New Chevy dealer in Waupaca
By Robert Cloud
Tim Neuville moved from Chicago to Waupaca on July 1, 1975.
His uncle, Lou Neuville, asked Tim if he would help sell cars at his dealership.
Neuville sold his first car on his first day of work.
“This dealership was Pontiac, Olds and GMC then,” Neuville said. “I convinced my dad that fall that he should buy the dealership with me.”
Neuville went to the General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan, to spend a month learning how to run a dealership.
On March 4, 1976, Tim Neuville completed his training and he and Morrie Neuville acquired the dealership.
Tim Neuville was 22 years old at the time.
In the fall of 1981, the Neuvilles acquired the Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge dealership for the area.
“That’s when my dad sold The Junction, a casual clothing store in the Waupaca Woods Mall, and moved to the area,” Tim Neuville said.
In 2008, Neuville purchased Stiebs Jeep and Waupaca Motor Sales, the local Chevy Buick dealership.
The Chevy Buick line was moved to Neuville Motors on West Fulton Street.
The Dodge, Jeep, Ram dealership remained on Royalton Street. It was sold in January 2017.
A major remodeling project on Neuville’s facility on West Fulton was completed in 2012.
Lindsay Neuville’s background
A 2005 graduate of Waupaca High School, Lindsay Neuville received a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, in 2009. She majored in psychology and business.
Lindsay moved back to Waupaca in April 2016 after working in the Twin cities at CBRE, a Fortune 500 global commercial real estate firm.
She began working at Neuville Motors as an accountant,
Neuville graduated from NADA Academy. Run by the National Automobile Dealers Association, the academy is an intensive training program with six one-week sessions that cover all aspects of operating a car dealership.
On June 15, Lindsay became the new owner of Neuville Motors, allowing her father to retire.
In addition to running the business, Lindsay is chair of the Waupaca Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
She said she prefers the operational side of the business.
“I’m more interested in the behind the scenes stuff,” Neuville said. “Making sure the dealership is functioning the way it should.”
Noting the challenges posed by the pandemic, Neuville said, “I think everybody has had to accelerate the digitizing of their business.”
She noted that Neuville Motors has built its online sales, website and touchless contact points.
“It’s been a crazy year,” Tim Neuville said. “The last three months we’ve had the highest volume in our history, yet the lot looks empty because we’re having problems stocking cars.”
A shortage of chips used for navigation systems and other high-tech digital features have caused a backlog in auto production.
“The most important thing used to be selling cars,” Tim said. “Now, it’s getting cars.”
Looking toward the future, Lindsay said her goal is to “move the business forward in a way that continues the traditions of a community oriented, customer-service-first business.”