What started as a hobby for Russ Noel turned into a dream come true, but now he’s cruising down the road into retirement.

Russ and his wife Anita are the former owners of Country Classic Cars in Staunton, which they opened in 1999 after starting the business on the family farm in rural Edwardsville. 

The humble beginnings of the business can be traced back to the mid-1990s, when Russ bought his first classic car.

“We have a little place at Gillespie Lake and my wife and I were up there with our daughters, and we decided to take the girls to town for breakfast and to visit some yard sales,” said Russ, who is 78. “We were driving to a yard sale, and we saw an old car, so I told my wife I would like to check it out.

“I went to the house and knocked on the door and I asked the owner if it was for sale and he said it really wasn’t, but he said he might go ahead and sell it because he hadn’t run it in a few years. I looked at it and it didn’t have a back seat. The owner said he bought it from an old man who bought it new and that’s the way it was.”

Russ bought the car, which was a 1957 Chevrolet coupe, for $350, lower than the initial asking price of $500. He brought the car home and got it running, but by then, it was time to get the crops in, so he parked the car in the barn.

He eventually found out the car was a rarity, known as a “salesman’s special” and built with a platform where the back seat would normally be. He advertised the car and sold it for a profit to a buyer. That transaction put Russ and his wife on their way to a career in classic car sales.

“Pretty soon we had half a dozen cars here at the farm and we were up to 40-some cars by 1998,” Russ said. “We ended up selling 280 cars off the farm on a dead-end road.”

“We operated here for a few years, and we got a dealer’s license after we had about 10 cars,” Anita added. “At that point, we were starting to think that this was a little more than a hobby.”

After he found himself on the road buying cars when he needed to be working on the farm, Russ knew it was time to get out of farming and turn Country Classic Cars into a full-time business.

He called a local farmer, who to this day still rents farmland (on a shares basis instead of cash rent) from the Noels. In May of 1999, Country Classic Cars opened at the Staunton location on Russ’ birthday.

“It was a cornfield and we put up a building with an office, which is still there,” Russ said. “We could put a few cars inside and I told my wife I’d like to have 80 or 90 cars and she told me I was crazy.”

It wasn’t long before the business easily surpassed Russ’ initial goal, and by the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit in April 2020, Country Classic Cars had 675 cars in stock.

“By that point I was thinking about cutting back, so that turned to be a blessing in disguise,” said Russ, who noted that Country Classic Cars sold 650 cars last year.

On Aug. 2, the couple sold the business to Josh and Candi Laurent.

“We listed the business for sale in the spring of 2021 and found a nice young man (Laurent) who was interested in buying it. We liked him and his wife I and think it’s going to be good for the business” Russ said. 

As part of the sale, all eight of the Noels’ employees will be working for the new owners.

“We had four full-time salesmen, a detail guy, a mechanic and two secretaries, plus me and my wife,” said Russ, who has sold classic cars to buyers all around the U.S. and overseas. “Our employees never leave because we treat them right and they treat us right.”

Traveling around the nation to car sales was one of the most enjoyable parts of the job for Russ, who likens those road trips to family reunions.

“I would go about 800 miles, north, south, east and west,” Russ said. “I have a hauler named Kelly who lives in Texas, and I’ve been working with her for more than 20 years. It’s nice when you can depend on somebody like that.

“I would go as far north as Minnesota and as far south as Florida and I would go out to Oklahoma. You never know when you go how many cars you’re going to get. It’s been a great hobby that turned into a great business.”

Country Classic Cars survived a pair of disasters, a major fire in one of its storage buildings in August of 2017 that destroyed dozens of cars, and a tornado nearly 18 months later that also damaged buildings and cars.

“Luckily we had good insurance and we were worried that the insurance company was going to cancel after two big claims, but they didn’t,” said Russ, who added that 143 cars were lost in the fire with more than 130 lost to the tornado. “Our employees came in and helped us after the fire with cleanup.

“We had the fire on a Tuesday and by Wednesday before noon the phone company had our phones up and running in another building. We sold three cars the day after the fire.”

Dealing with two such catastrophic events, though, may have hastened the Noels’ decision to see the business and retire.

“Both of those things were really mountainous, and they took a toll on us,” Anita said. “We were optimistic and every day we put one foot in front of the other and did what we had to do.

“It gave you a weird sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don’t think it hit Russ as bad because he’s more resilient, but it was hard. We’re getting older and if one of us dies, the other couldn’t manage alone to run the business.”

Russ was born and raised in Bunker Hill. Anita is from Bethalto and graduated from Civic Memorial High School. The couple, who have been married 46 years, have three daughters and one son and 11 grandchildren.

“I’ve always been a mechanic and I used to work for Volkswagen years ago,” Russ said. “When I was 24 years old, I went into business for myself, so I’d been doing it for 54 years. It’s kind of a change not working, but we’re getting used to it.”

Now that they have the time, Russ and Anita hope to do more traveling – the kind that doesn’t involve buying classic cars.

“My wife has three friends from high school and one of them lives in Chicago and has a place on Lake Michigan, so we go up there once a year,” Russ said. “We have a Chevy Cruze that gets good mileage, and we want to drive around the country and visit some friends.”

Source: https://www.theintelligencer.com/news/article/Time-to-take-a-new-road-17408334.php