By Becky Polaski

Staff Writer

Cotter Pontiac-GMC Truck, located at 435 Hall Avenue in St. Marys, is currently celebrating its 75th year of serving area residents. 

According to Jim Cotter, who co-owns the business with his brother Joe Cotter, the business was started back in 1934 by their grandfather, Frank Cotter. While the Cotter’s are certain the anniversary is this year, the exact date remains unknown.

“We’ve never been able to find out the exact date that everything was signed. I’m not even sure how they did that back in those days if it was a regular contract that you had to sign with (the automobile manufacturer) or not,” Cotter said.

After his grandfather passed away, Cotter explained that the business was taken over by his father, Jim, and uncle, Bill Cotter. They ran the business until 1978, when Jim and Joe took over.

Cotter explained that the dealership has not always been located at its current location on Hall Avenue. When the business was originally founded, it was located on Market Street.

A copy of an old advertisement that Cotter has from around 1940 lists the business’ address and phone number.

“They were at 237 Market Street and their phone number was 4453. That’s really kind of interesting,” Cotter said.

The advertisement, which is from when the dealership sold only Oldsmobiles, also lists the price of a new Oldsmobile Coupe and Sedan.

“The Coupe was $807 and the Sedan was $853 and they were made in Lansing, Mich. at that time,” Cotter said.

The Cotters’ dealership continued to sell Oldsmobiles until the brand was phased out in 2004.

“The last year they made Oldsmobiles was 2004 and in 2002 we picked up the Pontiac and GMC franchises, which were previously over in Johnsonburg,” Cotter said. “So now we have the Pontiac and GMC franchises and of course the Pontiac franchise, as a result of the GM bankruptcy, is going to be going away.”

While some 2010 Pontiac models will still be made, Cotter noted that as soon as all of their Pontiac models are sold they will become solely a GMC franchise.

“Some of the Pontiac models are actually going over to the GMC side like the Pontiac Torrent is going to become the GMC Terrain, so we’ll go along with that and see what happens,” Cotter said.

In addition to changes over the years with the brands of vehicles they sell, Cotter explained that their current building has also been modified several times.

“The shop (facing Hall Avenue) used to be a big old barn (back when the dealership was first moved to Hall Avenue),” My understanding is that this place was a hardware store at one time. That barn was replaced with a shop with three stalls on it and then, this was back in the 1980s, we added two more stalls into the back, redid the showroom and stuff like that,” Cotter said. “All the walls in the interior were changed around and three years ago we did the whole outside with a complete redoing of the facade and stuff like that.”

While there are no set plans in place for a 75th anniversary celebration, Cotter noted that they hope to have some kind of a sale in the fall.

“GM has now emerged from bankruptcy and they’re going to get their production back up to where it should be. We’ll have to see how all that goes in terms of the number of cars that will be available,” Cotter said. “I kind of see a shortage when I look at a lot of the domestic car lots around town. Everybody seems to be a little short of new vehicles right now. It will depend on what GM does and how many vehicles we can get in.”

There are currently 11 individuals employed at Cotter Pontiac-GMC Truck.

Cotter also discussed the importance of having kept the business in the Cotter family for the past 75 years, which has led to name recognition throughout the area and a reputation of quality service.

“I think when you ask around people say we’re just a good honest dealership and that has not always been the case with a lot of stories about car dealerships,” Cotter said. “Everybody knows some bad things can happen, but at our place things like that just don’t happen. I think that is why we have been around as long as we have.”