Our History

THOMPSON MOTORS 68 YEARS OF BUSINESS Contact Us Wykoff 1-800-862-2002 So. St. Paul 1-800-642-6455

COMPANY HISTORY

In May of 2000 Thompson Motors celebrated 60 years as a family owned and operated business. A operation which grew from a general service garage to a worldwide service.

Thompson Motors began when a group of truckers from the LaCrosse area were so pleased with the work done by Charles Thompson that they persuaded him to open a shop in Wykoff. In LaCrosse Charlie had done repair work on a fleet of trucks, that group of truckers purchased the Wykoff Elevator and moved trucks to Wykoff.

In April of 1940 Charlie, his wife Gert and son Dick, left LaCrosse and moved to Wykoff to open a repair business. Charlie leased a building and set up shop as a filling station and general service garage.

The advent of WWII and gas rationing brought an end to the grain trucks. However, the war created a need for mechanics who could patch vehicles together without new parts, Charlie was good at that. After the war Charlie became a Hudson car dealer and sold cars as well as farm machinery including Ferguson, Massey Harris, Belle City and later International Harvester. Hudson went out of business and we went out of the car business.

In 1956 Thompson Motors acquired the International Harvester truck franchise and sold pickups and two ton trucks. In 1958 Dick, who had worked part-time in the business while going to school, joined the firm full-time after marrying Judy and starting a family. In 1959 Thompson Motors sold its first new diesel semi tractor to George Wagner of Wykoff, a Ruan owner operator. This truck, a model DCOT-405 Emeryville, had a 220 Cummins, five speed transmission, two speed drive axle and a belt drive tag axle. The truck weighed 13,000 pounds full of fuel and with driver and power takeoff pump. This sale got Thompson Motors started in the growing heavy duty truck market. The new truck business was to last until 1989 when the decision was made to sell used trucks only.

Thompson Motors entered the export market in 1979 and remains a stable part of our business today. By 1982 Dick and Judy's sons, Chris and Rod had joined the firm full-time. In 1983 Thompson Motors established our branch facility in South St. Paul to better serve our customers in that area.

The death of Chris in August 1996 left a huge void in the business as well as the hearts of his family and those who knew him. Chris was a serious business man as well as a widely known prankster. His smile will forever be with us. We will, however, continue.

Today, our business sells about 300 used trucks, new International and Cummins parts and used parts from the 300 plus trucks that we salvage each year, salvage and rebuilt trucks, and does truck repair for customers across the states and markets in a number of other countries. The first building that Charlie moved his business into is no longer standing, the building that now houses Thompson Motors was built in 1959 and has had many additions since. In the past five years alone two new buildings were constructed, in the fall of 1996 our new salvage yard was completed and the new truck service shop was opened in 1999.

The Thompson family and employees would like to thank it's customers for making it a successful 60 years and are looking forward to serving you for the next 60 as well.