OAKDALE – It’s not often that an owner of the car dealership gets involved at some point during the sales transaction.

But that’s part of what makes Steves Chevrolet Buick unique, according to Jeff Steves.

He and brother, Brett, are owners of the Oakdale dealership located at 1285 East F St. Both are Manteca High products – Jeff is from the Class of 1978 while Brett hails from the Class of 1983 – and their mother still lives in Manteca.

It was their late father, Frank, who opened Steves Chevrolet back in 1974. Prior to that, he worked at the Mendoza Men’s Wear store.

“Although we live and work in Oakdale, our roots are in Manteca,” said Jeff Steves on Wednesday.

Brett Steves divides his time between Oakdale and Chowchilla, where the other Steves Chevrolet is located just off Highway 99. Remodeling similar to the recently completed Oakdale dealership is currently taking place at the Chowchilla Chevrolet dealership.

Work in Oakdale included an exterior – try a new façade – and interior facelifts. Inside, a Kids’ Zone featuring an Xbox gaming system was added coupled with a new beverage bar and customer restrooms.

“Our lobby is more comfortable and we now have a workstation with PC and printer for customer use,” said Jeff Steves. “The entire dealership has Wi-Fi connectivity.”

The remodel was completed just in time to showcase the all-new Chevrolet Malibu and the 2014 Silverado due for release in the summer.

The dealership may have gone state-of-the-art, but Steves Chevrolet is still about good, old fashioned, small-town values.

Jeff and Brett Steves value people.

“We understand people in Ag – the truck is also their office,” Jeff said.

Sales representatives are there to greet the customers. “He’ll stay with the customer and will handle everything from A to Z (including the financing),” added Jeff Steves.

As emphasized earlier, he or his brother will make time to tend to that customer.

Jeff noted that the service department is second to none. “It’s not too often you get a service manager (Joe McGrath) that’s been here for the past 31 years,” he said.

Added Brett Steves: “This is a simple business once you make taking care of the customer as the top priority.”

Incidentally, he used that same philosophy some nine years ago after taking over the Chowchilla Chevrolet dealership.

The Steves, who continue to get their fair share of repeat and referral customers – Jeff said the dealership scores “off the charts” in both areas – welcome those in Manteca, Ripon and Lathrop to take a drive to Oakdale and see what’s new in Chevrolets and Buicks.

For more information, call Steves Chevrolet at 209-847-2261, toll free at 800-660-2261 or log in at www.steveschevrolet.com.