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Norman Frede Chevrolet to celebrate 40th anniversary
  
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Norman Frede Chevrolet is getting a $2 million facelift, which came as the Clear Lake City dealership celebrated its 40th anniversary with a reception at the facility on Feathercraft Lane.
It’s also the celebration of a 40-year friendship between the town and the dealership.
As far as owner Norman Frede is concerned, “there’s no better place in this country than Clear Lake.” And, if you ask around the Bay Area community, you’ll find that most agree there has not been a better friend to the area than Frede.
Over the years, the dealership and its owner have donated millions of dollars back to the community through sponsorships and donations to just about every organization in the area.
Beneficiaries range from the Clear Creek School District to Bay Area Turning Point to the Assistance League to the American Cancer Society.
His benevolence became so well known that he was inducted into the Men & Women of Heart Hall of Fame in 2002 for his community work.
Giving back is something Frede learned along the way after being more or less born into the business.
His father owned both a Ford dealership and a tractor dealership in La Grange and after graduating from the University of Texas in Austin and a short career with Champion Paper Co., he felt the auto industry tugging at him to return.
In 1962, he did just that, joining Jarnigan Pontiac in Fort Worth as a salesman and quickly rising through the ranks to general manager.
By 1968, Frede decided he was ready for the plunge and bought the Schelling Chevrolet dealership on Highway 3 in Dickinson on Dec. 12, 1968.
In 1970, he bought the tract of land on Feathercraft Lane, where the dealership still sits today, when Clear Lake City was first being developed by Friendswood Development Corp.
The land was in a section set aside for dealerships and Chuck Miller Ford soon snapped up the tract across the street. A couple of other car dealers took a look-see at the land but finally decided Clear Lake wasn’t worth the gamble.
The Ford and Chevrolet dealers remained friendly competitors through the years until the Miller family sold the dealership a few years back and it eventually was moved to Dickinson, General Manager Joan Mckinney said last week.
She remembers most of the history after 31 years there. She also is a rarity — one of the few women serving as the GM of an auto dealership.
Of her 31 years, Mckinney, who started out in the Parts Department and became GM 12 years ago, thinks the present is the most exciting time since she came on board — seeing the remodeling almost finished and knowing how it will improve service.
“This has always been my dream.” She also sees the facelift as “a commitment that (Frede) didn’t have to give. He’s doing this for his employees also.” The work was supposed to be completed in time for the celebration but was set back two months by Hurricane Ike.
The dealership has a winning formula for its success: Earn customers confidence and loyalty by treating people as family.
And that has been Norman Frede’s business philosophy since opening the dealership with a vision to become “the best and biggest Chevrolet dealer in the Gulf Coast area.”
“The automobile business has terrific potential, but you have to do it right. Don’t get fancy and remember to stick with the basic fundamentals of building relationships,” Frede said.
Today his small office of the 70s is a 100,000-square-foot facility with more than 115 employees, has a parts inventory valued at half a million, an award winning service department and more than 700 new and used vehicles for sale.
Best customers? “We have so many,” Mckinney said.
“Jim Jamail at Jamail Construction, Greg Falgout of Island Operations and attorney Ron Krist and his family are a few that come to mind,” she added as she thought back over the years. And, over those years, the number of customers has grown from 632 vehicles in 1970 to 2,200 in 2007.
Customers come in different packages and never cease to amaze General Sales Manager Steve Humphrey who recalled three customers who rode up on bikes to buy cars and how occasionally a young man barely of age and looking 13 or 14 years old will walk in and pay cash for an expensive vehicle.
The most difficult thing about selling a vehicle is determining what a person really wants and winning the customer’s confidence, Humphrey said.
One of the funniest memories involved the theft of a Ford GT Torino from the dealership lot back on Feb. 2, 1973.
The 17-year-old Clear Lake suspect was arrested in Webster at 5 a.m. on Feb. 10, after police found him sleeping in the stolen car on the side of the road, and sent him off to jail.
It’s also the celebration of a 40-year friendship between the town and the dealership.
As far as owner Norman Frede is concerned, “there’s no better place in this country than Clear Lake.” And, if you ask around the Bay Area community, you’ll find that most agree there has not been a better friend to the area than Frede.
Over the years, the dealership and its owner have donated millions of dollars back to the community through sponsorships and donations to just about every organization in the area.
Beneficiaries range from the Clear Creek School District to Bay Area Turning Point to the Assistance League to the American Cancer Society.
His benevolence became so well known that he was inducted into the Men & Women of Heart Hall of Fame in 2002 for his community work.
Giving back is something Frede learned along the way after being more or less born into the business.
His father owned both a Ford dealership and a tractor dealership in La Grange and after graduating from the University of Texas in Austin and a short career with Champion Paper Co., he felt the auto industry tugging at him to return.
In 1962, he did just that, joining Jarnigan Pontiac in Fort Worth as a salesman and quickly rising through the ranks to general manager.
By 1968, Frede decided he was ready for the plunge and bought the Schelling Chevrolet dealership on Highway 3 in Dickinson on Dec. 12, 1968.
In 1970, he bought the tract of land on Feathercraft Lane, where the dealership still sits today, when Clear Lake City was first being developed by Friendswood Development Corp.
The land was in a section set aside for dealerships and Chuck Miller Ford soon snapped up the tract across the street. A couple of other car dealers took a look-see at the land but finally decided Clear Lake wasn’t worth the gamble.
The Ford and Chevrolet dealers remained friendly competitors through the years until the Miller family sold the dealership a few years back and it eventually was moved to Dickinson, General Manager Joan Mckinney said last week.
She remembers most of the history after 31 years there. She also is a rarity — one of the few women serving as the GM of an auto dealership.
Of her 31 years, Mckinney, who started out in the Parts Department and became GM 12 years ago, thinks the present is the most exciting time since she came on board — seeing the remodeling almost finished and knowing how it will improve service.
“This has always been my dream.” She also sees the facelift as “a commitment that (Frede) didn’t have to give. He’s doing this for his employees also.” The work was supposed to be completed in time for the celebration but was set back two months by Hurricane Ike.
The dealership has a winning formula for its success: Earn customers confidence and loyalty by treating people as family.
And that has been Norman Frede’s business philosophy since opening the dealership with a vision to become “the best and biggest Chevrolet dealer in the Gulf Coast area.”
“The automobile business has terrific potential, but you have to do it right. Don’t get fancy and remember to stick with the basic fundamentals of building relationships,” Frede said.
Today his small office of the 70s is a 100,000-square-foot facility with more than 115 employees, has a parts inventory valued at half a million, an award winning service department and more than 700 new and used vehicles for sale.
Best customers? “We have so many,” Mckinney said.
“Jim Jamail at Jamail Construction, Greg Falgout of Island Operations and attorney Ron Krist and his family are a few that come to mind,” she added as she thought back over the years. And, over those years, the number of customers has grown from 632 vehicles in 1970 to 2,200 in 2007.
Customers come in different packages and never cease to amaze General Sales Manager Steve Humphrey who recalled three customers who rode up on bikes to buy cars and how occasionally a young man barely of age and looking 13 or 14 years old will walk in and pay cash for an expensive vehicle.
The most difficult thing about selling a vehicle is determining what a person really wants and winning the customer’s confidence, Humphrey said.
One of the funniest memories involved the theft of a Ford GT Torino from the dealership lot back on Feb. 2, 1973.
The 17-year-old Clear Lake suspect was arrested in Webster at 5 a.m. on Feb. 10, after police found him sleeping in the stolen car on the side of the road, and sent him off to jail.
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