Cox Dealership as it looked - 1940's


Current Cox Family Members at
the Dealership. Fourth & Fifth Generation.


The crew putting the finishing touches on a station wagon before delivery.



Cox employees gather for the groundbreaking at the proposed Cortez Road site. (1976)

The company started with dealerships in Ocilla and Tifton, Georgia in 1926 and moved to its Bradenton location in 1932. For four generations the Cox family, which still owns and operates the dealership, has served Bradenton and surrounding communities with quality Chevrolet products and a genuine concern for customer satisfaction. While the automobiles we sell have certainly changed over the years, our commitment to excellence is unwavering. We look forward to many more years of service to the Bradenton community.

No company can survive, even in the best of times, without a talented and committed group of associates working as a team towards a common goal.  From our beginnings in the depth of the Great Depression, through the shortages created by a World War and the uncertainty of a succession of economic ups and downs, Cox associates have been the solid foundation on which the dealership was built. In 80 years many competitors have come and gone in our marketing area.  We have endured because of the extraordinary energy and loyalty of the people who have worked at the dealership.

Here is Our Story...

The roaring twenties were in full swing and America was on a roll in 1926 when the father and son team of James P. Cox and James O. Cox, Sr. opened their two Chevrolet dealerships in Ocilla and Tifton, Georgia.

Six years later, while our nation struggled through the depths of the Great Depression, the entrepreneurial father and son closed their dealerships and seized an opportunity to own a Chevrolet franchise in Bradenton, Florida.

Few would have imagined that the Cox Chevrolet dealership, founded during the hardest of times, would one day be among the most prominent and prosperous business in the Tampa Bay area.

In the Twenties and Thirties, new cars were shipped by train, four automobiles per rail car.  Carriers rolled into the rail terminal at 8th Avenue near 12th Street, where Cox employees off-loaded the partially disassembled cars.  They then reassembled them and drove them to the dealership.

After the death of his father in 1938, J.O. Cox, Sr. guided the company through the war years, selling used cars and parts in order to maintain income. It was during this time that Cox established a close relationship with the Ringling Brothers Circus, supplying and servicing their traveling vehicles.

The end of WWII marked the return of J.O. Cox, Jr. - J.O. Cox, Sr.stepped down as president and manager of the company in order for his son to take over. He took the reins of Cox Chevrolet, and for the next 30 years, guided the company to a steadily increasing growth that paralleled the growth of the City of Bradenton. Under his stewardship the Cox dealership flourished during a decade and a half of expanding highways, burgeoning suburbs and post-war prosperity.

The turbulent Sixties brought continued success to the business along with the introduction of new Chevrolet models like the Corvette Stingray, the sporty Camaro and the popular rear-engine Corvair. The arrival of smaller foreign automobiles began to erode American manufacturers' grip on the market, but only the most astute auto industry analysts could read the handwriting on the wall.

The Gasoline crises of the Seventies propelled smaller Japanese cars to the forefront of the American market. Cox Chevrolet faced the twin challenges of stepped-up competition and an aging physical location that is way rapidly outgrowing. Chevrolet engineers and designers, building on the popularity of the efficient, four-cylinder Vega, began to pay attention to auto weight, size and displacement. And J.O. Cox, Jr. and son Steve sought and found a new location for the dealership on Cortez Road.

By 1972, Cox Chevrolet was bursting at its seams, and the need to move to more spacious quarters was now inescapable.  J.O, Jr. and Steve, totally absorbed by and committed to the business, began the search for a new location. Months later, local residents and interested observers thought the father and son had lost their minds when they bought 14 acres, including an old scrap yard, out on Cortez Road, miles from downtown - or anything else for that matter.

In 1978, Cox Chevrolet completed the move to its current location on Cortez Road.  And once again, the timing turned out to be less than ideal.  Just before the move got underway, Manatee County began widening the roadway, making the road and access to the dealership a real challenge.  To help car buyers navigate the terrain, Cox bought large sheets of plywood and placed them at entrances to the dealership, bridging the gaps.  Car buyers no doubt appreciated the courtesy, because cars sales continued, barely missing a beat.

The economic slowdown at the beginning of the Eighties affected Cox Chevrolet as it did all other dealers, but sales climbed steadily throughout the decade and carried the dealership into the boom times of the Nineties. The recent addition of the Mazda brand to the Cox product line attests to the continuing vitality of the business. Today, Cox Chevrolet and Cox Mazda are pillars of the Manatee County business community and form one of the few family businesses in any industry to thrive well into its fourth generation.

The 80 year history of Cox Chevrolet mirrors the history of the country in general and of Bradenton in particular. Through good times and bad, the company found the strength and determination to persevere and to prosper. The same dedication to quality products and uncompromising service that brought success in the past is still alive today as Cox Chevrolet and Cox Mazda continue to build on the proud legacy of 80 Years of Kept Promises.

A FAMILY TRADITION SINCE 1926 ... TO BE CONTINUED

 
Cox Chevrolet & Cox Mazda on Cortez Road in Bradenton, FL