Driven Growth
Locally owned Leo Chevrolet, formerly known as P4 Automotive Group, has recently opened two new dealership locations in the greater Indianapolis area. One is on 96th Street near Carmel, and one is in Lebanon. Owner Leo Portaluppi started his business in Columbus, Indiana, and has expanded to other parts of the state over the last two years.
“We’re good people, and we hope folks give us an opportunity. We’re out to earn people’s business,” he says.
Originally from Argentina, Portaluppi has moved around the United States throughout his life—from New Jersey and New York to Texas, where he spent most of his life growing up.
“That’s where I first got started in the car business. My father was a technician and mechanic. Right out of high school, I got a job with him. I worked my way up from cleaning the shop to working on cars to being in management. Right around that time, Roger Penske bought our dealership. I got used to being around him and around the Penske Group,” he says.
After that, he received an opportunity to be in a partnership at a dealership in Kentucky.
“My family and I lived there for about seven years before I was able to branch out on my own and move to Columbus. We’re not moving anymore; we’re staying in Indiana,” he continues. “I got connected with General Motors, and I applied for the position in Columbus and was selected for it. It was what they call an ‘open point,’ so there was no dealership in Columbus and they were looking for someone to come in and establish one there,” Portaluppi explains.
Adjusting to having his own dealership was a struggle at times, but he’s gained experience and knowledge from it.
“When we first opened the Chevrolet dealership in Columbus, we didn’t have anything—no employees, no product, no staplers. It was definitely a challenge to start something from nothing,” he recalls.
Since that time, he’s acquired eight other dealerships across central Indiana, including Stoops GMC in Muncie and a Harley-Davidson dealership in Edinburgh, Indiana. Across all locations, he has almost 400 employees.
“Our business practice is unique to us. We have non-commission salespeople. We believe in aligning with the customer’s interests, and sometimes commission doesn’t do that, so we pay them differently. Our thought is to make a little bit of money on a lot of people. We want to sell a lot of cars and gain a lot of customers. If that means a lower margin, that’s OK, because we’ll do better in the long run,” he says.
With the current dealerships, Portaluppi faced challenges regarding changing the name of the business and rebranding from P4 Automotive to Leo Auto Group, as well as purchasing dealerships previously owned by others.
“Stoops is a good name and has been in business for so long that people might be nervous, but then when they come in, they see it’s the same people doing the right things and taking care of them. They get over that pretty quickly. We try to keep everyone who was there before,” he says.
In addition to selling cars, Portaluppi and his employees make it a priority to invest in their community.
“We serve in the Boys & Girls Club. We encourage employees to be on different organizations’ boards. In Columbus, we’re one of the official sponsors of the school system. We do a lot of things with the Chamber of Commerce. We don’t just want to be involved with dollars; we like to show up at events. If someone needs a place to host an event, we offer for them to come and do it at our facility. We try to do an event at least once a month with the community to let them know we’re here.”
Because of a lack of inventory when he first opens a dealership, Portaluppi says they try to buy used cars from their customers and offer competitive trade-in deals and pricing on new cars.
“Customers would be surprised at what we offer them,” he says.
“I’d like people to know that we’re not this big corporation. We’re family-owned, we’re local. We’re very community-focused and we want to be part of it. People see the big Ford or Chevy sign and think it’s a big corporation in charge, but it’s not. We’re the ones supporting the baseball and soccer teams. We’re good people, and maybe dealerships in general don’t have a great reputation, but we’re not like them. I want to see people out and about, and feel good knowing that we took care of them,” he says.
Leo Chevrolet’s new locations are at 1920 N. Lebanon St., Lebanon, and 4105 W. 96th St., Indianapolis. Their websites are leochevy.com and leochevygmc.com. Both locations are open Monday through Saturday. For more information, you can follow them on their social media channels.
