I’ve been traveling to Detroit about twice a year since 2007, but this year I saw something truly unique; Roseville Moparts. Roseville Moparts sells r
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I’ve been traveling to Detroit about twice a year since 2007, but this year I saw something truly unique; Roseville Moparts. Roseville Moparts sells restoration and performance parts, they work on classic Mopars and they are in the process of expanding to a full service restoration shop. Big deal, lots of places offer those services. But this is the only one I know of that’s part of a new car dealership, Golling Chrysler*Dodge*Jeep*Ram (CDJR), located in Roseville, MI.
Sure, you can go into pretty much any new car dealership and get your service parts and even collision repair items as well as Mopar accessories like a roof rack for your minivan. Most dealerships will even sell Mopar performance parts. But how many offer a full line of reproduction parts from the likes of AMD, Tony’s Parts, B/E & A, Legendary and more? It’s pretty amazing when a new car dealership sees the value in our older Mopars.
There’s even more to Roseville Moparts. When I visited a few weeks ago, the guys in the shop were tuning a Six Pack set up on a 440 and there were several other classic Mopars in various stages of restoration. As I write this, Roseville Moparts is in the process of acquiring paint booths so that they can do virtually everything in-house. Right now, they use the spray booth at the dealership’s collision center.
If that’s still not enough for you, they also have around 5-10 classic Mopars for sale in their showroom. Still not enough? They also sell used and NOS parts, too. When I was there, they had at least three E-Body Rallye gauge clusters in the display case and one had a convertible switch panel. FYI, I should’ve bought it for my convertible while I was there. D’oh!
So how did Roseville Moparts come to be? It was the brainchild of David Radcliffe. David is the Parts Manager at Roseville CDJR and he saw a decline in business in 2008. He wanted to keep his team employed and take advantage of his 20+ years of experience so he approached the owner of the dealership with an idea to sell restoration parts online and via walk-in sales.
With a classic Mopar element added to the dealership, they decided to hold an annual car show to help promote the parts business and the dealership. Next up was to build a ’70 ‘Cuda for the dealership’s owner and as a marketing tool. In short order, Roseville Moparts had become a success. But change was on the horizon.
Roseville CDJR was sold to Golling Auto Group. It’s usually not good when a business is sold and when you have a niche within the business, like selling Mopar restoration parts, it’s not likely to survive the sale. A lot of new owners would’ve seen Roseville Moparts as a liability that wasn’t worth the risk. Thankfully, Mr. Golling is a true car guy and he helped to bring the business to the next level.
On the north side of Golling CDJR was their powersports dealership that had recently closed. This created an opportunity and Roseville Moparts moved into its own building, but still located within the same property. Work is currently underway to add paint booths and more staff to make Roseville Moparts a true one-stop shop for everything Mopar, from parts to full rotisserie restorations!
As a life-long car guy, I can tell you from experience how much it means to deal with a business that “gets it” when you’re looking to make a purchase. Back when we still had small, locally owned auto parts stores, I was always willing to pay a little more for friendly service and especially someone who truly knew the parts business. Don’t get me wrong, looking up parts on the computer is very efficient for 99.9% of sales. However, when dealing with older cars, the computer isn’t always the best way to get what you really need.
The folks at Golling CDJR and Roseville Moparts definitely get it! They are very well known in the metro Detroit area and they are steadily getting their name out to the rest of the Mopar world. I’m in many Mopar groups on Facebook and when I see someone looking for a part, David is quick to reply and even includes a link directly to the needed part. On the rare occasions where David isn’t the first to reply, one of his many supporters will tag him and/or suggest Roseville. To further expand their customer base, Roseville Moparts is planning to be on the Midway at this year’s Carlisle Chrysler Nationals so you’ll be able to meet David and see for yourself!
