It began as Douglas Hudson Motors, changed to Douglas Ramber, and ended in 1980 as Wilhelmi's Douglas American When Jack Wilhelmi sold the building in '88, he tried selling these cars, that had been sitting for years, the ones he didn't sell he sent to his ex-service manager's farm. There were about 50 cars; 2 AMXs, 1 SC/Rambler, several '60s Ramblers, and a '50 Nash Rambler 2 door panel wagon that was used by the US Post Office.... Circa 1983, Blue Grass Lincoln-Mercury AMC-Jeep-Renault Saab Isuzu Alfa-Romeo was located at 4301 Shelbyville Road in Louisville, KY and had purchased the franchise from Tafel Motors, a couple blocks away on Shelbyville Road. Blue Grass' owner was Herb Vine, and Herb kept promising AMC a separate showroom that never materialized. Finally, in early 1985, AMC had had enough, and they pulled the franchise from Blue Grass. Shortly before that, Jack Wilhelmi, the former Hudson dealer on Bardstown Road in Louisville, had decided to close his operation, Wilhelmi's AMC [formerly Douglas Rambler, and before that Douglas Hudson Motors],and sold the franchise to Cross Pontiac, a dealership that had moved around 1978-'79 from downtown Louisville to a new facility at Newburg Road and the Watterson Expressway. A Kroger grocery was built where the showroom used to stand, and I believe a Hardees restaurant ended up on the corner where Jack's used car operation stood. Cross Motors may have also purchased the remaining vehicles and parts inventory from Blue Grass. Today Cross Motors is strictly a Chrysler-Jeep dealership. And Herb Vine's sons and son-in-law sold their Hyundai, Mazda, Isuzu, and Lincoln-Mercury franchises to Oxmoor Auto Group and moved the remaining Saab, Audi, and Porsche dealerships to a new building on Bowling Blvd. in Louisville. Oxmoor had the Hyundai-Isuzu franchise in the old Blue Grass building at 4301 Shelbyville Road until late 2008,when they moved it to the 7900 block of Shelbyville Road, near their new Toyota building. The old Blue Grass building is believed to still be empty. In the mid-'70's, Wade Swope built a new facility at 8107 Shelbyville Road, across from the then-nearly new Oxmoor Mall. The dealership was known as AMC East, but by 1979. Wade Swope was selling Toyotas there, and Tafel Motors had the AMC-Jeep franchise. The building that was AMC East became Oxmoor Toyota until 2008, when Oxmoor Auto Group built a new Toyota facility, and today the AMC East building is occupied by Oxmoor Mazda.
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