be good news for the economy of Greater Columbia.