After 70 years, Lattof Chevrolet says good bye to its 'family'
For Al and Janet Lattof, closing down Lattof Chevrolet after more than 70 years and three generations includes helping about 70 employees find new jobs and their customers locate Chevy dealers where they'll be comfortable.
"My father tried to make this a family business where the customers and employees became part of the family" said Al Lattof, who is 48. "That's what we'll miss."
During the last day of business Friday, the Lattofs talked with long-term customers and treated their employees to a lunch, saying it was difficult to focus, and the work day would be a short one.
The Lattofs announced a month ago they have decided to accept a buyout from General Motors, which will close the dealership. It's no secret there are too many dealers, and the automobile giant is trying to keep a healthy dealer count, Lattof said. Eventually the couple might open another type of business, he said.
Staying in the new-car business would have involved moving somewhere near other dealers to benefit from the synergy, he said, and the couple was not willing to make the long-term commitment that would require when neither of their children is interested in continuing the family business.
The dealership is on Northwest Highway just southeast of downtown Arlington Heights, and at one time, the area was an automobile mecca, he said, listing six other companies that had been nearby.
They all left when the land became valuable for other uses, he said, moving to Dundee Road or Golf Road in Schaumburg. He noted that Lattof was the last new-car dealership on Northwest Highway east of Barrington.
The proximity to the Arlington Heights train station kept Lattof in that location because the family valued the steadiness of the service business, said Al Lattof. Customers loved the convenience of dropping off a car for service then taking the train to work.
There have been some great successes in finding jobs for employees, said Al Lattof, but some customers remained saddened about the closing.
"More than one customer has come in here in tears," Lattof said.
One of those customers, Henry Laseke, is skeptical he'll find a dealership he'll like as much as Lattof.
Laseke said it must have been 1936 - the year that Al Lattof's grandparents, Nick and Olga Lattof, opened their dealership in Arlington Heights - that his father's car broke down right by the shop. Henry W. Laseke, who operated a waste disposal business, bought a used Chevrolet from Lattof, and father and son dealt with the Lattofs ever since.
The younger Laseke, now 85, bought his first new car in 1947. Over the years, his favorites have included Chevrolet's first V-8 - probably a 1957 Bel Air - and the Corvette convertibles he has been purchasing recently. He has this in common with Al Lattof, who drives a 1963 Corvette convertible in good weather.
While Laseke appreciates the warmth and generosity of the family and staff at Lattof Chevrolet, he also talks about what the Lattof family has contributed to the community. He was present when Nick Lattof walked into his father's office and told him the community was going to build a hospital. The Lasekes told him he "had overdone it this time," but Nick Lattof collected pledges from businessmen and what became Northwest Community Hospital was built.
He also was instrumental in starting the YMCA that is named after him in Des Plaines, and the family has been staunch supporters of Clearbrook in Arlington Heights as well as youth sports and band programs.