Work hard, play hard. Which one are you doing today?

FINAL day of GM Employee Pricing at West Park Motors. 
YOU pay what GM EMPLOYEES PAY ...PLUS get 0% financing on some models...and select customers get UP TO $2,000.00 OFF in Loyalty discounts.
Hurry in today...

TWO days remain to take advantage of GM Employee Pricing at West Park Motors. 
From now until the end of July, YOU pay what GM EMPLOYEES PAY ...PLUS get 0% financing on some models...and select customers get UP TO $2,000.00 OFF in Loyalty discounts.
Hurry in today...only 2 days left.

THREE days remain to take advantage of GM Employee Pricing at West Park Motors. 
From now until the end of July, YOU pay what GM EMPLOYEES PAY ...PLUS get 0% financing on some models...and select customers get UP TO $2,000.00 OFF in Loyalty discounts.
Hurry in today...only 3 days left.

West Park Motors is pleased to again be sponsoring this years' 7th annual DEKALB SuperSpiel. The dates for the SuperSpiel will be Nov 20-24, 2014.

The SuperSpiel has expanded the women's event to 32 teams finishing on Monday while the men's event will remain at 16 and finish on Sunday. The prize money for the women's event will now be paying a purse of $40,000 CDN with 8 qualifiers. They will also be paying $75/win in the women's event up until the qualifiers. (prize money subject to full entry)  The men's event will have a purse of $30,000 with 8 qualifiers. This will make the women's event one of the top 5 in Canada outside the Grand Slam series.

The DEKALB SuperSpiel is a popular event on the tour and as a result the Women's event is filling up quickly including Jennifer Jones 2014 Olympic Gold medalist team. They also have 4 teams from the USA men's and women's national teams. The SuperSpiel is proud to have the 2 Canadian University champion teams that will be competing at the Worlds in Spain later in the season. They have women's teams entered from Sweden and Switzerland and many other Canadian Teams. On the men's side, they are also delighted to have the reigning Canadian Deaf Champions (Cliff Beaulieu Team) who will be competing in Russia in March, 2015 at the World Deaflympics.

FOUR days remain to take advantage of GM Employee Pricing at West Park Motors. 

From now until the end of July, You pay what GM EMPLOYEES PAY ... PLUS get 0% Financing on some models...and select customers get UP TO $2,000.00 OFF in Loyalty Discounts.

Hurry in today ... only 4 days left 

SEVEN days remain to take advantage of GM Employee Pricing at West Park Motors. 
From now until the end of July, YOU pay what GM EMPLOYEES PAY ...PLUS get 0% financing on some models...and select customers get UP TO $2,000.00 OFF in Loyalty discounts.
Hurry in today...only 7 days left.

Whether it's a summer tradition or a new expedition, make memories with a new 2014 Chevy Equinox. Get yours at West Park during the GM Employee Pricing Event ... but hurry because Employee Pricing, where you pay what we pay, ends July 31.

EIGHT days remain to take advantage of GM Employee Pricing at West Park Motors. 
From now until the end of July, YOU pay what GM EMPLOYEES PAY ...PLUS get 0% financing on some models...and select customers get UP TO $2,000.00 OFF in Loyalty discounts.
Hurry in today...only 8 days left.

Use YOUR money to make money. Use OUR money to lease or buy a new vehicle at West Park Motors during the month of July. 

Why? Until the end of this month, GM is offering 0% APR financing for up to 84 months on Cruze and Verano. As well as 0% financing for up to 60 months on Equinox, Terrain and Camaro; and 0% financing for 36 months on Sonic and Malibu. Or choose a 0% lease for up to 36 months on Equinox, Terrain, Sonic, Malibu or Verano.

Some lease examples include a new 2014 Sonic starting at $64 bi-weekly; a new Trax at $99 bi-weekly and a new 2014 Silverado Double Cab starting at $109 bi-weekly. See us for details.  

All of the above models come without a penny of interest charges for between 3 and up to 7 full years.

PLUS for the month of July receive GM Employee Pricing … where you pay what we pay … PLUS a Summer Bonus where eligible owners receive up to an additional $2000 OFF the price. These are 2 huge PLUSES to an already great 0% Lease or Finance offer.  

And like always, you'll get a relaxed shopping experience with our best price right up front at West Park Motors. In addition, our new 2014 GM models come with an outstanding 3-year, 60,000-kilometer warranty (including up to 4 oil changes) and a 60-month, 160,000-kilometer powertrain warranty. See us for full details.

Check out our new vehicles on line at www.westparkgm.com and then call Vic or Byron at 204-324-6494 to arrange for a test drive today. 

NINE days remain to take advantage of GM Employee Pricing at West Park Motors. 
From now until the end of July, YOU pay what GM EMPLOYEES PAY ...PLUS get 0% financing on some models...and select customers get UP TO $2,000.00 OFF in Loyalty discounts.
Hurry in today...only 9 days left.

We hope you will be joining us this Sunday afternoon for the 36^th Annual Legends Show in the Park, one of the best cars shows in all of Manitoba … a special feature this year is a “64 Car Coral” featuring cars from 1964, the first year of the Manitoba Sunflower Festival … West Park is proud to be one of the major sponsors of this annual show … we look forward to seeing you there! 

Top Ten Ways to be Fuel Efficient This Summer

1. Tune Up: Properly tuning your engine can improve fuel economy by as much as 4%. Fixing a serious issue – such as a faulty oxygen sensor – can boost mileage up to 40%.
2. Pump Up: Properly inflated tires improve gas mileage by up to 3.3%.
3. Unpack: An extra 100 pounds of cargo reduces fuel efficiency up to 2%. A loaded roof rack cuts fuel efficiency by up to 5%.
4. Slow Down: Gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 96 km/h (60 mph). You can assume that each 8 km/h (5 mph) you drive over 80 km/h (50 mph) is like paying an additional $0.25 per gallon for gas.
5. Avoid Idling: A car gets 0 mpg when the engine is idling. Idling can use a quarter to a half gallon of fuel per hour, depending on engine size and air conditioner use.
6. Chill Out: Speeding, rapid acceleration, and braking can decrease fuel economy by lowering gas mileage by 33% on the highway and 5% in city driving.
7. Put It in Overdrive: Using an overdrive gear on the highway saves both fuel and engine wear.
8. Unclog: Replacing a clogged air filter on an older vehicle with a carbureted engine can improve both fuel economy and acceleration by a few percent under normal replacement conditions.
9. Use the Right Oil: Using the manufacturer’s recommended grade of oil improves fuel efficiency by 1%–2%.
10. Plan Your Trips: Plan routes and timing to avoid heavy periods of traffic congestion.

West Park Motors is pleased to be one of the sponsors of the 2014 Gretna Hot Spot Festival which will be held July 18 – 20 … most venues and activities are free making the Festival a fun affordable event for the entire family … plan to visit Gretna this weekend for the Hot Spot Festival.

In 1983 West Park turned 15 years old and we celebrated with a huge community party. The evening started with a bar b q supper followed by live entertainment. We had cleaned out our service shop, set up a stage and the building was packed. It was a fun event.

 This is what our dealership looked like in those days. We had a rack of camper shells up against the building – they were a big seller in those days.

 

Cornie Peters, Bill Dyck and Bernie Klassen are hard at work frying burgers for our 15^th Anniversary supper. We had people lined up 3 or 4 abreast from where our service shop starts now all the way out to the street. It was a great evening. In those days, live entertainment was a feature of many of the events put on by West Park. Sometimes it was the West Park band and choir with an original piece … other times it was bands like the Ed Klassen / Art Harder / Jake Friesen families; Pete Kauenhofen with Pete Letkeman, John Sawatzky, Ed Rempel and Ray Schroeder; the Elias crew singing a little blue grass and on and on. The music was always good and so are the memories.  

Trucks have always been a big part of what we do at West Park Motors. Today most of the trucks we sell range from ½ to 1 ton, come pretty nicely finished and are often used for pleasure or leisure. In the early days of West Park, many of the trucks we sold were in the medium and heavy duty range … they were farm trucks, gravel trucks, cement trucks, highway tractors and more. Ray and Bob remember the peak farm truck era of 1973 – 1976. Wheat had gone from under $1.00 a bushel in 1969 to $5 or $6 a bushel in 1973; Flax was at $12 a bushel … and local farmers wanted new 3 – 5 ton trucks. West Park scoured all of Canada and the U.S. looking for trucks – and found places around North America where the crop was not as good or where dealers had excess inventory. Load after load of new 3 ton trucks arrived on our lot in those days; welder Jake Zacharias lengthened or shortened the frames as needed and then they went to Midland, Loadline, Dick Stoesz and others to have boxes installed.

 This is a load of trucks arriving at West Park in the 60’s. Some of us on staff were lucky enough to fly down to Oshawa, Ontario and drive them home in loads of 3 as shown. That was a pretty big trip in those days … and a pretty big thrill. In the 70’s and 80”s most of our new vehicles were factory ordered and many, many customer drove home from the factory in their new cars as well.

Trucks were always a big part of our business. When we added on to our building in the 70’s, our new service shop included 5 trucks bays on the east side … and most times those bays were full of trucks.

We sold a lot of medium and heavy duty trucks in those days. Early commercial customers included Ben Giesbrecht at Altona Concrete, John, Harry and Bill of Derksen Trucking, CV0 (now Bunge) who had a whole fleet of trucks on the road in those days, Jake and Edwin of Harder’s Trucking, Friesen’s Corporation, Phil Toews and Glen Wiebe from Altona, Wiebe Bros. out of Neuhorst, Abe Kehler from Rosetown, Abe Dyck at Altona Freightways had a large fleet of trucks and on and on. Evenings and Saturday’s our service parking was usually full of trucks. 

 

Tyris taking delivery of his 2009 GMC SLT from Vic Loewen. Thanks very much for the business we know you will love the truck. 

This picture shows an early awards ceremony at West Park with parts and service technicians receiving their well-deserved GM recognition. Pictured from left to right are Bob Stoesz, Dan Klassen, Tony Harms, John Loewen, Dick Penner, Dan Hiebert, Jake Franz, Cornie Peters and Jake Rempel. Bob was in parts at that time, Dick was the dealer and Dan Hiebert was our service advisor; the other 6 gentlemen were service technicians. 

Many companies / organizations say that it is their “people that make all the difference”. That has certainly also been true at West Park. We would not be in business today were it not for the many people (team members, suppliers and customers) who have been involved with West Park since we began in 1968. As an example, some of the customers who did business with us in our first few days of business are still our customers today.    

The following pictures show just a small number of the people who have been involved with West Park Motors over the years …

Dave Beckert owned the dealership prior to it becoming West Park Motors in 1968. In 1963 he built the first phase of our current building.  

   

Dick Penner and Henry Stoesz purchased the GM store from Dave Beckert in the fall of 1968 and named it West Park Motors. Well actually they named it D & H Motors and operated that way for about a week before finding that someone else was already using the D & H Motors name and they could not register it. We are not sure where the “West” Park name came from as we are on the “East” side of town but we will do some more digging to see if we can find out how our name came about.

Ray Loewen remembers some of the lessons he learned as a young salesperson from Dick and Henry. As an example Henry suggested that “ it is always easier to tell customers the truth – that way you do not have to try to remember what you told them last week; you will know” … in the first weeks that Ray was at West Park, Henry also mentioned that he did not know much about sales but one thing he did know – “don’t ever run down someone’s trade-in; it may be the only vehicle they have and is probably their pride and joy; so even if it is not much to look at never run it down”.    

Some of the early employees at West Park Motors were …

 Dave Derksen was in parts. One of the other parts people in the early days of West Park was Len Hildebrand (not pictured), who went on to spend many years at the Post Office in Altona.

 

Cornie Peters, Jake Franz, Jake Rempel and Tony Harms were technicians in the early days of West Park. Not pictured in this posting is Bernie Klassen, another technician who was already at Beckert Motors prior to the dealership becoming West Park Motors. Cornie just retired a week ago … Tony still stops in regularly to pick up parts so he obviously has not. 

Wilbert (Flab) Friesen was the West Park accountant for many years and later became a part owner of the business. These days you will usually find Flab at Oakview Golf and Country Club where he plays occasionally but is also managing the club house. 

Bob Stoesz started at West Park working evenings pumping gas in late August of 1968 and then moved into parts. Among his many talents, Bob has an amazing memory for part numbers. Bob has been our Fixed Operations Manager for many years with responsibility for the overall operation of our parts and service departments.

Ray Loewen had more hair in the early 70’s than he has today. He started selling cars at West Park in June of 1973 and is the current dealer.   

Someone once said that “History is important because WE ARE the past: we are the sum of all the events--good, bad, and indifferent--that have happened to us. This sum product guides our actions in the present.”

This week we have spent more time than usual looking back at the history of West Park. 

Last Sunday, the family of Cornie Peters held a 70^th Birthday and Retirement party for Cornie. As part of their preparations for the event, Cornie’s daughter Lorraine Heinrichs spent time searching for pictures of his early days at West Park … and in the process came across a bunch of other pictures as well.

We would like to share a few of those pictures, along with some of West Park’s history, with you in the coming days. 

Dave Beckert built our original building (pictured above) in 1963. He purchased the GM franchise from the Kroeker family and decided to house it in a new building. We were also a Texaco dealer in those days. 

In addition to being a Texaco dealer, we also sold Dominion Royal tires in the early days. We still sell tires – Michelin, Goodyear, Uniroyal, Bridgestone and a bunch of others – but the Dominion Royal brand has faded from the scene. We hope someone kept these signs. Not only are they an important part of our dealerships history – but they would be worth a lot of money today.  

Harry Bueckert and Dave Beckert pictured in front of the new building around 1963. Harry was a salesperson for Beckert Motors at that time and also played for the Altona Maroons.

Beckert Motors stocked an impressive line-up of Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick products. We were a 5 line dealer in those days – also selling GMC medium duty trucks.