Black-and-white “Corwin” key chains spread across sales desks temporarily located in the showroom signal a new ownership on the scene and a slew of changes on the horizon.
The Central Dodge era, which lasted more than 50 years, has ended in Springfield, and Corwin Automotive Group is racing to transform the city’s lone authorized Dodge dealer to a high-volume site.
On Nov. 5, a group of partners operating under the direction of Fargo, N.D.-based Corwin Automotive Group purchased the company owned by Harold Neely and Toby Breeden since 1978 for an undisclosed amount. Jeff McConville, vice president and general manager of the new Corwin Auto dealership at 1025 W. Sunshine St., teamed up with Dan Wilson and Tim, Dan and Tanner Corwin – who operate three Corwin Auto sites in Jefferson City – to buy out the assets of the retiring Central Dodge owners.
With the nearest Dodge dealerships in Aurora and Branson, McConville said the partners see an opportunity to triple revenues during the next few years. The group’s blueprint: invest $200,000 in showroom renovations, expand the dealership’s 4-acre site by an acre, potentially double its 500-vehicle inventory and spend more than $60,000 a month in marketing – about three times Central Dodge’s advertising budget.
“Our goals are to renovate the existing facility, to make it more modern and more convenient for the customer, more pleasurable for them to do business here,” McConville said. “We’re putting in four new quick-lube bays. We’ll be remodeling the showroom and service waiting area to include a kids area and an Internet room.”
Corwin Auto Group is working with Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. to design the new offices and service area. McConville said the company is expanding into the lot immediately west of the dealership to potentially double the number of vehicles on site.
Corwin Auto targets markets of at least 100,000 population where a single Dodge dealership operates, McConville said. The North Dakota-based group sells 14 auto lines, including Fiat, Cadillac and Chevrolet, at dealerships in Fargo/Moorhead, Minn.; Kalispell, Mont.; and Jefferson City, according to
CorwinAuto.com.
“We have Honda, Hyundai and Nissan in Jeff City, and this was our expansion into the Springfield market,” said McConville, a 31-year car sales veteran who worked for a dealer group in Arizona before moving to Springfield with Corwin. He partnered with Corwin Auto in Phoenix 2003–07.
He said after co-owning a couple of sites in the Phoenix area, he was seeking to renew his partnership with the Corwins. “We were waiting for the right opportunity to open up during the last couple of years,” he said. “We got a lead through Chrysler. They knew Harold was going to be retiring.”
Central Dodge co-owner Neely said he started with the company in 1966, working then for the Wise family, owners of Friendly Ford, before teaming with Breeden to buy the dealership 12 years later.
“I’m 74 years old,” Neely said. “It was just time to slow down and have some fun.”
He said the economic downturn dropped sales volumes by roughly 10 percent between 2009 and 2011, but sales appeared to be turning a corner. The dealership was never listed for sale.
“Business did slow down, but Springfield is pretty stable,” he said, noting the market seems buffered from the highs and lows dealers experience in other parts of the country.
According to sales data tracker Autodata Corp., U.S. auto sales this year through October are up 13.8 percent to nearly 12 million vehicles sold, compared to the first 10 months of 2011. The estimated 1.2 million vehicle sales in September were the best showing in more than four years, according to Autodata, with Chrysler LLC showing a 22.5 percent jump in sales through October, a pace even with American Honda Motor Co. Inc. Chrysler, which includes Dodge and Fiat models, is the third-largest seller this year based on volume, with 1.38 million cars and light trucks moved, behind 2012 sales of 1.85 million at Ford Motor Co. and 2.16 million at General Motors Corp.
Chrysler’s parent company, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, has an alliance with Italian-based carmaker Fiat, and McConville said he is working to secure the rights to sell the Fiat line at Corwin Auto.
“We want to be a volume dealer,” McConville said, noting the company’s goal to move 250 vehicles each month through aggressive plans in pricing and advertising, primarily in broadcast, outdoor and online. “We’re going to try to price right on the Internet so that we have the most aggressive pricing in the area. We are also going to try to have more on the lot so that there is not confusion about what was on the Internet and what is on the lot. We want to be transparent.”
Terry Tate, fixed operations manager at the Sunshine dealership, who has 13 years of experience with Central Dodge, said he has been impressed with the early plans laid out by McConville and company.
Tate said a couple of new salespeople have been added, and a few folks left as Corwin took over, but most of the collective staff of roughly 60 are interested to see what will happen next.
“Change is hard for people, but … Jeff is a really smart car guy,” Tate said. “I think people are excited.”[[In-content Ad]]
