Heitmeyer retires dealership, but not his love for cars

H&M Motor Sales, 447 E. Sandusky St., has sold its last used car. Owner Dave Heitmeyer is retiring. Heitmeyer has sold the property to the owners of Fern Café across the street, Darrin and Cierra Karcher. The Karchers plan to use the former car lot for overflow parking and convert the former H&M building to a banquet room. After 34 years at the helm of the business, Heitmeyer, 65, is ready to retire. "I've seen a lot of stuff in the car business over the years but the car business is getting tougher and tougher," he said. "Now the vehicles are getting hard to come by and the sale fees have raised and there's not going to be many new cars for a while because of the computer chip shortage and seat foam shortage and a few other things. So I thought there was no light at the end of the tunnel, it was time to get out of it." Now it's time to have a little fun, play golf, drink a little beer and be free of stress, he said, laughing. Letting go will not be a problem for Heitmeyer. "My wife (Alison) has been wanting me to retire for a few years," he said. "It's kind of easy to up and walk away from it." One might say he took a more scenic route to get into the business. His father, Richard Sr., started the business in 1959 as Heitmeyer Motor Sales. As a teenager, Dave Heitmeyer's dream was to be a car designer. He wrote a letter to the head stylist of Chrysler Corp. in 1971 and got himself invited, along with his parents, to visit the styling studio there when he was a high school senior. "Very, very few outsiders ever get that chance," he said. It was an exciting moment for the aspiring car designer. He was told by Chrysler officials that he likely would have a job if he took two years of junior college. "But my dad wasn't behind me 100% on that and he wanted someone to take over the business," Heitmeyer said. Eventually that was the way things ended up, but not before an interlude. At 18 years old, living at home with his parents and working for his father, Heitmeyer had a falling out with his father. "I moved out of the house," he said. Heitmeyer's father "thought my hair was getting a bit too long," Heitmeyer said. "He was kind of old school about that. I said, 'No, I'm not going to cut it,'" Heitmeyer recalls. "That kind of led to the fallout, I guess." It was 1973. Heitmeyer went on to work a couple of different jobs before returning to work for his father in 1975. "If you grow up around cars, you get cars in your blood," he said. He took over the business in 1987. "It worked out well and I will miss seeing a lot of my old customers," Heitmeyer said. "I had a lot of repeat business." While he is retired from the car business, he will never retire his love for cars. "I was a car nut, and unfortunately being a car nut, when I go home at night, I turn the TV on and I watch a car show," Heitmeyer said. "Or, I'm reading a car magazine. Sometimes it drove my wife, Alison, crazy. "But that's just the way it is. When it's in your blood, it's just hard to let go of it." Wilin: 419-427-8413.