Words: John Gunnell
On April 11, 2016, Best Buy purchased 1,000 Toyota Prius hybrids for its Geek Squad Agents to drive all across the country. The Prius’ carried an updated logo to represent the modern Geek Squad, which fixes more than computers today.
But years ago, Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens ran around Minneapolis fixing computers in a French-built Simca Aronde. That car is now in the Best Buy history collection. It’s been restored to look better than it did when the Geek Squad started.
After starting out with the 1958 Simca, the Geek Squad grew and different cars were used in the business. There was a 1960 Ford Falcon and a 1973 AM General van. As the Geek Squad gained notoriety, an air-cooled VW Beetle became a Geek Squad icon and was dubbed the “Geekmobile” – a name patterned after the Batmobile.
Stephens was an art student in Chicago in the late 1980s. In 1990, he switched to the University of Minnesota and changed his major to Computer Science. In 1994, he used $200 to start the Geek Squad as a local company fixing home computers. Today there are scores of Geek Squad agents in the US, UK, Mexico, Spain, China and Turkey.
The Geek Squad’s earliest mode of transportation was a bicycle. The first car was the 1958 Simca Aronde 1300 Elysee four-door sedan. At this point, the Squad was not painting its vehicles in the black-and-white color scheme that later became its trademark. Instead, the Simca was done in a sort of mint green color, although the orange-and-black Geek Squad logo appeared as a large door decal.
Stephens bought the French-made car in 1994 from a classic car dealership in Minneapolis. He originally paid $2,200 for it. It was used for both transportation and advertising purposes. Stephens used little tricks to generate publicity. He had his agents drive the cars by major sporting events to maximize free exposure.
“I was born in 1969,” Stephens told an interviewer. “If you think about it, American car design died in 1969 because the ‘70s were just abhorrent and the gas prices in 1973 killed design.” He noted, however, that nostalgia is not an influence behind his passion for cars. He said he was too young to remember the cars that are his favorites today from his youth. “I’m living these cars for first time,” he stressed. “I’m not reliving the experience.”
To Stephens, the Simca was “like no other car.” He said it was the most bizarre looking little car he’d ever seen. “It looked like a Studebaker. It’s green, it just stands out, and I put a Geek Squad logo in it. It was the first concept of using a vehicle as advertising.”
Stephens loves pointing out that the car is very French because it has seven ashtrays, but no seat belts. “It’s an oddball-looking car,” he was quoted as saying, “It still runs like a pussycat. Your lawnmower has a more powerful engine, but it’s a beautiful little car. I have the sentimental value. I’ve got it in my clause at Best Buy, ‘That’s mine!'”
At one time, Stephens was interested in having all his agents drive Simcas. He ran into a man who worked on these cars and offered him a Service Manager’s job. The man politely declined, saying that it would be a monumental task to keep Simcas going.
Stephen’s free advertising worked. The Geek Squad grew from a local business into a world-wide enterprise. Stephens sold The Geek Squad to Best Buy stores in 2002, but stayed on for a while as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). As for the 1958 Simca, it wound up in the lobby of Best Buy’s Richfield, Minn. Headquarters.
