Rusty Drewing, owner and president of the Drewing Automotive Group in December expanded the group from Columbia, Mo., by acquiring two Jefferson City, Mo., dealerships from Riley Auto Group.
Drewing Automotive on Dec. 20 bought Riley Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Cadillac and Riley Toyota. The transaction also included a collision center.
“I love the dealerships, the way they run them, the hometown feel and we will continue to support everything locally,” Rusty Drewing said in a statement. “We will be a big part of the community and plan to carry on the traditions they have established over the last 85 years.”
Drewing Auto renamed the dealerships Rusty Drewing Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Cadillac and Rusty Drewing Toyota. Jefferson City is about 30 miles south of Columbia.
Amanda Riley, marketing manager for Drewing’s Jefferson City stores and whose family sold the dealerships, said Drewing approached her uncle, Kevin Riley, about buying the stores. Kevin Riley owned the group with his brothers, Mike Riley and Carey Riley, Amanda Riley’s father.
“After a tornado hit the dealerships in Jefferson City in May 2019, the recovery and rebuild that lasted nearly two years would be an exhausting endeavor for someone early on in their career, much more for a group of brothers looking forward to retirement in the coming years,” Amanda Riley said in an email to Automotive News. “It was their time to step away from the business.”
In the powerful 2019 storm in which winds reached 160 mph, the General Motors store was largely destroyed. Amanda Riley said her family’s auto group operated the GM dealership out of a temporary facility from August 2019 until May 2021, when a new store opened. The Toyota store wasn’t hit as hard and reopened about six months after the tornado, she said.
Riley, who along with several other family members continue to work for Drewing Auto, said Riley Auto estimated 770 new- and used-vehicles were totaled in the tornado.
The Drewing group, including BMW of Columbia and Mercedes-Benz of Columbia in Missouri, was owned by the late Gary Drewing and his son, Rusty. Gary Drewing died on Jan. 28 at age 74.
In 2015, the Drewing family sold eight Joe Machens Dealerships of Missouri to McLarty Automotive Group, keeping just the two luxury stores in Columbia.
