A&J Automotive moves into bigger building | Select

A&J Automotive has moved to a bigger building in Norfolk, reflecting its growing business.
Joel Follette and his father, Alan VanHouten, co-own the shop. Follette has 20 years’ worth of experience in the auto dealership industry, working, in his own words, with multiple car manufacturers and parts stores.
VanHouten had worked for Cardinal Health for about 45 years, but he recently retired to work full time at A&J Automotive.
VanHouten said Follette had approached him for a business opportunity, and they went for it. In 2019, their first business opened at 2610 Old Hadar Road. Two years later, they opened another location on Queen City Boulevard. They closed that location last spring.
“Now, we’re sitting here in 2025, so some of his customer service tactics are obviously working in the community,” VanHouten said.
Follette discussed his new location, saying that since they first opened, they knew they would outgrow the building on Old Hadar Road.
“We just didn’t expect to outgrow it as quickly as we did,” Follette said. “We were outgrown in about a year and a half.”
Follette said they heard about the new location, and that was followed by a lot of talking and planning before deciding to rent the building.
“It’s quite a bit more money, but we’re going to make it work,” Follette said.
Follette said they acquired the building in October and started moving that same month, while getting everything ready since then. They closed their old location in the last few days of December and officially moved into the new location in January.
“There were some big discussions,” VanHouten said. “… We might get growling at each other during the day, but at night, we’re family. We are always family first, business partners second.”
He said the biggest change has been the size of the building, which VanHouten said could fit the old building they had comfortably inside.
“(In the old location), we had room for two vehicles,” Follette said. “Here we’ve got six hoists, plus we can have multiple other vehicles inside and still have room.”
One big upside to their larger building is that they now are able to work on larger vehicles, something that they were previously unable to do because of safety hazards and the size of their building.
“We had someone want us to put, possibly put a motor in their 32-foot camper,” Follette said. “We have room to do that.”
Follette confirmed that customer service has and always will be his priority at the business, citing how much they help customers out.
“I still feel that’s true today,” Follette said. “Obviously, we can’t make everyone 100% happy, but we always try to do what’s right and take care of our customers the best we can.”
“And we’re never away from here. Our brains are always at this place whether we’re away or not,” said Carmel VanHouten, who is Follette’s mother and also works at A&J Automotive.
Follette said his business deals with vehicles that other companies in Norfolk won’t work on, such as European cars and cars older than 2006. He explained that other shops will recommend A&J Automotive to people who have European cars or older cars.
“I guess if other shops are recommending us, I feel we’re doing something right,” Follette said.
Alan VanHouten said their former location attracted customers from neighboring towns such as Pierce. Now that they have moved to the south side of Norfolk, people from towns such as Madison have been finding out about the business.
“It’s all about the customer,” he said. “Without the customer, we wouldn’t be here. Without the service, we wouldn’t be here. So that’s where we’re at. That’s our motto.”
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Services: Full automotive work, engine replacements, transmission replacements, axles, brakes, transfer cases and oil changes. “Most of everything, just not the rebuilding of large items,” Joel Follette said.
Who’s coming: Among its customers are local and area residents, Nebraska Forest Service, U.S. Postal Service and Johnson Electric.
link