If You Opened Your Own Dealership, What Brand Would You Peddle And Why?

If I was just looking to rack in some cash and sale it, then Honda/Acura. Don't like their cars but it would make money as they sale in mass. For pure fun, it would be a Porsche dealership.

Honda/Acura the company isn't as nice to dealers as other brands.

There is an old saying that Honda dealers drive Porsche's and Porsche dealers drive Honda's. Not sure if it holds true today. But choose wisely...

For where I live I would not open a car dealership, but a repair centre (or two). There is a 2-3 month wait to get crash damage on your Mercedes Benz. A huge business opportunity exists, but the city is a pain when it comes to where you can locate that kind of a business.

Indeed. One of my better moves was buying several body shops during the last economic downturn, standardizing operations, improving facilities, and increasing capacity.

@MD - The centre's manager lives a few streets over from me. He has been looking for 2nd location for over 1 year. I am thinking they should build vertically if they can't find another suitable lot. A crazy thought but they are not left with a lot of choices. That or build way outside of town.

My shops still operate under their original names that people have come to know locally, BUT all of them are small, so on the surface the "homey" feel done by "homies" is maintained. BUT we have two facilities on either side of town that are larger. One is a metal building "hangar" type of structure and one is a defunct supermarket that has been repurposed. We have another formerly abandoned facility that we have repurposed for storage of "to do" vehicles. A competing body shop has quietly asked if I would like to buy out the owner who wants to retire and I have to decide whether buying is the ticket or setting up predatory competition and taking it is the way (mildly joking).

PS One of the reasons I go to Newport Beach weekly is that we truck vehicles from Orange County up here and fix them under contract.

@canadiancomments I got voted down for being a clever, intelligent businessman who obviously makes money. #hilarious.

@MD I know. I voted you up but to no avail. :)

We just got a Jensen Interceptor in for renovation along with a TVR Tasmin from Georgia. We also have three Porsche 914s that will be converted to 914-6 replicas. The Porsches were from Texas and the Jensen from Florida. I had them shipped to my buddy in New Mexico and then with two trips to Tucumcari, they are here and ready to be torn into.

Waiting for Matt...tap tap tap tap......

I would want a mainstream brand for stability and a premium brand for insane profit in good times.

I would be happy with Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, or Kia, but would prefer the first two.

The premium brand I would go for would be Mercedes.

Can't go wrong with a Porsche dealership.

It will be big profit when the money is good and it will be crickets when the money is tight.

Right up until the point you receive the specifications for the new stand alone facility they expect you to build.

Will they let you buy land and then change their minds like Genesis?

Bentley. See lots of them on the road here in Kansas City, but have to go all the way to St. Louis for service. Word is that one is opening in Omaha, but KC is a much larger market.

Stu D Baker

Anything Toyota, the only factory that actually cares about its dealers... Lexus has printed money since 1989 for its dealers...
Jaguar-Land Rover, worst, worst quality, worst factory policies and horrific quality product... sad for anyone that has to deal with them...

Lexus. They put that grill on their cars (looks good on coupes) and still sell well. Lexus dealers do very well.

Yes they do.

TVR of course.

Being a completely follicly challenged masochist, ..... Ferrari of course.

Bold choice, TVR. And a good one.

I've located flipped and sold several American M Series and Tasmins as well as brought in a couple Tuscans and Sagarises for "track only" flips. That probably makes me the largest TVR retailer the USA has ever had. LOL

I hope they send you a Christmas card. Now about that Jensen Interceptor.

We borrow a page from Jensen International Automotive and do a restomod. A Chevy LS V8 and raiding the Corvette bin takes care of a lot of the mechanicals. We keep the body and interiors largely stock looking. I enjoy driving an Interceptor because people lose their minds over it. They've never seen anything like it and they love the look. I have 4 Interceptors at the moment, but 3 are really ratty. The latest one is far from ratty so it went to the front of the line.

Are you into Interceptors?