Collier Motors is a private car dealership primarily selling cars built by

American Motors Corporation American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the mergers and acquisitions, merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 19 ...

(AMC) as well as with other makes. The business was for many years an AMC franchised dealership located on business U.S. Route 117 in Pikeville, North Carolina.

Background

Robert Collier established Collier Motors in 1955 as a single

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

while in his 20s. His father was also in the automobile business and continued working until he was in his 80s. Collier transitioned from marketing Chevrolets to selling cars made by

(AMC). The longstanding relationship with AMC continued until the automaker was partially purchased by

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

in 1979. After AMC started importing Renault models from France, Collier decided he preferred to sell only domestic-designed and built cars. Rather than selling new Renault-derived passenger cars, such as the 1983

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

that was built in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Collier continued to sell the stock he already had on the lot and focused his dealership on older AMC cars and Jeep vehicles, as well as used vehicles of other US makes. American Motors was bought by

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

in 1987. The property is on the west side of old U.S. Route 117. By 2010, the business was described as having "vehicles and parts slowly returning to the soil." Collier died on 11 February 2018, at the age of 88. The administration of the estate was placed mainly on Robbie Collier, the oldest son.

Business

Collier Motors sits frozen in time. Attempting to settle Robert Collier's estate, the Collier family continues to sell off the remaining inventory, though most have sat outside unprotected on the lot since the early 1980s. Inventory includes 1970s and 1980s-model AMCs, such as

Gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous fictional creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. ...

s, Pacers,

Ambassadors An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Matador A bullfighter or matador () is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activ ...

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

Eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

s, Spirits, Hornets and Concords. Some of the cars still retain their original Monroney window stickers. Once the inventory has been sold or otherwise disposed of, the property will be cleared and listed for sale.

Historic AMC vehicles

Historic vehicles owned by the Collier family and stored at the lot have included unique examples such as

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...

's two-seat AMX muscle car with a "tricked-out dash", two Alabama Highway Patrol Javelins, and a Nash from the 1991 movie '' The Marrying Man''. The policy has been to sell complete cars, not to part them out. A late-2021 estimate noted 40 "desirable" and restoration worthy cars that include some high-performance equipped AMCs.

Television

In 2015, Collier Motors was featured on two

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

shows: American Pickers (episode "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" originally aired 13 May 2015). and Lost in Transmission (episode "Fly Like an Eagle" originally aired 4 June 2015). Appeared in Season 1, Episode 7 of Roadworthy Rescues, “Rebel with a Cause”. The show first aired in fall of 2022, starring Derek Bieri, creator of the Vice Grip Garage YouTube channel.

References

External links