Greenspot Auto Sales closing after 47 years
KNUTSFORD - Except for a few camper trailers, the Greenspot Auto Sales lot that once displayed 80 to 90 new and used vehicles is empty, and quiet. The company’s remaining used cars are all displayed in the showroom.
With no more inventory arriving, traffic through the Knutsford sales lot has slowed in recent weeks and soon it will be no more.
Citing health reasons, the company announced a closing sale in September. Greenspot founder Norman MacDougall died on Oct. 8.
Like the remaining cars and campers, the lot and building are now up for sale. December 19 has been set as the final day of operation for the business. Prices have been further reduced.
“It’s been a painful process, really,” Joyce MacDougall said of the decision to close a business her late husband started 47 years ago. “We knew it was coming, but it’s been our life, right?”
Greenspot Auto Sales was founded on Nov. 1, 1972. The business name was chosen because of the small green sales booth on the lot. The business expanded to the current lot and building nine years later. The service bays were added in 1982.
Norman MacDougall’s career as a car salesman started long before he opened a sales lot.
"He’d buy a car and fix it up and sell it while he was going to university,” Joyce said. Norman taught for a while at O’Leary High School and then taught adult upgrading, all while selling cars on the side. It came naturally to him as his father, Vaughn, had previously sold cars for D. Alex MacDonald Ltd.
Norman sold new cars as a sub-dealer for D. Alex MacDonald until 2004. Joyce, who was long-involved with the company as a “gofer,” has been staffing the Greenspot office since 2008.
For Joyce’s brother, Allan Gorrill, Greenspot Auto Sales is the only job he has ever known. He worked for Norman on the car lot since high school. Gorrill agrees it is time to close up shop.
“I’m getting older. It’s time for somebody younger, newer ideas,” he said. “It would be nice if somebody came in and did what we do, with cars and trailers.”
Joyce said wanting to make life better for their sons is why her husband worked so hard throughout his career.
O’Leary resident Nancy MacMillan is sad to see the business close. Norman MacDougall had delivered her first car to her when she finished university nearly 40 years ago. It had standard (manual) transmission, and he took the time to teach her how to drive it. All but one of the cars she’s owned since then came off the Greenspot lot, the most recent one Norman having found for her in Ontario. “They’ve been good to my whole family,” she said.
Joyce and Allan have had many loyal customers, some having bought 15 or more cars from Greenspot, but MacMillan praises the Greenspot staff for loyalty to their customers.
“They were awesome to deal with,” she said.
Norman expanded into the housing and apartment business in 1985, eventually having 32 apartment units and four rental houses.
MacMillan rented from Norman and Joyce and bought her first home from them. She marvels how the couple always remembered all of their tenants with special Christmas gifts. “They have me spoiled.” “I think he was pretty fair to deal with,” Joyce MacDougall said of her husband’s business dealings, noting he’d call his customers a month or two after a sale to see how they were getting along. “He’d always say, ‘If anything goes wrong, don’t tell your neighbours, tell us.’”