LaFontaines’ purchase Imlay City dealership

Imlay City Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram welcomes you

 

IMLAY CITY — In a deal two years in the making, Paul LaFontaine, Jr. and his sons, Alex and Arie, closed on an agreement May 5 on the acquisition of the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram auto dealership formerly owned by Tania LaLonde.

The LaFontaine family, who owns Imlay City Ford, has branded their new business as Imlay City Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram.

“It’s hard to get a dealership in today’s world with all the big groups gobbling them up,” Paul LaFontaine, Jr. said.

He had approached Tania LaLonde following the unexpected death of her husband and business partner Rich LaLonde in 2020.

LaLonde was not ready to consider a sale at that time, but LaFontaine kept in touch and eventually the two started working out the details.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” LaFontaine said.

Stellantis, the global automaker that owns and manufactures the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram brands, had to approve the deal.

The reputation earned by Lafontaine at Imlay City Ford — having earned 15 prestigious Ford President’s Awards for outstanding customer service and satisfaction in their 36 years in business — helped persuade Stellantis that LaFontaine was a good fit for their brands.

“I got a call from the head of Stellantis’s dealership review team. He told me, ‘We want you’ That was a validation of everything we have worked for through the years,” LaFontaine said.

“It feels good. Dad would have liked it. He would be proud,” he added, speaking of his late father, Paul LaFontaine, Sr., who got him started in the car business.

The family’s roots in the business go back to the Dodge brand where LaFontaine Sr. and his brother John worked at the Dodge plant in Detroit.

LaFontaine Sr. bought Imlay City Ford in 1989. LaFontaine Jr. started his career at a Dodge dealership in Ann Arbor in 1981 before moving to Imlay City Ford to join his father in running that dealership.

LaFontaine Jr. said the success of the Ford dealership and the opportunity to acquire the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership are “a reflection of Dad’s work ethic. Like people, take care of people — customers and employees — support the community. That’s what it’s all about. Now we get to do that, times two.”

LaFontaine Jr. is excited to be working with his three children — Alex, 31; Arie, 30 and Sophie, 26. “They all complement each other,” he said. “Each of them have their individual strengths, and they communicate well with each other and our team.”

LaFontaine Jr. leads the family business as President. Alex is the general manager at the Ford store and Arie is the general manager at the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram store. Sophie works in office administration for both stores.

The two LaFontaine Imlay City dealerships will employ more than 100 people when fully staffed.

“We already have people coming to us,” LaFontaine Jr. said of salespeople and technicians inquiring about open positions at the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership.

The LaFontaines wasted no time in investing even more in their new business, repaving the lengthy private access roads that lead to the dealership from Newark Road. Other signs of sprucing up were visible in the showroom as well.

LaFontaine Jr. is grateful to all who worked with him to bring the acquisition to fruition including Mike Burke and Rick Chown and their team at ChoiceOne Bank that financed the deal.

“We are just excited and thrilled to get it. It’s a huge blessing and great to have it here in the same town,” LaFontaine said.