Upgrades on Bridgeport Hill Road

If you have recently been following Harry Green Chevrolet/Nissan or Chenoweth Ford on Bridgeport Hill Road in Clarksburg, West Virginia, then you have been noticing big changes in recent months.  These two dealerships are in the midst of dramatic changes in their facilities that maintains their commitment to their current locations.  The additions, renovations, and construction that is occurring is affirmation that they are there to stay.  After the Great Recession, when there were very few cars on the lots and other dealers being eliminated by the automakers, these two dealerships are making major changes.

Let's start with Chenoweth Ford.  They have renovated the showroom during the winter and renovation is now happening to the exterior of the building The exterior will exhibit Ford's current image for dealerships.  Also, in the past two years, Chenoweth has added a Quick Lane facility in a building they had once used for truck sales and then used auto sales.  All auto sales are now take place in the main salesroom.

Harry Green Chevrolet/Nissan is taking a much more dramatic change with building entirely new facilities, starting with a new Nissan showroom slated to open this year and then a new Chevrolet showroom that will open next year.
Earlier this year, the Pre-Owned vehicle sales office, which was once the truck sales office, was razed in favor of a new dedicated Nissan showroom and service center that will open later this year.  This construction is putting space at a premium at the Harry Green site with vehicles being placed in other parts of the property and making access more difficult than before.
A new Chevrolet showroom will start construction late in 2012 when the Nissan showroom opens and the the current main building which is over 40 years old will be demolished once the new Chevrolet showroom is open.  This will divide the property into two distinct franchises each with their own sales offices and service centers.
Hopefully, we will continue to see growth in the local auto industry with further renovations and additions in the future.

Elkins Fordland

Front of the Elkins Fordland Showroom

Elkins Fordland has been in its current location for about a year following its move from just outside of downtown Elkins to the more commercial area south of Elkins on the 5-lane.  They had purchased and renovated a facility that had once been Mountaineer Chevrolet/Toyota/Volvo that had been out of business for several years.  The former Elkins Fordland location has been located in a building built prior to the 1950s and was woefully outdated for the 21st Century automotive business.  Elkins Fordland has been under its current ownership group since the early 2000s.

Side view of the Elkins Fordland Showroom

The new facility looks nothing like the former Mountaineer dealership as Elkins Fordland exudes the current Ford image.  The lot is set back behind several building, so the main building is not readily seen from the roadway; however there are several vehicles on display on the main roadway with signs pointing the way to the dealership.
The portion of the lot is currently displaying new cars and much the lot on the side is devoted to new trucks and SUVs with pre-owned automobiles being displayed to the opposite corner of the showroom.


Dealer website:  http://www.elkinsfordland.com/ 

Buckhannon Toyota/Scion

Buckhannon Auto Mall

Buckhannon Toyota/Scion formerly had Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep franchises prior to the dealership purge as a result of the Chrysler Corporation bankruptcy of 2009 and they also had a Subaru franchise.  Right now, there is only Toyota and Scion franchises as the location.  This dealership was formerly known as the Buckhannon Auto Mall having the slogan BAM33 that included the route the lot is located on.
This facility had been located in its current location since the early 2000s to a large location on U.S. Route 33 west of Buckhannon.  This dealership had been located in Buckhannon and the former building has since been subdivided into several businesses including a rent-to-own type of business.
It started out in this new location having Chrysler and Subaru franchises.  I am not sure what happened to the Subaru franchise as the nearest Subaru dealership is located in Bridgeport, more than 30 miles away.  There was a single showroom, then about 2005, Buckhannon Auto Mall acquired the Toyota franchise that was once Mountaineer Toyota/Chevrolet in Elkins, West Virginia.  At this point, Buckhannon Auto Mall had built an adjoining showroom to the main showroom that included an automated car wash that would feature Toyota automobiles.

Sign located along Rt. 33 notes time and temperature

They had the Chrysler Group franchises and I was surprised that they were part of the purge due to the relative new construction of the facility.  There is another Chrysler Group dealership in Weston, 15 miles to the west.  The name was formally changed to Buckhannon Toyota and they added the Scion brand, which is a smaller, hipper subbrand of Toyota.  Service facilities are located to the rear of the showroom with service reception bays.
It was then the opportunity for Toyota to be the only franchise in facility.  So in late 2010 into early 2011, the showrooms inside and out were renovated in the current Toyota image with the larger, older showroom being the Toyota showroom and the newer, smaller one featuring Scion automobiles.  The exterior walls of the showrooms light up at night.

Jenkins Ford - Buckhannon, WV

Jenkins Ford - Buckhannon, WV

Service Reception Bays

Front of Jenkins Ford 

Jenkins Ford has been in its current location for more than five years relocating to U.S. Route 33 west of Buckhannon.  This dealership had previously been located on a small lot in downtown Buckhannon on Main Street.  The dealer had outgrown that lot and moved to this  much larger location even after an extensive renovation of the original building around 2000.

The new Jenkins facility is located on a lot lot featuring new Ford vehicles.  Most of the vehicles are full size F-150s and F-250/F-350 pickups and chassis.  Jenkins Ford also had a Mercury franchise.  Ford Motor Company had dropped Mercury as a brand in early 2011 and signage had been removed from this building.

Jenkins Ford is known for a large stocking a large number of Ford trucks

Possibly the last batch of Ford Rangers you'll see on a lot

Jenkins Ford seems to service many fleet vehicles.  There are many oil and natural gas companies in the region and they tend to use Jenkins for sales and service.
Jenkins also has an ancillary building located up on a hill that rents Enterprise  and also some other service facilities.  There is also a Jenkins auto body shop located in Buckhannon city limits.  But most of the operations are located at this facility.

Jenkins is one of the largest Ford dealerships in the area in both size and number of units sold. 

H & M Motor Company

This is a small town dealership selling Chrysler/Dodge/Ram products on a small lot in Weston, West Virginia.  Within this facility is a showroom capable of holding 3-5 vehicles and a service garage in the rear.
H and M also has an adjacent property with an old gas station that has the pre-owned vehicles and some service bays as well.
There are approximately two dozen new vehicles on the lot with another thirty pre-owned vehicles.

Weston Ford

Weston Ford

I found this to be an unusual place.  Is this a new car dealership or is this a relic to the past?  First of all this dealership looks as though it hasn't been touched by modern conveniences since the 1970s.  Usually there are about 5 to 10 new vehicles on the lot, but really can't tell what else is available.  This facility also has a number of E-Series passenger vans available for rent for large groups.  They usually have some vans available at RG Honda-Yamaha in Nutter Fort.
That is because there are about 100 other cars and trucks in varying conditions throughout the property.  The property stretches out for a couple of hundred yards east to west.  There are rows of vehicles that haven't moved for decades.  There are mostly Ford products on the lot in fields that are rotting away.
The actual building itself is a brick garage with a showroom abutting out the front.  There is also a large "brick barn" like structure on the western end.  Inside the showroom are furnishings that are decades old and even the computers date back to the 1980s as well.
I don't know much about this dealership other than it is about 15 miles from two other more successful Ford franchises to the north and east.  This is a desirable location, but I don't see the ownership putting much investment, but this is a unique facility for what I have mentioned above!

Observations about cars in Korea

I had the opportunity to visit Korea this past summer for two weeks and I was intent on observing the automobiles and its industry.
South Korea is a thoroughly modern country with modern cars, trucks, busses, etc and with problems that go along with it.  A crowded city such as the capital of Seoul has tremendous traffic jams at all times of the day.  So utilizing the subway system is a great alternative to fight the traffic and the bus system seems to be very efficient as well.  But this country has a love with the automobile just like Americans do.  Traffic jams are much worse on Friday evenings, Saturday morning, and Sunday evenings as many Koreans escape the cities to the mountains for the weekend and then return.  (90% of Koreans claim they hike, which seems to be the national pastime).  There are some Jeep stores in Korea that sell Jeep branded clothing and outdoor supplies, not cars.
But this is blog focussed on auto dealerships and there are plenty there if you want to purchase a Hyundai or Kia.  In fact, over 90% of the Korean automotive market is made up of these two brands.  Other brands include SsongYong (owned by India's Mahindra) and Daewoo (owned by GM).  Most dealerships for these brands are located in storefronts that are about 1,000 to 2,000 square feet approximately with 4 to 5 automobiles in each showroom.  There is usually one representative sample for each model in the brand in each showroom.  In my observations, there was one or two salespersons each with a desk and of course there was the obligatory rack with brochures.  On top of each automobile was a price noting how many South Korean Won (currency) it would take to purchase the car.  If you want to figure out how much if would cost in American dollars, just divide the price by 1,000 and you get the price in American dollars.

Hyundai Avante, U.S. Elantra

Hyunadi Starex

Hyundai Starex

Pontiac Aztec Korean counterpart?

In Hyundai showrooms, the models were very similar in names and content.  The only model that had a different name was the Elantra, which is known as the Avante there.  Kia showrooms were set up the same way, except the models were named differently such as K5, K7, K9 among examples.  There were very little differences in most of the models between the U.S. spec and Korean spec automobiles.  But, I was impressed with most of the vehicles having automatically folding side mirrors so they won't get damaged getting sideswiped while parked.
Another difference is that navigation systems in the cars are very elaborate and detailed.  Most new and older automobiles will have at least an aftermarket GPS/navigation system that drivers rely on to avoid traffic jams, locate directions, and they seem to be much more trustworthy than here in the states.
Most of the taxicabs in Korea are late model Sonatas and what we know as Optima (K5).
Another thing about Hyundai is that it is a large conglomerate in Korea (even throughout the world) and it   owns the Kia brand.  Most Korean made Hyundai automobiles are produced in Ulsan.  Ulsan is known as a company town as it is home to Hyundai Heavy Industries (shipyards, heavy construction equipment, etc.) and most everything is branded Hyundai including department stores and hotels.  These other businesses are also located throughout Korea.  We toured the shipyard, but didn't tour the automobile plant, even though we passed it.
I would love to return to Korea even though I can't read a lick of Korean or pronounce anything, so everyone once in a while I would stop at a Kia or Hyundai dealership to get my fill of Korea for the time being!

Part of the large conglomerate!