Reynolds Subaru

Orange County Review inSIDEr, March 26, 2009

Cars too are different these days.The Reynolds brothers are fierce defenders of their beleaguered GM product line, particularly the flagship Cadillac. "Cadillac still has the perfect, beautiful interiors, they have a wide range of color choice still, but they're smaller cars that are quieter on the
inside. They get better gas mileage, and most of them are quite a bit faster." says Kevin.

"Cadillac really makes the best car in the world. It makes the best car in the world right now," he repeats emphatically. "We have no problems with them; just nothing happens with them.You ask how cars have changed. I'll tell you something. The main way GM cars have changed is that there's just very few problems with them anymore."

Tom points out a peculiar irony. "That's why they're in the problems that they're in right now financially; people don't need to trade their cars in." Kevin jumps in. "We've got Buick loaner cars down here that are perfectly good cars that we loan to good customers with 160,000-170,000 miles on them. If you change the oil in them, change the transmission fluid, they'll go that long." And John confirms, "We've done half the warranty work each year for the last five years. Every year we look at how much warranty work we're doing and it's half from the year before. And they've increased the warranty," he exclaims.

It wasn't always that way. Back in the bad ol' days, the mid to late 1980s, the GM product line was causing the Reynolds some embarrassment.
"You'd sell a brand new Cadillac to somebody and the drive shaft would drop out." Kevin rolls his eyes in agony. "It would be awful. It would be damage control... Somebody just gave you $50,000 and then something stupid goes wrong?" He shakes his head in bewilderment. Then he adds, "That doesn't happen anymore. They started getting it right about 10 or 12 years ago."

Which brings us to an interesting point that John makes about alternative fuels. "You start using different forms of fuel, you've got 10, 15, 20 years  worth of surprises headed your way, of different things, different problems that just crop up. Think of all the catalytic converter problems back in
the 80s. You don't see those at all now. So whenever you switch from something that is tried and true now, you're going to be in for a host of surprises."

It was back in 1990 that a Subaru rep left two cars for Kevin and Tom to try out. The rest is history. "Subaru is probably the best business decision Tom and I ever made, even though we're GM dealers," says Kevin. John looks up from texting on his cell phone and blurts,
"Subaru means 'unite' in Japanese." Kevin and Tom are astonished by this little-known fact.Tom
 recovers and says, "Well they united all four wheels, because it's the best all-wheel-drive system made."

His daughters won't drive anything else. Kevin points to the fact that the cars have aircraft and heavy equipment roots. "That's why Subarus go  300,000 miles; those things don't quit."

As it is, in these tough times, Reynolds is selling eight to 10 brand new Subarus a month. And whereas they used to sell 50 cars total per month during good times, that number is down to 35, which is pretty darn good when you consider the 18 percent loss in personal wealth that this country has experienced just since November!

In fact, John says they may be over the hump. "We're looking stronger than last year. Last year, starting about April, it was a rough eight months. We had to make a lot of changes. So far the changes we've made have put us right in line. We've been hitting our goals every month."

The Reynolds have even adapted in the way they sell cars. The old-fashioned, polyester pant suit, white belt and shoes hard-sell technique goes
nowhere nowadays. "Sweet talking does nothing," says John. "Sales techniques do nothing; it's actually gotten closer to the truest form of customer
service that you can have now, having the right product. The Internet, you can go out and find any used car you want now, any color, any model, any mileage," he notes. "So, the inventory is at your fingertips. The art of salesmanship has turned more into customer relations, the people you know, the nicer you are, the more you know about your product."

What about the future? "I feel good about the future," say Kevin and Tom simultaneously. "I contend that we will always need automobiles," elaborates Tom. "I contend that General Motors will make it. I know we're in a recession today but I don't think we won't come out of this recession.We will come out. So, any recession, any downturn for the car business, always makes the dealer that comes out of it a stronger dealer."

Fourth generation, John, compares the recession to a forest fire. "A forest has to burn down to get rid of the unproductive members and grow back
strong." Kevin points to changes already afoot: He's excited about eight different models of hybrid cars to come from GM. "Once they get their expenses in line, they're going to be producing the same car with no problems at a couple of thousand dollars less per car, and therefore, they
are going to be far more competitive with other lines than they ever were before."

And so, Reynolds Pontiac is "doing okay." Not great mind you, but they'll make it. We all will.

"We're doing okay. We're not getting rich, but we're doing okay." Kevin Reynolds responds softly to the question, 'what's it like being in the car business these days?' He leans forward. "Tom and I have a lot of friends who are losing $50,000, $100,000 a month, and you know that money runs out quick; where we're making a little something. We don't have as much overhead, our buildings are paid for, luckily. We don't live real high on the hog, so we're doing okay." That's a relief.

'One hundred thousand bucks' a month; can you imagine? Hemorrhaging money at that rate, it's a wonder those metropolitan car dealers get any sleep at night. But down here in sleepy Orange, this car dealer on Madison Road for the past 71 years, is surviving just fine, thank you... not high on the hog, like the man said, but surviving... actually doing a little better than that.

  There are several reasons for this. One: the Reynolds brothers Tom and Kevin and Kevin's son John have adapted. "The car business is somewhat slower than two years ago," explains Kevin, "but it started getting slower two years ago. So, really Tom and I have gotten used to it. We've made some changes."

Two: They rent cars, and they sell used cars, and that's a growing business in these penny pinching times.

Three: They have a loyal staff of 41 employees?41 people whose families rely on Reynolds Pontiac for their livelihood. Some have been here
30+ years. Their current service manager, Grant Carpenter, is the third generation to fill that post, coming after his father Larry and his grandfather
Lawrence. "We have a lot of long term employees. We don't have much turnover," explains Kevin.

"We're proud of that," echoes Tom.

Four: "Another thing that adds to our survival in Orange is that we are very diversified when it comes to car dealers," continues Tom. "We have a body shop; we have a service department; we have a parts department. And a lot of dealerships think in terms of selling new cars and don't worry about repairing them for the customer."

Good point because we've reached an age where customers who routinely bought a new car every year, can't afford to anymore. They're going to buy used or, fix up what they have. Besides, cars are more reliable now. But, more on that later.

  Customers that's what's at the center of all this. "Not but so many people are going to walk through the door in Orange, Virginia," reasons Tom realistically. "You just have to make sure that when they do walk through the door, you take care of them."

Walking through the showroom door at Reynolds Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC Truck-Buick-Subaru Inc. is like going through a time warp. The showroom floor can accommodate three, maybe four cars. Casually dressed salesmen, chat on the phone in their spartan cubicles. A picture of the Indian chief Pontiac, the same one that's probably been here since they won that franchise back in '48, glares down from Kevin's office wall.

The waiting room is not really a room; it's a furniture grouping off to the side. There is no dolled-up receptionist; there is no latte machine, no thick pile carpeting, no children's play area to speak of; no computer work stations for customers to use while someone next door works on their car. The couches are comfortable but not fancy. The TV gets cable, but it's usually turned off. Out of date magazines spill off the coffee table. Today's well-thumbed newspaper lies on top.

The Reynolds brothers privately admit they have resisted pressure from above to convert their showroom and waiting area into a modern designer outfit showpiece like those other dealerships that are, well, losing a $100,000 a month.

This hominess is soothing. You don't feel like you're paying for fancy window trimming when all you want to do is buy a new or used car at the best price possible. When you walk in, if they know you, they'll greet you by name. If they don't, they'll make sure they do before you walk out the door. There is a small-town quaintness to this place. Most employees actually take an hour for lunch from 12 to 1. You can find them reading the paper and eating a sandwich in the service department employee lounge or enjoying barbecue at the Hornet's Nest next door.

Kevin's son, John, is the sales manager. He represents the fourth generation to sell cars here. "The car business is in the blood and it's getting stronger and thicker with every generation," he smiles. "Dad and Tom started me working down here when I was 13, sweeping the floors and washing the bathrooms and washing the cars. I've done everything down here. It's a totally different mentality in this town at this dealership than it is anywhere else."

Yet, underneath this Mayberry-style dealership flows a strong undercurrent of cutting-edge technology. The Reynolds brothers are loathe to admit it, but they were the driving force behind establishing an automotive technology curriculum at Germanna Community College in response to the change-over, 15 years ago, to computerized diagnostic tools. "It is very important to send our technicians to school," notes Kevin. "We've got smart technicians. They have to be able to read and absorb like a college student. "

And they have to be computer literate. "It's really a different ball game. It's not taking that screw and fiddling around with it until the car sounds good anymore. That's a joke. I mean everything has to be pluperfect. It's either white or black. There's no in between on fixing a car."

The same goes for the body shop. The Reynolds have invested big bucks in a laser-guided frame machine that gives a before and after computer rendering of a car, making sure it is lined up precisely. And you would not believe what goes into painting an automobile nowadays.

Jim Embree, dressed in what looks like a parachutist's outfit with a mask, explains that the highend Belgian-made Sikkens paint is mixed on an
incredibly sensitive computerized scale. "We can have up to 19 different variations of the same color," he notes as he compares a blue paint chip to the bent fender of a faded Ford under a light that emits the same color temperature as sunshine. "There is no can of fade," he smiles good-naturedly, but by blending the paint to the seams, you won't even notice. Next stop: the down-draft paint room, which pushes all particulates off the car and into a grate in the floor. Paint is baked on at 166 degrees, then clear coated. The result: "You end up getting a perfect paint job," says Tom.

Because of all this technology and attention to detail, Reynolds has been designated an "Authorized Direct Repair" facility. In other words, if
you hit a deer (83 deer hit estimates written this past December alone), you can take your car to Reynolds body shop and they don't have to wait for an insurance adjustor to confirm how much it's going to cost to fix the damage. The insurance companies have placed caps on every conceivable procedure, just like health insurance. You might say that, in a sense, there are two "medical" facilities here: the service department is out-patient; the body shop is in-patient; what John likes to call "the trauma center."