
2 minute read
Retail Markets
Iowa


Darren Farmer, owner, David A. Farmer Inc., Center Point, Iowa

“We’ve been in business here for 38 years.
“We were doing a lot online before COVID hit. We were one of the first usedcar dealers in Iowa to put our cars on Autotrader. We’ve been on there for 25plus years.
“We normally carry about 25 cars and we sell 20-25 a month. We do 100 percent turnaround every 30 days, though some cars take longer than others.
“We sell 80 percent cars and SUVs. Trucks are really hard to come by.


“We don’t do any buy-here, pay-here.
“We spend an average of $650 reconditioning per car. We send out the detail work, but we do most of the mechanical stuff in our shop.
“I haven’t been to a car auction physically in seven years. I buy a lot from BackLot cars. I’ve had good luck with them on arbitration.
“Anything under $10,000 works well for us. I try to keep it around 100,000 miles, give or take a little bit. I don’t do good with highmile stuff at all.
“We have three or four credit unions we work with, all of them for at least 20 years. Sometimes these credit unions don’t want to work with the small guys.
Ten years ago, we had 15 credit unions we worked with. And they’d drop us for not doing enough volume for them.
“Here’s a story: there was a used car dealership that opened here in Center Point.
Three guys went into a partnership to buy this building to do a dealership and repair shop. They lasted six months. Obviously, I bought my dad out when he retired, so it’s considerably cheaper starting that way. Start out small. That’s what my dad did. He always said: stay as small as you can, as long as you can. I’ve adhered to that, it’s just me, my wife, and a part-time mechanic. I don’t have a car on my lot that I didn’t personally drive myself.
“Someone just drove five and a half hours from Nebraska to buy a 2010 Nissan Altima. It had 100,000 miles and we sold it for $7,500.”
New York
Rick and Dana Bress, owners, Galaxy Auto Place, West Seneca, N.Y.
“We started the business in 1996, 27 years ago.
“We keep an average of 120 cars, trucks and SUVs. We currently average between 60-80 sales a month. We sell
10% trucks, 40% cars, 50% SUVs.
“While we have seen a decrease in overall inventory after COVID, our gross profit per unit has increased. We are currently selling more products with the sale of each vehicle to maximize the profitability of each unit. We have always had a significant online presence and that was very helpful during the peak of COVID. Our customers appreciate the ability to build their deal on our website along with the stability of having a brick-andmortar store that they can rely on for all of their sales and maintenance needs.
“All reconditioning is done in-house and supervised by our operations manager. All details are done in-house, but we do outsource our collision work.
“Most of our vehicles are purchased at auctions, gen- erally online. This has been a major change for us post COVID. Previously most of our inventory was acquired by attending several auctions in person each week, as well as utilizing online auction platforms. Now we almost exclusively buy through online auctions.
“Our average model year is 3-5 years old with an average of 50,000 miles.
“Our average down payment is 10% and our average term is 66 months.
“We strongly recommend new dealers getting involved with your state association. On the sales and buying side it’s so important to know your market, be an expert and focus on the vehicles that will work within your market.
“The last car we sold was a 2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara with 55,000 miles. We sold it for $35,995.”


