Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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Annual spending in the automotive industry by soldiers in the Army—the largest and most widely-dispersed branch of the military—is estimated at $653.9 million, according to Thomas. That's too big of a slice of that apple pie for dealers to merely ignore. Being in the armed forces transcends race, age, sex or social class, so tailoring a portion of your store to serving the military niche is simply good business practice, he added. Thomas should know. The Detroit native joined the Army as a teenager shortly after the Gulf War in 1991, and after returning stateside from a deployment to Germany in the mid- 1990s, he wanted to buy his first car from a dealership in the Motor City area. With little to no credit history, he found it difficult to get financing. "It literally took a dealer a whole week to get me approved for a car loan," the 39-year-old said. With financing fi- nally in hand, he took to the road in his first set of wheels, a 1988 Saab 900S. No one in Detroit, a city far removed from any major military installation, seemed to understand or see the ben- efits of financing a credit-challenged soldier in his early 20s. But two decades later, as owner of Auto Super Center just outside Fort Stew- art, Ga.—home to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and almost 25,000 soldiers—Thomas says the problem with many dealerships is a lack of preparation for military traffic because of their relative distance from a defense outpost. But according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2010 there was an active-duty, re- serve or veteran population in each of the nation's 3,141 counties or county equivalents (parishes, boroughs, etc.). After Thomas retired from the Army in 1996, he immediately went to work for a dealership. Four short years later, he opened his own store in Hinesville, intent on making military auto financ- ing easier than it had been for him as a young enlisted man. It worked. "We really created a system so they can buy cars and not be turned away," Thomas said. "We can have them busting bugs in 90 minutes." As a pre-owned store, Auto Super Center focuses on serving young, credit- challenged troops. Special services for the service For those in the armed forces, there are scads of military-only financing options, discounts, factory incentives, rebates and rewards available for new and used cars. Thomas attributes a large part of his lot's success to "having relationships with lenders who understand the military and have designed programs just for them." Naturally, for new vehicles, the Detroit Three have the most attractive offers Annual spending in the automotive industry by soldiers in the Army—the largest and most widely- dispersed branch of the military—is estimated at $653.9 million for Americans in uniform, but all major foreign automakers also offer their own incentives. In Dunn, N.C., about an hour northeast of Fort Bragg—the largest American military base and home to U.S. Army special and airborne forces, including the 82nd Airborne— Bleecker Chevy offers deep discounts on the popular General Motors line. Jose Andrade, Internet sales manager, said the dealership generally starts pricing for military personnel at wholesale. "Usually what we try to do is sell them at invoice price, what it would cost the dealer to get the vehi- cle here," he said. Add to that built-in breaks for military customers from both Chevrolet and Bleecker, as well as further financing discounts for members of groups like USAA (United Services Automobile Association), and a soldier can end up getting a $26,000 car for only $20,000, An- drade illustrated. Bleecker Automo- tive, a group of stores in the heart of the Tar Heel State, offers similar discounts on its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Buick and GMC models. For those on the lower end of the military pay grade, there are still lots of options. The most notable of the specialized buyers of both new and used military loans, according to Thomas, are Coastal Credit, USAA, Security National Automotive Accept- ance Co. (SNAAC) and Military Installment Loan and Education Services (MILES). Thomas said typical advantages of these and other military auto loan providers— such as local and federal credit unions—are low rates, a willingness to work with first-time buyers, low or no money down, easy structure and high trade-in allowances. "There are more programs today than there were 20 years ago," he said, recalling his first auto loan.