Business & Commerce
Mark Barnes, VP of VW of America presented a 65 year plaque to Ken and Betty Gensinger with their children, Laura, Michelle, Cindy and Ken Jr. on Feb. 2. “Never in my days have I presented a 65 year plaque,” said Barnes. “I am proud to share this great event with the Gensinger family, America’s oldest VW dealership.”
Kenneth Gensinger, Sr. was still a teenager when his parents Stephen and Jane decided to open Steve’s Garage in 1950. A mechanic by trade, Stephen Gensinger set up shop on Bloomfield Ave. The business began as a gas station with a one-bay body shop and service garage where Ken Sr. came to help after school and on weekends, pumping gas, cleaning up before graduating CHS in 1955. Now patriarch of the Gensinger Motors dealership, it never occurred to Ken Sr. while he was growing up that there might be anything else that he might do other than stick with the family business. Along with the gas pumps and service bay, the business also sold new cars. Among the cars for sale were Croselys, an American automaker that had a short life span and the French-made Renault. The car that was the keeper was the Volkswagen. Gensinger sold its first VW Beetle in August 1950 for $1,250. Stephen Gensinger ordered his first Volkswagens directly from Max Hoffman, America’s legendary importer of foreign cars. Hoffman, who had the sole franchise for VW, visited small dealerships like Gensingers, making deals with a handshake. 72 February 2016 • Clifton Merchant
“I’m not sure if we were the first VW dealership in America, only Hoffman would have known that,” underscored Ken Sr., “but for sure, we are the oldest.” By 1965, more than 900 Volkswagen dealerships were doing business nationwide and Gensinger Motors kept up with the wave of VW popularity. The Gensinger family left the original Bloomfield Ave. location for one on Clifton Ave., where today’s Boys and Girls Club can be found, and in 1960, broke ground on the current landmark dealership location on Valley Rd. near the intersection of Route 46 and 3. Ken Sr. and Betty, who met in 1957 while he was stationed in Memphis, TN with the Marine Corps, are now watching as three of their 14 grandchildren— Billy, Rachel and Bob —come in after school to work. “And just like my father, who lived near the dealership, I now do too. I live up the hill, behind the business. He used to cross the street to go to work, I come downhill,” said Ken Sr. with a chuckle. However, the best Gensinger tradition for Ken Sr., is keeping it in the family. “I love to work surrounded by my family. It’s a good life, a good way to run the business.”