Continental Motors

CONTINENTAL MOTORS GROUP Motors Group STILL A FAMILY AFFAIR J oel Weinberger, a Dealer Principal of the Continental Motors Group, talks about how the company was founded by his father, John, and his uncle, Herman. “They were brothers who were sports car guys all their lives,” he says. “Herm was more of a body man and my father was more of a mechanic type who was involved in sports car clubs back in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. In 1962, he was approached byTriumph Motor Cars, out of Great Britain, to open a dealership.He asked,‘What do I have to do to be a dealer?’They said,‘You buy four cars and a sign and a thousand dollars worth of parts, and you can be a dealer.’ He thought that was a pretty good deal.He was basically a gas station garage mechanic at that point, so he invited his brother Herman to come and join him, since he had the body shop expe- rience, and they opened their operation.” “That was their first new car franchise,” Joel AT A GLANCE CONTINENTAL MOTORS GROUP WHAT: A group of new and used car dealerships WHERE: The Greater Chicago area WEBSITE: www.continentalmotors.com