The Matthews Motor Company Story

How It All Started

    The story of Matthews Motor Company begins with my father, Doug Matthews. He first owned and operated Bloss Auto Sales out of a small, mobile trailer with just a handful of vehicles. This business was located in a lot adjacent to the Bloss Exxon Service Station, which he also managed for Putnam Oil. In 1984, Doug received a call around a quarter to three in the morning. He ran out into the street to see fire trucks rushing towards the service station. Thirty-five men from three fire departments fought the flames that engulfed the garage for two hours. Thankfully, no one was harmed, but the service center was devastated.
    After the fire, Doug had the opportunity to purchase the property. He continued to run the garage and expanded Bloss Auto Sales. His wife, my mother, Mary Lou, kept the books. As their little business began to expand, they added a Car Rental department in 1988. By the following year, Bloss Auto Sales had outgrown its space, so Doug moved the company to its current location in Covington, changing the name to Matthews Motor Company, Inc. In 1993 we added the four on-site service bays, and the final department came in 1996 when we added the Collision Center. Later that year, Doug became the first Certified Master Dealer in Pennsylvania.

A New Generation

    I started working at the dealership around 1994, when I would come after school and on weekends to clean cars and check in rental vehicles. My favorite memory from that time is going to car auctions with my dad. We would get up around 4AM and drive down to the Manheim auction in Lancaster each Friday. Those trips helped me learn about buying cars, but also how to meet the needs of our customers in Tioga County specifically.
    While I learned about business at the kitchen table from my dad, what I gained with my degree was the digital side. Once I graduated from Mansfield University in 2002, I immediately started applying my computer software degree to the business. I can remember how excited I was to run a cable from one computer to another, creating a "network" of computers sharing the same information on each.
    In 2004 my parents retired, and I became the manager of Matthews Motor Company. At that time, I was engaged to my wife, Anne, and we got married in 2005. Anne is a talented graphic designer, and really helped rebrand the business by designing the new logo and our first website. Chris Roupp was the head of sales. Diane Wood was our office manager, and the voice of wisdom during that time. Her tagline was always: "firm, fair, and consistent" and that really helped us focus on what kind of business we wanted to be. Our current vision is truly a testament to Diane's character. Over the next decade, the three of us worked together to develop the business in new ways. It was a time of growth for me and the company. During that decade, Anne and I had three sons, and I put my own stamp on the business.

Broadening Horizons

    I officially purchased Matthews Motor Company from my father in 2015. Since then, my team and I have continued to grow and develop the business even further, adding in many digital features as well as expanding the existing departments. We now have nine service bays, a rental fleet of fifty vehicles, a 17,000 square foot collision center with state-of-the-art equipment, and over 80 vehicles for sale on the lot. As we move forward and my own boys are coming over to the dealership to wash cars, I want them to see the most important values played out in how we run the business. Whether or not they end up working for Matthews Motor Company as adults, they should see our values modeled in how we treat the people around us.
    Our business is growing more than ever, and we are looking toward the future. With larger groups of people being hired at one time, we do not want to lose the culture and the story of our history and heritage. We need to communicate who we are, where we came from, and what we believe in. While we remain current with industry advancements, we remain steadfast in our values and beliefs, which serve as the unchanging foundation of our company.

-Jason Matthews, GM