Famous people's places / Eastpointe
Merollis Chevrolet
Closed – archive entry
The Chevrolet dealership on Gratiot Avenue in Eastpointe where Joe Girard sold more cars than anyone in history, earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
01 / The story of this place
Make time for these
Joe Girard started selling cars at Merollis Chevrolet on Gratiot Avenue in Eastpointe in the early 1960s, and by the time he retired in 1977 he had sold 13,001 vehicles, mostly one at a time to individual buyers rather than in fleet deals. His single-year record of 1,425 cars sold in 1973 earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's greatest salesman, a title Guinness has never awarded to anyone else in retail auto sales. Girard's methods, built on referrals, handwritten thank-you notes and relentless follow-up, later made him a bestselling author and one of the best-known sales trainers in the world. The Merollis name is gone from the building today; the dealership at the same Gratiot Avenue address now operates as Genesis Chevrolet.
- Joe Girard sold 13,001 cars here, 1963 to 1977
- Set a Guinness World Record: 1,425 cars sold in 1973 alone
- Guinness named him the world's greatest salesman
- Building still a car dealership today, now Genesis Chevrolet
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Joe Girard 1928–2019 · car salesman, author and motivational speaker
Worked here
The dealership where he set his sales records; exact address and current status not verified.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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