Shottenkirk Chevrolet Sought Out Location in Waukee

Jackie Ramey doesn’t make her special brownies for just anyone. So when she brought them while she was having her Chevrolet Equinox serviced at in Waukee, the employees there knew they were on the right track.

Ramey’s secret is the Mexican vanilla she uses, and anyone will tell you the brownies are a knockout.

“It’s not just like you’re another number there,” Ramey said. “Everybody is just real friendly, you feel at home there.”

Ramey, who lives in Panora, said that she and her husband, Sid, who’ve bought several vehicles at the dealership, wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to a friend.

The high percentage of referral business tallied is a point of pride at the dealership. The Shottenkirk employees have also made Ramey feel comfortable about bringing her car into get serviced. Every time she has an issue, she’ll just drop in, knowing the technicians at Shottenkirk can take a look at the car on a moment’s notice.

“They always take it right in and take care of it right now,” Ramey said. “You don’t have to make an appointment if you have a problem.”

Making each customer feel special is important to general manager and operating partner Doug DeYarman. Every employee at Shottenkirk Chevrolet is given a small laminated card to carry with them on their first day of employment. On the card is DeYarman’s core philosophy, which guides every customer interaction at Shottenkirk.

“It holds everyone accountable,” DeYarman said. “Our commitment is this: we’ll make every Shottenkirk encounter exceptional.”

The dealership, a relative newcomer in Waukee, has its roots in Illinois. That’s where Bob Shottenkirk first hung out his shingle in 1964, before moving the dealership to Fort Madison, Iowa, in 1984. After Bob Shottenkirk was killed in a car accident, his son, Greg, took over the business in 1989. The dealership began to rapidly expand, and now 10 shops in the Midwest carry the Shottenkirk name.

“We take a small dealership and grow it into a larger dealership, and that’s exactly what we’ve done here,” DeYarman said. “When we took over we had five employees and now we have over 70.”

The group purchased a smaller Chevrolet dealership in Adel in 2004, and in 2008 it opened a new building in Waukee, located at 755 Hickman Road. DeYarman, who’s been with the company for 26 years, moved to Waukee to open up the dealership because he knew Waukee was one of the fastest-growing areas in the country.

“There was incredible growth going on here,” DeYarman said. “This was the fastest-growing county in the United States.”

DeYarman, who grew up in the small town of Olds, Iowa, just south of Iowa City, started selling cars in the early 1980s when it wasn’t possible to make a living on the farm. He’s a hands-on manager at the dealership, and you’ll find him in his office every day the business is open.

He’ll admit there are things he doesn’t like, such as dealing with snow, which means that every one of the 400 cars on Shottenkirk’s lot needs to be moved to clear the snow. But for the most part, it’s the best job he’s ever had. It’s a career that’s sometimes challenging, but different every day, and DeYarman wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“I found out that the harder I worked, the more I could get out of it,” DeYarman said. “Some places you could work real hard and not much would happen.”