Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Denny Maday (left) and Rick Jensen stand in the former Maday Motors, now Jensen motors, Jeep showroom.

NEW ULM — Maday Motors has been a part of New Ulm for 75 years making it the oldest car dealership in New Ulm.

As of March 2, the business has been acquired by Jensen Motors.

Maday started in New Ulm in 1946 by Edward Maday, father of the current owners. Denny Maday said his brother Paul has been considering retiring. Maday said he and Rick Jensen first began talking about this acquisition five years ago, but the serious talks did not begin until this fall.

Over the last few years, multiple dealerships and brokers have approached Maday to sell, but the Maday family held out for Jensen to take over.

“Honestly, we felt the most comfortable with Rick Jensen,” Denny Maday said. “We take care of our employees, which was very important to us. Our employees have been here a long time and I wanted to make sure they were secure for the future.”

Maday said everyone from the service and parts department and one salesman from Maday will be joining the Jensen Motors team.

“Rick has taken care of them very well,” Maday said.

Jensen said part of the appeal of acquiring Maday Motors was getting an experienced team of employees. He said the mechanics, parts and service departments were very well run at Maday and Jensen is not planning to make a change. For many customers, the change will appear seamless.

“As far as the service and parts there will be no change other than the name,” Maday said.

The express lane for oil changes would remain in place for customers. The pickup and delivery service for vehicles would also remain.

Jensen agreed, these departments would continue under Jensen Motors because the employees did a wonderful job.

Jensen Motors, which is a Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealership, has now acquired a Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Kawasaki franchise. Taking over these franchises has required a lot of paperwork and adapting to the different record-keeping systems. Maday said he has been stopping in over the last week to help with this transition.

Maday was confident Jensen Motors would be able to work with the new brands. Rick Jensen has operated in New Ulm for 32 years, but he started out working at a Ford dealership in Marshal in the late 70s. Later he worked for Bob Lockwood in the early 80s, which included Chrysler and GM vehicles.

Jensen said there are similarities between the vehicle franchises, but each vehicle type has its special features and highlight.

Maday said in sales, it is important to be knowledgeable about the models. Customers come in with advanced knowledge of the vehicles they are considering purchasing.

Jensen agreed customers do a lot of advanced research before coming to a dealer and is important to have a salesman that knows what they are selling.

Jensen said the greatest change into taking over Maday would be replacing Denny and Paul who were the main part of the sales staff.

Maday was confident Jensen Motors could find other salespersons to replace him but acknowledge customers were loyal to their dealers.

He said when it was announced he was retiring and Jensen Motors was acquiring the business, many previous customers came in to buy one last vehicle from him. Maday said it was the customers he missed the most as many of them became friends. He was grateful for their loyalty over the years.