For over eighty years, Jim Reed has been serving the needs of the auto consumer in Nashville, Tennessee. It was 1930 when the Jim Reed Chevrolet Company was granted a charter of incorporation by the state of Tennessee, and we've been serving the transportation needs of Middle Tennessee ever since. Jim Reed Jr., the founder of the company, grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His father, Jim Reed, owned and operated a hardware store. While learning his sales skills in his father's store, Jim Jr.'s attention was diverted from hardware to automobiles when his father brought home Murfreesboro's very first car, a Model T. Jim Reed Jr. relocated to Nashville in the early 1900's to sell automobiles. With a bank loan, a childhood success selling hardware and recent auto selling experience, he opened the first Jim Reed Chevrolet Company at 1223 Broadway. The year was 1917. During his first year as Nashville's only Chevrolet dealer, Jim Reed Jr. sold 500 cars. Jim Reed Jr. sold Chevrolets on Broadway until about 1921, when he gave up the Chevrolet dealership to sell Studebakers instead. In 1930, he went back to Chevrolet, and the Jim Reed Chevrolet Company was incorporated with it's present organization. THE WAR YEARS... ...forced Jim Reed Chevrolet Company to modify it's operations. No cars were built from 1940 to 1945 because automobile factories were used to produce war supplies. This left Jim Reed's glass-windowed showrooms barren. Because of this, the entire parts department was moved into the showroom. The effect was something like a large supermarket made up of rows and rows of auto parts.