Springfield Striping & Sealing owner opens car lot

The Springfield Striping & Sealing owner opened Auto Sale By Owners LLC on Sept. 30 at 205 S. Ingram Mill Road. The car lot is self-serve and fully automated.

Customers use a computerized kiosk at the two-acre lot to enter vehicle information, print a window decal and pay the $100 listing fee. There’s also a $35 weekly parking fee for one of the 152 stalls.

An automated photo bay takes vehicle pictures from four angles, which are displayed on www.autosalebyowners.com.

Manzardo said the idea for Auto Sale By Owners came to him because he wanted to sell his SUV, and he noticed many cars parked for display in public lots. He began counting auto listings in local newspapers and decided the market was ripe for something new.

“I thought it would be well worth it for people to park their car on a high-visible lot with great lighting and security,” Manzardo said. “People can go look at the car at the lot before they even contact you and make sure they’re serious about wanting to test drive it.”

If it’s successful, Manzardo is interested in franchising Auto Sale By Owners. Before beginning the process, he hired a firm from Dallas to do a patent search, and the closest match was eBay, he said.

Generating buzz

While the display lot is the unique part of Auto Sale By Owners’ formula, good old-fashioned advertising is still needed.

So Manzardo’s running ads in a slew of area newspapers and magazines, though not all have panned out as expected.

He hoped to run full-page ads with car listings in Springfield News-Leader, but the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett Co. Inc., put a stop to that. Gannett partially owns Cars.com, and Auto Sale By Owners was seen as too close of a competitor, Manzardo said.

He decided to go ahead with advertising in News-Leader, but the ads don’t include his business’ name, Web site address or the car listings.

“I’ll tell you what, I was bummed,” he said.

Departure

Auto Sale By Owners is a departure from Manzardo’s core business, Springfield Striping & Sealing.

The car lot fronts Ingram Mill, directly in front of the asphalt-sealing and repair company’s former location, 201 N. Ingram Mill Road.

Two months ago, Springfield Striping & Sealing moved from its 21,000-square-foot location of seven years to a 45,000-square-foot facility in Partnership Industrial Center.

Integrated Biosystems is leasing Manzardo’s former location.

Manzardo, who also owns Midwest Asphalt Coatings in Kansas City, said he doesn’t plan to open any other businesses at this time.