Matt Stuckey is signing extra checks lately — and that is an excellent factor.

In the beginning of October, the Stuckey Automotive dealership group that has Ford, Subaru, Buick-GMC and Mitsubishi shops in central and small-town Pennsylvania pushed an effort to purchase customers’ automobiles outright — even when somebody wasn’t trying to commerce in or purchase a car from the group.

In the summertime, the dealership group, based mostly in Hollidaysburg, Pa., noticed its used-vehicle days’ provide dwindle to about 15 automobiles amid demand and public sale acquisition woes in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. The group, which sells 3 times as many used as new automobiles, usually carries a provide of about 30 days for used automobiles.

The objective of the We’ll Purchase Your Automotive marketing campaign is to assist procure extra stock and to attach with potential new clients, President Matt Stuckey mentioned.

Stuckey mentioned his group’s program is making an attempt to get out in entrance of rivals corresponding to Vroom Inc. and Carvana Co. and helps his workers discuss to extra potential clients who might not suppose to name them to promote their car. He hopes to construct relationships with these people.

“That is how we win in the long term,” he mentioned.
Stuckey mentioned the group’s outcomes to date aren’t “earth-shattering,” however he is inspired. His group accomplished 47 value determinations and bought eight automobiles from clients from Oct. 1 by means of Nov. 27.

“We bought virtually 20 p.c of those we had been ready to take a look at — definitely a begin,” he mentioned, including that he did not formally monitor outcomes earlier than the Oct. 1 marketing campaign started however that outright purchases are up.

The four-store dealership group bought 680 new and used automobiles mixed in October. Yr up to now by means of October, the group bought greater than 6,000 automobiles mixed, with 70 p.c getting used automobiles, Stuckey mentioned.

That is a lot greater than the Nationwide Vehicle Sellers Affiliation common dealership, which by means of September yr up to now had a used-to-new-vehicle gross sales ratio of 0.96, simply lower than 1-to-1.

The group’s gross sales division was closed for greater than a month this spring amid virus restrictions in Pennsylvania. To assist fight the hole, Stuckey Automotive additionally accelerated how a lot of a transaction may be carried out on-line and ramped up car pickup and supply capabilities, Stuckey mentioned.

The vehicle-buying marketing campaign is prominently featured on Stuckey Automotive’s web site and dealership web sites. It reveals a automobile wrapped in a greenback invoice, with a hyperlink to supply particulars and schedule a suggestion.

The group additionally options the car-buying alternative on dealership Fb pages and has been airing a industrial on TV and digital channels. Stuckey mentioned he plans to proceed the marketing campaign into the primary quarter of 2021. And he is not simply on the lookout for almost new used automobiles.

“Customers personal good 3- to 5-year-old pickup vans,” he mentioned. “Additionally they personal 15-year-old sedans that we should be speaking about with them as effectively.”

His group since Oct. 1 has bought automobiles starting from a 2000 Chevrolet Malibu with 65,000 miles on the odometer and a 2004 Jeep Liberty to a 2016 Ford Fusion and 2018 Subaru Crosstrek.

Lots of the public auto retailers have launched or accelerated their very own car-buying applications as a strategy to increase stock and trim used-vehicle acquisition bills.

For instance, AutoNation Inc., the nation’s largest new-vehicle retailer with 230 dealerships, secured greater than 12,000 automobiles by means of its We’ll Purchase Your Automotive program within the third quarter, greater than doubling its determine from the second quarter.

Value determinations for Stuckey’s program take about 10 minutes, he mentioned, and checks usually are lower to the vendor the identical or the next day. Given the pandemic, lots of the value determinations had been achieved by way of cellphone and even video calls, Stuckey mentioned.

“Our buyer we think about to be anyone that lives in the neighborhood we work in,” he mentioned. “And for quite a lot of causes we might have misplaced contact with them through the years, they by no means thought of us, no matter else. So we’re actually simply all the time on the lookout for methods to broaden our attain.”