A Dealer’s New Dawn: Midway RV Center

From the Apollo 11 moon landing and the Woodstock music festival to the first message sent over the primeval internet, 1969 was a pivotal year in modern history. And while these iconic moments were defining cultural movements across the globe, for two businessmen in Michigan, the year was just as seminal on a local scale.

That’s when Midway Trailer Sales staked its claim on the north side of Grand Rapids, where the two entrepreneurs bought a U-Haul rental company with a handful of travel trailers in stock. Soon after, their partnership with a local RV expert, Roger Naber, became the key to success of what is known today as Midway RV Center. Having worked at a dealership in the area, Naber was sought after to run the shop-to-be. But before he could be its majority owner, his first task was to move it.

“At that time, there were several RV dealers along South Division Avenue in Grand Rapids, so that was one of the prerequisites if [Naber] were to partner and run the dealership — it needed to relocate,” says Dave Ballast, sales manager at Midway RV Center.

Newly stationed among other established dealers, Naber and Midway hit the ground running with travel trailers and fold-down campers. In 1978, the business outgrew its first location and moved to its current spot.

“Motorhomes were added to the inventory, and Midway immediately had great success with motorized units. That was an early indication of where things were headed,” Ballast says. Since the late 80s, even with a few years of travel trailers sprinkled in, motorhomes became an exclusive selling point, especially in its last five years.

“There have been several updates and two major expansions since then. January 2000 added six more service bays, and in October 2018, 10 more were added,” he says. The shop now boasts 20 bays used for detailing, prep and orientation, along with service and warranty work. Its technicians average 20 years of RV experience each, he adds.

Midway is now in its second generation of ownership. Naber retired in 2001, and his son, Mike Naber, took the reins. With all three of Mike Naber’s children working at the dealership — two daughters and a son — the Naber family legacy is firmly entrenched at Midway RV.

“I myself started here washing RVs at 17 years old, back in the fall of 1984. It really doesn’t seem like 40 years have passed,” Ballast adds. Of the 22 full-time employees currently at the dealership, half became staffers as teenagers and moved into different roles, from service and sales staff to management.

Ballast considers Midway RV’s roster as something that sets it apart from other shops in the area. Its history of long-term employees (referred to as “lifers,” he says) share the same goals and values, keeping seasoned experts in the mix from back to front and reducing turnover by an impressive amount.

“As an indicator, if you have only been employed at Midway RV for 10 years, you are in the lower half of seniority (and might still be considered a ‘newbie’),” Ballast says. “Retaining like-minded and committed employees has been a very important part of Midway RV’s continued success — now in its 56th year.”

Circling back to its bread and butter, Ballast adds that another aspect setting the dealership apart is its focus on high-end motorhomes — specifically Class As, Super Cs and diesel pushers. Midway RV intentionally limits its brand offerings to OEMs it has a strong confidence in — one of those being the Newmar lineup.

“We’ve been selling Newmar motorhomes now for over 33 years. We have consistently won its highest service award as a Diamond Dealer and are consistently a Top 10 in Sales dealership for them.”

The shop also carries smaller Class B and B+ units and has been a Pleasure Way partner for over 15 years.

“Those two manufactures have been our main fixtures for the last several years. They both match with our dealership so well — high-quality products and high-quality people behind them,” Ballast says of Newmar and Pleasure Way.

Midway’s other specialty includes pre-owned models. The shop frequently takes trade-ins for its new sales, and with a top-shelf detailing and prep department, Ballast says it can often find nice units for those with a smaller budget.

“It often takes a good amount of time, energy and money to bring pre-owned units to market, but in the end, it gives us a large customer base to grow from. The pre-owned buyer today may very well be ordering their new Dutch Star three years from now.”

The Future Is Right-Sized

A trend Ballast has seen in recent RV purchases centers around one notion — “Know your stuff.” Whether it’s sales or service, today’s customers have more access to information than ever before and can spot a “fake” easily.

“It’s not always easy to keep up with the ever-changing technology offered in higher-end RVs, but we have some of the best [people] that know these products inside and out,” he says. “Along with that knowledge, they all treat our customers with honesty and integrity.”

What customers really want is for salespeople to nix the games with hidden charges and mystery fees — which has unfortunately been normalized in the industry, he says.

In addition to keeping up with evolving RV tech, customers are increasingly researching online.

“Of course, today, many of our customer contacts start with an electronic contact (email, text, etc.) as opposed to driving to our dealership and walking in the showroom. And yet, ironically, most still want the same experience they always have: Quality product, good competitive pricing and excellent service during and after the sale. We always try to hit those marks,” Ballast adds.

Customer feedback has always been a tool for Midway RV’s continuous improvement. One example of this was the dealership’s decision to enhance its pre-delivery inspection (PDI) and customer orientation process — when a buyer picks up their coach.

“About 10 years ago, we made the commitment to really up our PDI game. We spend a lot of time and dollars making sure units are right before they go out the door. Our customer orientations last hours — sometimes even multiple days,” he says. The company’s focus on raising the bar in these areas gained positive feedback, only reenforcing its decision and “literally pushed us to take it even further,” he adds.

Looking ahead, while Midway RV has considered expanding in the past, its current growth strategy lies in “staying with who we are,” Ballast says — providing the best possible service and products to its customers.

“We like to think of ourselves as either a big-small dealership, or a small-big dealership.” He laughs. “We are big enough to compete with the mega dealers and small enough to offer a level of service that mega stores just can’t match.”

At the heart of Midway’s success is a commitment to helping families and individuals create lasting memories on the road. When asked what Ballast considers the most rewarding part of working in the RV industry, he says, “Just seeing the enjoyment that people get from their RV travels — from young families just starting out and enjoying time away, all the way to the retiree who has been saving up for a year to RV travel and oftentimes has a ‘snowbird’ lifestyle. With so many repeat customers, these aren’t just clients — they’ve become our friends.”