AUTOMOBILE NEWS
ANTHONY INSWASTY PHOTOS
Owner Mary Jo Tierney and her husband and business partner, Mike Wetzel, recently opened Sunrise Volkswagen of Fort Pierce on U.S. 1, south of Midway Road.
VOLKSWAGEN DEALERSHIP
ARRIVES ON TREASURE COAST
Perseverance led to opening
TCBusiness.com 41
Sunrise Volkswagen of Fort Pierce, the
newest VW dealership in the United States,
opened in February right next to the oldest
dealership in town, 87-year-old Sunrise
Ford.
The sparkling new VW store south of
Midway Road on U.S. 1 opened with 20
employees and 135 new models, from
Passat and Jetta sedans to three-row Atlas
SUVs. Most of Volkswagen’s U.S. dealer
network has filled out, meaning that a new
franchise is rare. About 30 companies, most
of them with established VW dealerships,
vied for the open “point” on the Volkswagen
U.S. map.
In the end, it was Sunrise Motor Vehicles
Inc., doing business as Sunrise Volkswagen
of Fort Pierce, that won over the German
carmaker, which is No. 1 in global auto
sales.
It took more than two decades for Mary
Jo Tierney, the owner of Sunrise Ford as
well as the new Volkswagen dealership, to
navigate the arduous path of landing and
opening a new foreign car dealership to
complement the American cars, trucks and
SUVs Ford makes.
Since the mid-1990s when 6.5 acres of
undeveloped land next to the Ford dealership
was purchased, “Our long-term goal
was to get another franchise over there,”
says Tierney. “Then we had the recession
and other issues, so we put it on hold.” >>
BY BERNIE WOODALL
/TCBusiness.com
