Columbia’s Car King

Gary Drewing’s dealerships dominate local auto market

Diversification is good strategy for investing, and it’s a pretty good idea for auto dealerships in Columbia, too, according to an analysis of car and truck sales data.

At the national level, Toyota had robust sales and a historic breakthrough in 2007, overtaking Ford, which had declining sales, for the No. 2 spot behind GMC.

No worries for Gary Drewing – he owns the Ford and Toyota dealerships in Columbia.

Chevrolet’s sales fell 6.2 percent across the United States, while Perry Chevrolet in Columbia had a 1 percent drop in total sales from 2006 to 2007. But Justin Perry also owns Perry Nissan, which had the largest increase in total sales of all the local dealerships in 2007, 84 percent.
While the Missouri Department of Revenue sales data obtained by CBT do not break down to specific models, the national trends appear to be holding true in Columbia’s auto market.

Escalating gas prices have compelled buyers to move away from big S.U.Vs and pickups – the profit mainstays of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors Ñ and toward smaller, more fuel efficient cars, the specialty of Toyota, Nissan and Kia. They were the three biggest movers in the local market in 2007.

Columbia’s authorized dealers in new and used vehicles bucked one national trend. Sales fell 2.5 percent in the U.S., but new vehicles sales for Columbia’s top dealerships were up 15 percent in 2007 from the previous year.

Overall, the 12 major dealerships sold 12,656 new vehicles in 2007, up 15 percent from 2006, and 13,634 used cars, up 7.7 percent from the previous year. Overall, the 26,290 in total vehicle sales represents an 11 percent increase.

In the first quarter of 2008, overall the number of new car sales for the 12 dealerships was 6,464, down 6 percent from the first quarter 2007. However, used car sales jumped 7 percent from the previous quarter, and total sales ended 1 percent higher.

In 2007, Machens’ three dealerships, including BMW, sold 14,829 vehicles, or more than half of the total sales in Columbia.

Joe Machens Toyota-Scion and Head Motor Company both posted big gains in 2007, up 78 percent and 69 percent respectively.

But no dealership grew faster during the year than Perry Nissan, with sales of new vehicles more than doubling from 2006. Part of the credit, Perry said, goes to Perry Nissan’s move last July to a new location on Providence Road just south of Interstate 70.

“After the move, we have had more growth,” he said. Manufacturers will reward dealers that move to a new, larger location with more inventory, Perry said. It doesn’t hurt, he added, that Nissan sales all around the country “have been hot.”

In the first quarter of this year, Perry Nissan’s overall sales rose 10 percent compared with the same quarter in 2007, but Perry Chevrolet’s sales dropped 7 percent. The largest percentage gains during the quarter were Joe Machens BMW (35), Legend Mazda (20), Head Motor (14), Machens Toyota-Scion (12) and University Chrysler (9). The biggest declines were Albert Buick Honda (-25), Legend Automotive (23), Saturn (-20) and Columbia Hyundai-Dodge (-12).

Nationally during the first four months, small cars offered one of the few bright spots in an otherwise grim national auto market. Led by Chevy Malibu, Ford Focus and Toyota Prius, national sales for small cars were up 7 percent from last year, while large cars and SUVs are down 31 percent and 22 percent, according to motorintelligence.com.

“On the new side, you’re seeing more of a mix,” said Drewing, who also owns the BMW dealership. Although sales for large SUVs and trucks have stalled, crossovers continue to perform well. “Escape, Mariner, small SUVs are hot right now because of the price of gas,” Drewing said. Meanwhile, April sales of the Focus set a record at Joe Machens Ford. “We’re buying all we can get,” he said.

Overall, the pace of used car sales is ahead of new car sales in Columbia, according to first quarter statistics. “Obviously you have a very hot pre-owned market,” Drewing said. But he added, “At our Toyota store new vehicle sales are up 25 percent over 2007 and 2007 was a record year.”
Like Perry, Drewing also is expected to get a bump up when he moves the Toyota dealership to a larger location.

Drewing wanted to move the burgeoning Toyota dealership to Crosscreek, a commercial development project where Stadium Boulevard reaches U.S. 63, but the City Council rejected the plan earlier this year after intense neighborhood opposition. Drewing said he had looked at “quite a few” sites in the last couple of weeks and still plans to move the dealership.