Running Down a Dream

4 revheads who’ve made their auto obsessions their life’s work

By Ross Boissoneau | May 22, 2021

Cory Wade
GR Auto, Traverse City
What TJ Maxx is for housewares and clothes hounds, the newly opened GR Auto of Traverse City is for classic car lovers. Whether you’re dying to buy or just want to ogle at an ever-changing inventory (pictured above), owner Cory Wade’s GR Auto of Traverse City is your happy place.

A consignment sale shop with clients from around the region and the country, the business is fast-moving, with cars continually coming in and going out. The inventory may one day have a high-end Porsche or classic Cadillac, the next a vintage Ford truck or a Thing by Volkswagen.

“It’s continually revolving,” said Wade.

Wade’s branch is one of three: It’s called GR Auto Gallery as the original started in Grand Rapids. There’s also one in Detroit. Together, the three make up one of the largest car consignment operations in the country. “We sell 1,200 to 1,400 a year,” he noted. And all its inventory is onsite. “Everything we offer is in one of our locations,” he said.

Like many other specialty shops, business actually increased during the pandemic. “We were up 25 to 30 percent in 2020. And we’ve broken all our 2020 records [so far] in 2021,” he said.

If you’re serious about buying, be warned: There are more hungry buyers than sellers right now. “Inventory is easy to sell,” he said. “But inventory is not keeping up with demand. My job is to keep up the inventory.”

Learn more about all locations and the inventory of GR Auto Gallery at www.grautogallery.com.

Mike & Dawn Fisher
MFD Classic Motors Traverse City
What do you do when your car collecting habit gets a bit out of control? If you’re Mike and Dawn Fisher, you showcase the cars in a facility that doubles as an event space.

The husband-and-wife team founded MFD Classic Motors in 2010 not only to store their own collection of vintage road and race cars but also to provide space for others to do the same. 

With inventory like that, they saw their Traverse City building as capable of being far more than a high-end vehicle storage facility. They began hosting events there as well. “Cars and coffee — that’s what a lot of car owners like,” said Mike Fisher.

But they didn’t stop there. Auto seminars were a natural. And then, so were life events. “Wakes, weddings — people want something different — [events for] single moms.”

Like so many other activities, the COVID pandemic brought such endeavors to a halt. Fisher is hopeful that as the pandemic recedes, they can once again host events of all sorts.

Fisher said he and Dawn both grew up as self-described car nuts. They both love to drive vintage race cars, sometimes against one another — her in a Lotus, him in an Austin Healy. No word on their head-to-head record. 

Fisher describes their personal collection as eclectic. It includes a 1948 Allard, an English sports car. Allard was a London-based low-volume manufacturer which produced fewer than 2,000 cars from 1945 through 1958. Fisher said only three vehicles like his were produced. The rest of their collection includes everything from Lamborghini and a Ferrari to a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and an Avanti, a vehicle based on the Studebaker Avanti, which was produced between 1965 and 2006. 

The building also hosts some detailing work as well as light mechanical. “We don’t have a full-service garage,” he noted.

Nope, it’s still primarily a full-service storage facility, one Fisher said houses about 65 to 70 vehicles. The roster changes as vehicles are sold, while others pull their vehicles out to drive for the summer or on trips. As some go, others come in.

Although events aren’t part of MFD’s immediate summer plans, you can follow any changes on MFD Classic Motors’ Facebook page. Car owners interested in year-round, seasonal, or even temporary storage while on a driving tour can call (231) 947-3850, www.mfdclassicmotors.com. 

Officer John McLeod
Classic Instruments, Boyne City
You can go home again. John McLeod is living proof. He’s also evidence you can have a second, even a third act.

The owner of Classic Instruments in Boyne City came by his enthusiasm for autos honestly enough, as his grandfather and father had both worked in the industry. His dad, a pattern-maker for cars in the ’70s, a time that facet of the industry was disappearing, saw the writing on the wall, and made a career and life change. 

Because he loved the outdoors, he moved his family north to Boyne City, where he began a successful nursery and floral shop. Though son John worked there, he inherited his dad’s still-revving passion for cars and wanted to make his career in the auto industry, attending Chrysler Tech School after graduating from high school. But he soon he found his love of cars didn’t translate to working at a dealership. “I decided the dealership world was not for me,” he said.

So he followed in his great-grandfather’s footsteps. “He’d been a cop,” McLeod said. McLeod attended the police academy, then got a job offer he never expected or wanted, from his hometown of Boyne City. “That was the last place I wanted to be,” he said. “I wanted to be in the narcotics team downstate.”

He accepted the job to get some experience but planned to seek a policing job elsewhere. That’s when Boyne City’s Mike Stowe — “another big gearhead” as McLeod describes him — asked McLeod to do some work for him. Soon McLeod was working two full-time jobs: one in law enforcement, the other restoring and building hot rods for Stowe at his Great Lakes Motor Works. “I fell in love with it.” 

In 2001 Stowe helped McLeod purchase Classic Instruments, an Oregon company that made gauges and other related parts for automobiles and boats. The pals flew to Oregon, loaded up the equipment, moved it to Boyne City and opened it in McLeod’s garage. Today it’s housed in an 8,000-square-foot building, and McLeod has 11 employees. It continues to grow, even through the pandemic, or perhaps because of it: He believes the increased number of people spending more time at home lead to more car enthusiasts working in their garages.

Despite his passion for the car business, McLeod couldn’t get policing — or Boyne City — out of his system. He still works part-time for the Boyne City Police Department. He’s a certified AR trainer, and he combines his twin passions by hosting a fundraiser each year for the police department. Last year, it morphed from just being a car show at his facility to a poker run, and it was so successful he plans to do the same this year on July 31. (“See Car Shows Proceeding with Caution” for details.)

Learn more about Classic Instruments at www.classicinstruments.com.