“He learned about LA the hard way,” says Darryl Holter, Shammas’ sonin-law and his successor as dealer principal to Felix Chevrolet. “He was able to make money by working on used cars and fixing them up. He was a used-car expert.” Early on, Shammas showed he was a natural with cars, finding and fixing used vehicles for the teachers and principal at his high school. He leveraged this talent into a high-end, used-car operation, which he paused to run a war material facility during World War II. Shammas realized his dreams of becoming a franchised dealer when he bought Felix Chevrolet in 1955. He relocated the store from downtown Los Angeles to the historic Automobile Row on Figueroa Street, where he constructed the famous three-sided Felix the Cat sign. Felix Chevrolet ultimately became the largest-volume Chevrolet store west of the Mississippi. “He was very forward-thinking,” Holter says of his late father-in-law, citing his innovative marketing techniques using Hollywood celebrities. In 1965, following the devastating riots in Watts, there was an exodus from Los Angeles to the suburbs. After several Automobile Row dealerships followed suit, Shammas bought up their land, eventually totaling 27 acres on Figueroa Street. In 1992, Holter was a history professor at UCLA when his dealer father-in-law asked him to help revive the family business following the deadly riots in the area that year. Darryl Holter (owner, 1995‑2022) Although Shammas made the initial investment in the revival, it was Holter who ultimately restored the Figueroa historic automotive corridor a few decades later. Holter, a former labor organizer and activist, built an alliance with the University of Southern California and the property owners surrounding Felix Chevrolet to develop a business improvement district. Now, Figueroa Street is home to 12 dealerships, selling more than 3,000 cars a month. As his father-in-law’s health declined, Holter took a bigger role in the company, making his leave from UCLA permanent. To learn more about the automotive business, Holter attended NADA Dealer Academy in 2000. He was the only student with a Ph.D. in his academy class. Holter balanced historic preservation and business incentives by building a four-story store behind the historic showroom of Felix Chevrolet for service, parts and parking. “An automobile dealership has to be part of the community because cars are big investments,” Holter says. “After buying a home, this is the second-biggest investment that a person is going to make.” Rinaldi Halim, Open Road Capital (2022-present) Through the Figueroa Street business community, Holter met and befriended Rinaldi Halim, the owner of a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram store a few blocks away from Felix Chevrolet. In December 2022, Halim partnered with Open Road Capital to purchase Felix Chevrolet. They have retained the dealership’s storied name. Halim recognizes the landmark status Felix Chevrolet has garnered, calling the dealership “more than just a business.” A Rinaldi Halim
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