Karl Chevrolet

When Carl Moyer first opened his doors in January 1978, he started with nothing more than a vision and a plan. He quickly established a set of ground rules that put the customer number one, treating everyone the same after a sale as we do during the purchase process. With his hands-on approach and daily involvement we can proudly say this attitude has not change in over 35 years. As you tour our 30-acre campus, you’ll quickly see this truly was a commitment from Carl: Climate controlled showroom Dedicated delivery area Personalized delivery introduction with your new vehicle Stand alone Certified Service Express (Quick Lube) and Quick Wash open 7 days a week Dedicated Tire Service Center Award Winning State-of-the-Art Collision Center Highest trained team of GM technicians in the nation Kid’s activity area Complimentary shuttle service Solar charging station offering complimentary use to all electric vehicles Largest selection of new & pre-owned vehicles in the Midwest We recognize you have choices when it comes to your automotive decisions, and appreciate the opportunity to assist with these needs, whatever they may be.

Ankeny, Iowa, circa 1978, January 9th to be exact. That was the day Karl Chevrolet started, in a small 1940 one car showroom building on North Ankeny Boulevard. The odds were stacked against Carl, he was the new guy in town fighting to gain market share against car business veterans, such as Bill Jensen and Bob Brown. Carl didn’t have any employees, or any cars to sell. It was just him, he was the salesman, the finance manager, the receptionist, and the wash bay. He personally got to take care of each customer, and from day one his philosophy was to always take care of his customer, and to try and never have to tell them « No ». That philosophy and way of doing business started to pay off, and business started picking up. In the summer of 1978 Karl Chevrolet had 9 of the special edition Indianapolis 500 Corvette Pace Cars, every Chevrolet dealer in the United States was given one, and Carl bought 8 more to sell. It was things like this that started to really set Karl Chevrolet apart.

Carl M.
Business Owner
Carl Moyer was born and raised on the East Side of Des Moines. In his own words he and his family were « dirt floor poor ». Carl and his two brothers grew up with a love and passion for cars. As soon as Carl was old enough to work he got a job at Herman’s Texaco, where he worked for $.50/hour. He started saving every penny he could, and he finally was able to buy a car, a car that he fixed up and wanted to sell for a profit. He convinced Mr. Herman to let him park the car at the gas station so he could sell it. Things began to snowball from there; he started to customize friends’ cars, paint cars and even race cars! Around the age of 17 Carl met the love of his life, Penny. Carl wanted to build a life with Penny and knew he had to work hard to provide for their future family. At the age of 19, he became the sales manager at Dick Walters Ford and that’s where he really honed his leadership skills, and so began his life long career in the car business.