Autoline Excels with a Different Dealership Approach
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Outside, the funky logo with “Autoline” in offset lettering and varied fonts stands out on the building exterior, and speakers built into the lot/grounds play reggae music throughout the day. There’s also a basketball court out front where customers can come and shoot baskets.
Inside, the showroom’s décor features bright blue walls adorned with portraits of Bob Marley and enlarged black-and-white prints. The staff, save for the occasional button-up shirt, wears a very relaxed uniform of a black t-shirt, polo or hoodie with jeans, sneakers or flip-flops and sometimes an Autoline baseball cap.
Owner Ryan Corey said, “Autoline was founded, built and designed to be completely opposite a traditional car dealership. Our approach is completely laid-back … but I assure you, we are serious about selling cars and building our business.”
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The business opened with a handful of pre-owned vehicles and what Corey described as a “really sad example of what used to be a car lot with a tiny, dilapidated trailer.” He recalled, “Most people thought I was crazy, but with lots of hard labor, we made the place look nice. Next, I spent everything I had, purchased eight cars, and Autoline was off and running.”
Sales quickly ramped up and Autoline experienced some growing pains. “After three months, I got a floor plan, started stocking 30 cars and selling about the same per month … Autoline was growing at a fast rate and turning my skateboard buddies into auto detailers and car salesmen … [It was] pretty funny,” said Corey.
Soon came the time when the “tiny, dilapidated” (but fixed-up) trailer wasn’t big enough, so he decided to build a larger facility. He said “[We] stayed in the trailer for about three years and got sales up to 60 to 80 units per month … The doors opened on the new building in January 2009. Since then, we have increased our average sales by about 50 units per month. Current year, we are averaging 118 cars a month.”
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Back when the dealership had just opened in 2004 and Corey said “we,” he was referring to himself and his brother, Joey Corey. Nowadays, “we” alludes to a staff of 33 people. Joey, whom Corey said “has been a major key to our success,” is now the general sales manager, and their father, Joe Sr. (general manager), joined the Autoline team about three years ago. Corey said his father “has made a tremendous difference for us. I’ve never known someone so dedicated to this business, and every day he shows up motivated to push our salesmen to sell more cars.”
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Although he’s certainly proud of his sons and the business, he was quick to add that he wasn’t praising the dealership just because his son owns it; Joe Sr. spent decades running big franchise organizations and knows a successful operation when he sees one. “This place is like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” he said, adding that he’s glad his son stayed away from the corporate side of the business.
“I told [Ryan] I didn’t want him to get involved in the corporate world because I wanted him to have a better life than I had, instead of working 80, 90 hours a week like I had to,” he said. Autoline is a “family and friends operation,” and working long, tiring hours just isn’t in the cards there. “If somebody’s got something they want to do, they want to go play golf, they can go play golf. Our whole atmosphere is laid-back, and it’s amazing to me that people just keep coming back and buying cars and recommending people.”
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While around 60 percent of the dealership’s sales are financed indirectly, the remaining, said Corey, are cash deals. He added that they don’t do buy here pay here “unless it’s a special circumstance,” but the dealership does see a fair amount of customers needing special financing. About 40 percent of the dealership’s finance deals are subprime.
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He strives for the dealership’s traditional marketing to be similar to the whole look and feel of the operation—“different than traditional dealerships.” For radio spots, he said, “We do off-the-wall things that a franchise dealership could never do. We take local musicians, create original radio commercials using the artist’s songs and incorporate an advertisement for our dealership. This sounds different to the average consumer and also helps the local talent get radio play.”
One of the dealership’s print ads featured Joey on his skateboard doing a heelflip over a VW Beetle convertible with the top down and full of Autoline employees cheering him on. And their television spots are no different. “We have done goofy TV commercials making fun of the stereotypical car salesman; one promotion we did was: Buy a car and get a free keg of beer.”
Keeping the momentum of the growing operation, Corey recently purchased some property next door to the new building, and in September he opened a service department for internal and customer-pay work. “We had been running with three in-house mechanics that stay busy working on our internal inventory.” They had sublet the remaining work in the past, but can now handle much more of their work.
As for the store’s future, Corey said, “We will continue to work hard and be as innovative as possible, at the same time overcoming the stereotypical stigma of the traditional car dealer. We are planning on opening a second location and have even been approached a lot lately about franchising. So we will have to wait and see!”
Vol. 7, Issue 11
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