ELLSWORTH, Maine — Darling’s Auto Group is expanding its presence in Ellsworth by purchasing Morrison Chevrolet.
Darling’s, which already operates car dealerships in Ellsworth as well as in Bangor and Augusta, plans to take over Morrison Chevrolet at the beginning of February. Kevin Tesseo, general manager of Darling’s Auto Mall in Ellsworth, said he expects the current staff of roughly 40 people at Morrison to remain on the job after the transition.
“They have been a formidable competitor for years,” Tesseo said. “We know they have great people. Obviously they have a great product and they have a relatively new building. Our intention is to operate it with the staff that is there.”
The two exceptions are Morrison Chevrolet owners Bud Morrison and Clyde Lewis, who are retiring. Lewis said Wednesday that both he and Morrison have devoted roughly 50 years to the business but that now was time to step aside and let new people take over.
“If you’re going to sell something, you need to do it when you’re at the top of the ladder and we are,” Lewis said. “We’ve assured [callers] that everybody here is going to stay the same with the exception of Bud and I.”
Morrison Chevrolet was started in Ellsworth by Bud Morrison’s grandfather nearly 80 years ago. But Lewis said Darling’s has a strong commitment to the local community and that the larger network auto group will benefit the Chevrolet dealership and its customers.
This will be Darling’s first Chevrolet franchise. The auto group already sells GMC, Buick, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Audi and Hyundai at its other dealerships.
Tesseo said the Chevrolet dealership will remain in the same location on Route 1, just down the hill from the other Darling’s location.
“It’s a great area for us,” Tesseo said. “We feel a part of the community.”
I’m so upset that Morrison’s is selling out to Darlings, one of the main reasons I bought my vehicle last year was because of Morrison’s reputation. I did not have a good experience when I bought from darlings
The large get larger and the competition gets more scarce.
Not real happy with Darlings buying Morrison’s. I have bought my last two cars from there and have been very happy with the sales people I have dealt with. It is more than I can say for my one trip to Darlings. The sales person was extremely un-friendly almost to the point that he did not care of I was there and it was a bother for him to be out in the lot. Not the kind of dealership I really want to do business with.
To Morrison’s I would like to say thank you for the years of service I have enjoyed with you and to the owners, enjoy your retirement.You have earned it!
Guess I’ll switch to Belfast to buy my Chevys. Can’t trust Quirk and Can’t trust Darlings.
Quirk, owns Dutch Chevy, I think?
Joe, as an employee at Dutch Chevy I can assure you Dutch has been a family owned business since 1926 and is in no way associated with Quirk. Quirk bought Kallis…..
Thanks. I knew they bought a Chevy dealer down there. Good to know that there’s small dealers alive still. I’ll keep Dutch in mind next time!
Good luck trying to get a decent price on a new car in Central and Northern Maine. Two or 3 big players monopolize all the Dealers. Guess you got to go to Massachusetts to get a livable deal on a new car. Forget about getting these cars fixed.
Clyde, Morrison’s will not be the same without you! I’ve bought my last three cars from Morrison’s and never planned on buying anywhere else. I bought one, and only one, car from Darlings many years ago. That was enough for me! Darlings service after the sale is horrible, and that’s putting it nicely! I guess I’ll have to buy out of Ellsworth now. Too bad, I like to shop locally as much as I can.
This keeps up a person will either buy a vehicle from either Quirks or Darlings.
If you go way back, Johnny Quirk was married to a Darling, so its the same extended family that pretty much owns everything now.
This will increase the competition.
No, the Dutch family still owns that dealership but Quirk owns the rest of the franchises in Belfast
When do the monopoly laws kick in?
Not anytime soon. As long as there are more than one car manufacturer selling cars, the number of dealerships does not matter.
Oh nice we have basically 2 families that control all the new car sales in this half of the state
I’ve always had good help and service from Morrison; from Darlings not so much!
Guess I will have to find a dealership in Portland area to deal with or keep what I have forever. I ended up reporting Darlings to the Attorney Generals office for the way I was treated and what happened.
This is only one person’s opinion. I hadn’t bought a new vehicle in over twenty years until just a couple of years ago. I looked at my local Ford dealership, which had previously been locally owned and had a good reputation, which I had witnessed first hand when going in with my father. When I went back, after they had been sold, they totally fulfilled the stereotype that most people have of car dealerships, so I drove up to Darling’s in Bangor. As far a the salesman went, he was great. No high pressure and he gave me as good a price as I could find after doing a little more searching. I brought it back for one small service issue a few months after I bought it. My experience with their service department was also very good. As I stated, this is just one person’s opinion of Darlings, but I would go back based on how I was treated.
I have never had any problem with Darlings either. I bought my car in Bangor and have service done in Ellsworth.
I live in Trenton during the summer. Was born and raised there. While some of the posters here seem to think Morrisons is wonderful I can assure you that there is always plenty of talk around the area that they are not. Of course it all boils down to what you say-opinion.
I don’t own a car from Darlings directly – but my mother and my brother-in-law do, and they have both been very happy with the service they have received after the sale… I can’t believe that all the negative comments that are here show a true representation of Darlings. If so, honestly, why would they still be around? The one time we were looking at vehicles at Darlings, we were there after they were closed, but a person that worked there (not sure who, I did not speak with him – my hubby did) still came out and talked to him about a couple of vehicles we were looking at. He then encouraged us to come back the next day if we wanted to talk more and do a test drive. At the same time, we went to another dealership that still had their open light on and wandered around their lot (in a light mist) for 10 minutes or so, and not one person came out to ask if we needed help.
Has anyone heard anything about where Dave Gould might be these days? All this car talk brought him back to mind.