By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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BELOIT, Wis. — Finley GMC, a family-run dealership for nearly 75 years, has sold the business to Kunes Auto Group.
The sale of the dealership, 2700 Milwaukee Road, closed on Monday, according to Tom Finley, 67, who is retiring after 44 years with the company including 40 as its owner. Financial details of the sale were not disclosed.
“It’s a happy and a sad situation, obviously,” Finley said. “I spent a lot of time with all the employees there. I spent a lot of time with the customers, and I’m really going to miss that piece of it.
“I was fortunate to have just a fantastic staff and a really good set of customers.”
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The sale keeps a family tie to the business. Scott Kunes, the chief operating officer of Kunes Auto Group and son of its founder, is engaged to Maggie Finley, Tom’s daughter.
“This was a way for Tom to keep it in the family without keeping it in the family,” said Jen Myers, director of marketing for Kunes Auto Group. “We hope to keep that strong community impact that the Finleys have had for years.”
Kunes Auto Group is a family-owned company founded in 1996 in Delavan, Wisconsin, by Gregg Kunes. It has grown to 42 locations across the Midwest, including the former Jack Wolf Chrysler Jeep and Jack Wolf GMC Cadillac in Belvidere, which it purchased in December 2020.
“We take over a lot of dealers where it’s a family dealership and they’re retiring,” Myers said. “We’re still a family dealership. With as many locations as we have, people think we’re big and corporate. We are not. We’re just a family dealership that has built this structure behind us so we can grow.”
All the employees of Finley were brought on to continue to run the dealership under Kunes.
“So when (customers) walk in they’re going to see the people that they’ve been used to seeing,” Finley said.
The dealership has drawn customers from along the interstate between Rockford and Janesville.
Maurice Finley, Tom’s father, founded the business in 1950 as a repair shop and picked up the GMC franchise in 1959.
Tom Finley started working for the company full time in 1980 and became the operator in 1984 when his father retired.
The store was originally located in Beloit, but it move to South Beloit, Illinois, in 1984 where it operated as a GMC and Oldsmobile dealer. Finley combined with Gene Dencker Pontiac in 2007 and moved back to Beloit, operating out of the Milwaukee Road facility where it stands now.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas