Royal Automotive celebrates 40 years in Vestavia Hills

When Dave Belcher opened his first car dealership, Richard Nixon was in the midst of the Watergate scandal, Vestavia Hills High School was only four years old and the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme was the top-selling vehicle. It was May 1974, and Royal Oldsmobile was the first Over the Mountain dealership. Forty years later, Royal Automotive spans 11 acres and two generations of the Belcher family.

Belcher got his start selling cars when he faced a second tour in Vietnam and decided he wanted out of the military. When he moved his family to Vestavia Hills to start his own dealership, he recalls it was a “bedroom community” that was small but growing. His son Greg went to the newly renamed Pizitz Middle School and remembers new families moving into the area all the time.

“It was a great time to live in Vestavia,” Greg said. “It was quiet and peaceful.”

Greg spent a lot of his time at his father’s dealership as a child and was occasionally allowed to sit in his father’s lap and drive one of the cars. He continued to work at Royal through high school, and when he graduated from the University of Alabama in 1986, Greg decided he wanted to return to the family business.

“It was a natural fit. It’s in my blood,” said Greg, who is now Royal Automotive’s general manager.

Both Greg and his brother David now work with their father, who joked that working with “two [family members] is enough – three is too many.” The Belchers enjoy working together and have never considered another career.

“I guess I got in it deep enough and [found it] rewarding enough that no, I never thought about [leaving],” Dave said. 

Dave said every day in the car business is different, which is why he loves it. Over four decades, the Belchers have also gotten to watch car tastes change. They have sold nearly everything from Volvos to DeLoreans and have seen great leaps in car technology.

“Today your car will talk to you in different languages. They’ll do all kinds of things,” Dave said.

Over the years Royal Automotive has also taken some financial blows such as the 2008 economic downturn and General Motors’ decision to get rid of Oldsmobile and Saturn. Despite the car market’s collapse in 2008, the Belchers managed to keep the jobs of all 138 Royal employees.

“We’re proud of that,” Dave said.

Royal now includes dealerships for Volvo, Volkswagen, Buick, GMC and used cars, and Dave was recently honored for 25 years as a GM dealer. Dave is proudest of the Buick dealership, which opened in November. His first sales job out of the military was at a Buick dealership.

“I started with Buick, I’m going to end with Buick. Full circle,” Dave said.

As Royal has grown along with Vestavia Hills, Dave has championed “paying your civic rent” by serving on the city council and school board, as well as supporting local bands and athletic teams. It’s a way for the Belchers to give back to the community that helped their business get its start.

“The relationship that we’ve had with the city of Vestavia has been a great one,” Greg said. “It’s been a great place to live all the way through.”