Twenty-five years after splitting with Chattanooga Chevrolet dealer Herb Adcox to buy another Chevy dealership in Dalton, Ga., the owner of Edd Kirby Adventure Cars is returning to Chattanooga to build what he thinks will become Chattanooga's biggest used car sales outlet.
Joe Kirby, owner of Edd Kirby's Chevrolet, Chrysler and Jeep dealership in Dalton, bought the former Lawrence-Doster Lincoln-Mercury dealership on West M.L. King Boulevard last week for $2.2 million. Mr. Kirby said Monday that within the next couple of weeks he expects to open his used-car dealership on the 5-acre site to serve used-car buyers in person and on the Web.
The downtown site, which includes 23,000 square feet of buildings near Interstate 127 on the Westside of downtown, will be the third car dealership site for Mr. Kirby, who operates his businesses under the Adventure Cars brand. He opened a bargain used-car lot in Fort Oglethorpe two years ago and has boosted sales at his main Dalton dealership since 2008 by expanding Internet-based sales through a non-negotiable, one-price strategy.
Kirby sales history* 1953 -- Edd Kirby opens Chattanooga Chevrolet dealershp with Herb Adcox* 1985 -- Kirby buys Dalton, Ga., Chevrolet and Jeep dealership and splits with Mr. Adox* 2008 -- Kirby's AdventureCars expands used car business
"We're excited to be returning to the Chattanooga market, and we think there is a tremendous opportunity for sales and service at this site," Mr. Kirby said.
In the past year and a half, Mr. Kirby has boosted sales at his Dalton dealership by focusing more on buying and selling used cars, including an aggressive program for those buying cars in the region on the Internet.
"We think we have an approach that is even better than Car Max, (the nation's largest used car business)," he said.
The approach helped more than quadruple dealership sales in spring 2009 after he bought most of the used car inventory of former car dealer Joe Prebul.
Mr. Kirby, whose late father, Edd, started the former Adcox-Kirby Chevrolet in Chattanooga in 1953, said he expects to sell 150 used vehicles a month at the new Chattanooga location. The business should employ 20 to 30 employees, including its service department.
David Doster, who build Lawrence-Doster on the M.L. King Boulevard site in 1966, sold his Mercury dealership in 2006 to Mountain View Ford Lincoln Mercury, owned by the Watson family. A year ago, Mr. Doster leased the dealership building and lot to Tim Kelly, who operated a used motorcycle sales and service business until last week.
"We had an attractive lease and frankly we would have still been had the property not sold," Mr. Kelly said. "Most of those operations (at the M.L. King Boulevard site) will just get folded right back into Southern Powersports Honda."