Then and Now: Volkswagen dealerships in Spokane

May 25-It took some visionary car dealers to bring a tiny air-cooled four-cylinder German car to Spokane. The round-topped two-door was simply called the Type 1 and the panel van, introduced in 1950, was called the Type 2.

Spokane's two Volkswagen dealerships had different paths to success.

Auto mechanic Charles L. Bright opened a repair shop, Bright Motors, at 13th Avenue and Inland Empire Way on Spokane's southeast side in 1953. He worked on American, European and British cars. In 1954, he added the Volkswagen and Porsche names to his regular ads in the local newspapers.

In 1964, Bright Motors opened a modern glassed-in showroom at 430 E. Sprague Ave.

Bright and his wife died when their private plane crashed near Red Bluff, California, in January 1967, killing them along with two other companions.

Alan R. Sorenson and Frank LeFriec bought the company and renamed it United Volkswagen. The duo sold the dealership in 1976 to Glen E. Sherwin and Mark K. Hollenback, who also owned Dishman Dodge and American Jeep. Sherwin-Hollenback VW operated until they sold it to Heinz Zegke and Valley Volkswagen in 1983.

Heinz Zegke immigrated to the U.S. in 1952 as a "displaced person" in the wake of World War II. He had been born in Gdansk, Poland, which was German territory before the war. He barely spoke English when he opened Valley Volkswagen at 8321 E. Sprague Ave. in 1955 in the Dishman area.

In 1960, Zegke and his partners opened a showroom at 117 S. Fancher Road. They would eventually add Porsche and Audi lines.

The Valley Volkswagen's showroom exploded in the early hours of Oct. 6, 1966. No one was hurt, but the massive explosion flattened the building. Investigators traced the blast to a walk-in safe. The office manager and bookkeeper of the dealership, Robert E. Woodard, was charged with making the dynamite explosive device, which caused $200,000 in damage, to cover for his ongoing theft from the dealer. Woodard was sentenced to 12 years for the larceny and the bombing.

The dealership built a new showroom at 10000 E. Sprague Ave. in 1969.

Appleway Chevrolet, owned by the Pring family, acquired the dealership from Zegke in 1985. The Appleway Group was acquired by AutoNation in 1997.

Zegke died in 2013.

Addition note: An alert reader pointed out that Valley Volkswagen was across the street from the current United Rentals lot, which was a Big R Truck stop in the time of the Volkswagen dealership. The former car dealer's parcel is empty and the westbound I-90 onramp cuts through that property. Jesse Tinsley

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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 8:26 AM.