Klein Auto celebrates 50 years

When Charlie Klein replied to an ad in a Milwaukee newspaper in 1974 that was promoting the sale of the Chrysler Plymouth dealership in Clintonville, he had no idea that it would lead to him what became Klein Auto.

Klein was 28 years old at the time and living in Menomonee Falls.

“The amount of money I needed was about as much as you would need to buy a decent used car today,” Klein said. “Back then it wasn’t so small (of an amount).”

Klein Auto celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

Klein history

After purchasing the Chrysler Plymouth dealership in Clintonville, which was located at the intersection of State Highway 22 and U.S. Highway 45 where Montour is currently located, Klein moved his family to Clintonville. The dealership sold new and used cars, had a service garage, and a body shop in the basement.

In 1976 the business expanded, as Klein said Chrysler allowed him to start selling Dodge trucks.

A big changed came around 1982 when Klein purchased the Chevrolet Oldsmobile dealership in Clintonville, which was located where Kwik Trip is now.

“I bought him out and I was approved by General Motors to be a dealer,” Klein said.

He added, “I locked up the building (of Chrysler Plymouth dealership) and moved everything to the Chevrolet store waiting to get approval.”

When U.S. 45 was reconstructed and moved to its current location in the city, Klein purchased a tavern, a sheet metal shop and a Texaco gas station that were located next to his Chevrolet dealership. Also, during this time, he had the parking lot at the dealership reshaped, and added a showroom and offices to the dealership building.

“For that period of time it (dealership) was pretty modern,” Klein said. “So, when we got the building done, and the road done, and the parking lot paved, our business doubled. And that was the impetus for moving forward.”

Klein eventually purchased the Buick Pontiac dealership in Clintonville that was located next to the Clintonville Post Office, where Clintonville Area Ambulance is now located. Around that time the city was considering construction of a new building in the industrial park for the ambulance service, Klein said. He wound up selling the Buick Pontiac dealership building so it could be renovated for the ambulance service.

“That’s how the ambulance got to be there,” Klein said. “I engineered that deal, saving the city lots of money.”

As the years went by, expansion continued. Klein purchased the Dodge trucks dealership in Marion, as well as the used car dealership that was located where the Klein Dodge dealership is now located.

“He had a small showroom in the building he had, and I renovated that and put a new showroom and offices in it,” Klein said.

In 1995 the dealership in Marion that Klein had purchased was moved to Clintonville, and the properties in Marion were sold. Around 2000, Klein purchased the Chrysler and Jeep inventory from the dealership in Caroline. That inventory was moved to the Klein Dodge dealership in Clintonville.

Through the years, Klein purchased a feed mill, gas station and another business that were located across the street from his dealerships in Clintonville because he needed more space. In 2008, Walgreens approached Klein to purchase some of that land to build a Walgreens store in Clintonville.

Then in 2010, Kwik Trip approached Klein about purchasing some property to build a Kwik Trip gas station. Klein said he initially turned Kwik Trip away, but eventually changed his mind. He sold the property that his Chevrolet dealership was on to Kwik Trip, and purchased the property where Klein Chevrolet is currently located. He said that property was owned by two people who were going to build a grocery store on it, but couldn’t because of the wetlands in the area.

Klein said he has been involved in 28 real estate transactions that have been made to reach the point Klein Auto is at now.

“We brought to the community Kwik Trip. We brought to the community Walgreens. We’ve been a pretty good citizen bringing in tax base for the community,” Klein said.

New location

In December 2011, Klein Chrevrolet move to its current location.

“This was the first Chevrolet dealership in the state, from the ground up, built in this new style,” said John Klein, Charlie Klein’s son. “It was a big deal. That December we had a party. Big wigs from Chevrolet came.”

“They came out here and they were just amazed,” Charlie Klein said.

Ownership change

In 2014, John and Jason Klein became owners of the Klein dealerships. Charlie Klein still owns the property that houses the dealerships. John and Jason Klein also own Klein Ford in Winneconne.

Both John and Jason Klein said they worked for the dealership as kids, with one of their duties being washing cars.

“I came here after college, which would have been 1989,” John Klein said.

“I was gone for a while and I came back in 2005,” Jason Klein said.

John Klein said they both wanted to be part of the business when they returned to Clintonville.

“We went on different paths out of high school,” John Klein said. “I went to the Coast Guard Academy and I went to be an aerospace engineer. None of those worked out too well. I went to business school and decided this would be a better thing for me. I had a local high school sweetheart. I married her and we wanted to be here.

“Jason went off to be a pro golfer and did that for a number of years. That was a grind for him. That’s how we ended up back here. It’s a good business. We weren’t groomed for it necessarily or encouraged. We weren’t discouraged from it.”

50 years later

Klein Auto sells new and used cars, provides a full-service garage, as well as a large body shop.

“We’re a big collision center that does a lot of business with all the deer,” John Klein said.

Klein Auto currently employs around 60 people, including those at Klein Ford in Winneconne.

“We’ve had a lot of people that spent the majority of their careers here and retired here,” Charlie Klein said.

Charlie Klein said the business has changed “dramatically” over the past 50 years.

“The relationship with the factories has changed immensely,” Charlie Klein said. “It used to be in the old days, you could call, I had phone numbers of vice presidents of the company. Today, you don’t even know who’s there. They don’t communicate with you.”

John Klein added, “Obviously, the technology has changed. The way people buy cars has changed. The reliance on financing them, obviously has become a big factor.”

Jason Klein added, “It’s constantly changing because you either have something going on with the economy nationally, like interest rates. COVID changed everything. But I think people in this business are entrepreneurial, like him (Charlie Klein). They have a way of solving problems.”

Adapting to change is what led to the success of the business, Charlie Klein said.

“I was only in my 20s,” Charlie Klein said, about when he purchased the dealership. “I don’t think at that point I had the vision that that could happen. I had the vision that I would constantly grow, but I grew in a controlled manner. I didn’t go nuts and buy 28 dealerships. It’s too hard to get that many good people to work for you. And I wanted to be there so I could see what my people did. Try to train them the way we want them trained.”

Over the years, Charlie Klein experienced many triumphs with his business, but some stick out more than others.

“Probably the boys coming in and taking over for me after all my time that I spent getting the thing going,” Charlie Klein said. “I’m proud of the fact that we have a lot of employees that are long-term. I’m proud that we’ve had so many people retire from here and they’re still friends of ours. There’s a lot of things to be proud of.”

He added, “We’ve seen a lot of people come and go in these 50 years. We’re pretty proud of the fact that we’re still here. And we like to think that it’s because maybe we treat people properly.”

As for the future, John Klein said, “Considering the amount of change we’ve been through in these 50 years, we’ll just keep adapting and changing. Like Jason said, being entrepreneurs and making sure things work.”