Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 07-03-2024 Ask the Expert with Chase Barton of Stephens Auto of Nitro

Transcript

07-03-2024 Ask the Expert with Chase Barton of Stephens Auto of Nitro · WCHS Network Podcasts

0:00
Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich the realtor makes real
0:04
estate dreams a reality, whether it's residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to
0:08
Huntington covered. Your key to exceptional real estate experience is start here Meeks Realty
0:12
Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us. The views and opinions expressed on
0:17
this program do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ADWCHS it's employees
0:23
or WVRC Media And a very pleasantive morning to you you're listening to as the
0:32
expert WCHS the voice of Charleston on Del Cooper. Thanks so much for tuning
0:35
in on this Wednesday morning in the state of West Virginia in the month of
0:40
July. Hey, the regatta is starting tonight with Shaggy that's going to be
0:44
at the on the Levey. That's going to be a great town tonight with
0:47
the Regatta's starting in Charleston, great time for those things around town. It's
0:51
going to be a hot night tonight, so just be prepared for that,
0:53
especially with the traffic and everything that's going on. You can listen to the
0:56
station throughout today to get updates on the Regatta and things going on in town
1:00
Charleston right here on five ADWHS and WCHS network dot Com. Welcome into the
1:03
studio today. It is Chase Barton from Stevens Auto, Steven's Auto of Nitro.
1:07
Good morning, Chase, how you doing this morning? Good morning Dale.
1:10
I'm well and happy to be here. Little a little different for me
1:14
normally I'm the wingman, but I'm all you got today, that's all right.
1:17
Usually Larry Dawson, who represents with Steven's Auto, comes in with us
1:21
as well. Chase and I have done a few shows with Larry now,
1:23
so we're going to We're going to go without a net this morning. We're
1:26
going to go without the Larry NEETs training wheels are coming off, that's right,
1:30
which will be just fine. Hey, if you have any questions this
1:32
morning about the auto industry, maybe, and we're going to talk about this
1:34
a little bit. Maybe you've been sitting on the sidelines for the last few
1:37
years wondering when a good time to get in if you're looking to get a
1:40
new vehicle, maybe now's the a good time. We're going to talk about
1:42
some of the accessibility with getting into new cars, financing options, things along
1:47
those lines. If you have any questions like that, you can give us
1:49
a call. We're questions about trade ends, anything like that. Chase may
1:52
not be able to answer your question directly right now, but you can certainly
1:53
point you in the right direction. If not, you can give us a
1:56
call at three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three zer a
1:57
four three four five fifty eight. You can text over your questions to three
2:00
zero four nine three five five zero zero eighth. Three zero four nine three
2:05
five five zero zero eighth is our text information. You can also find more
2:07
information online. For in Nitro, it's Stevens of Nitro dot com. That's
2:12
Stevens of Nitro dot com. You can go over there and find specific information
2:15
about UH the the location over a Nitro and then Stevens Auto dot com is
2:21
the more general website. We'll get these this information out to you as the
2:24
show goes on today and we talked about some more of these things. But
2:28
man is my dad years and years ago spent some time in the UH in
2:32
the auto sales industry, and it used to be that this was about the
2:37
time of year that things school's out, you're looking for people to come back
2:39
from vacation. When when do things kind of pick up from a from a
2:44
people coming on your lot, looking around things like that. Generally soon because
2:47
you are right, you know, school just let out last month and a
2:51
lot of people have been out on vacation and joining themselves. And now we're
2:53
coming up on July fourth holiday, so that's kind of going to spread into
2:58
the weekend. But normally mid July things kind of get back to normal.
3:01
People start coming in at at a more normal pace, looking for you know,
3:06
a new ride to support the family, going in to fall, new
3:08
school year, new sports here, what have you. Yeah, that's that's
3:13
when things start picking up, so it won't be long. One of the
3:15
things that we talked about this is briefly the last time you were in with
3:19
Larry, and one of the things that impresses me, you know, and
3:22
I'm sure anybody that's of any kind of age is impressed with this. It
3:25
used to be the standard warranty on a vehicle was like three year, sixty
3:29
thousand miles or something, you know, like you were expected that that would
3:32
be like your warranty. A few companies, you know, ten or fifteen
3:36
years ago started pushing it out to you know, the one hundred thousand miles.
3:39
The standards of what we expect from our vehicles and how long they last
3:43
now has really intensified greatly just in the last twenty years. Really when we
3:47
talk about the durability that we expect of our vehicles and how manufacturers back that
3:52
up, because they've actually backed that up pretty significantly now they do. And
3:55
you're right. I mean when I was a young I'm thirty seven now,
4:00
so say thirty years ago, when I was helping my dad, he was
4:03
a used car manager at a Ford dealer in Beckley, and when they would
4:08
take trades, you know, if it had over sixty thousand miles, they
4:11
weren't They were not keeping it. It was not even a thought, oh
4:14
we might try to try to keep this and put it on a lot.
4:16
No, it was it was going to the small dealer down the street or
4:19
going to the auto auction to be wholesaled. And now you fast forward now
4:24
and you know we're looking at vehicles that may have one hundred or one hundred
4:26
and twenty thousand miles and we're you know, if those are nice cars,
4:29
we want to keep those because as inflation has grown and some of these prices
4:33
are out of control. We need those cars to help people that are more
4:38
budget focused, you know, be able to have a pickup truck they can
4:41
buy for four hundred dollars a month. Is generally it's very very much changed
4:45
generally. When when when Larry was in here and we were talking, we
4:47
talked we primarily focused on the previously used automobile industry, and that's certainly something
4:53
that we can talk about with Stevens Auto and Stephen's Auto of Nitro. But
4:55
tell us a little bit about all of the Stephens Auto locations. You not
4:58
only have the Nitro a location that is where Larry Dawson's Auto Sels used to
5:01
be and you've taken over that location. Still as beautiful as ever. Great
5:05
location there on Nitro, really easy to get to where Stephen's Auto located at
5:09
Over the state, Well, I'll start with our as my business partner,
5:13
Richard Stephens says, the world headquarters where it all started is in Boone County
5:16
and Danville, West Virginia. That is the original store, Stephen's Auto Center
5:20
that has a new Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Ford and of
5:25
course used cars. We have a new Chevrolet store in o'kill, West Virginia
5:30
that had been King Cole Chevrolet since nineteen thirty five, but we're still in
5:34
downtown o'kill on Main Street. Then we have used cars there as well.
5:40
We have a Mitsubishi store in Mercer County and Princeton right off of seventy seven
5:45
on Route four sixty, and we also have used cars there. And then
5:49
we have Larry's location as you mentioned, that's used only. We have a
5:53
store in Beckley on Robert C. Bird Drive that was mine of my dad's
5:56
at used cars only. And we have a store in so Immersville, West
6:00
Virginia that is used on win Then we also have two locations that are very
6:04
relaxed and we don't sell any cars there. We only buy cars. We
6:08
have two Auto Buyers of West Virginia locations, one in Beckley and one in
6:12
Somersville. So you know, we've kind of got you covered in the southern
6:17
West Virginia coalfield area. If you need help buying or selling a car,
6:20
there should be a Steepens location pretty close to you. And as we've talked
6:25
about on the show a little bit before, the great benefit of having such
6:29
a nice endprint and across different auto makers as well. Is you can really
6:32
find if somebody comes to a location and maybe they're looking for something that a
6:35
little bit different that you have in another location. You can move these things
6:38
around and help out the customers that come into your lots, and that's a
6:42
great benefit for folks. Absolutely. Yeah, we're always and we're always trying
6:45
to figure out how to do that better, How do we better take care
6:47
of our customer and meet them where they're at, whatever we need to do
6:51
to make the transaction easy. Because everybody's busy. There's things going on in
6:56
kids and you know it's a little slower now with summertime, but as you
7:00
get back into school and sports and everything, people are just really busy.
7:03
So we try to figure out how to make it easy on our customer.
7:08
And we have a team of guys and that's pretty much all they do is
7:11
transport cars that we buy from auction back or you know, they'll spend a
7:15
day or two during the week, you know, moving these cars from Princeton
7:18
to Nitro and from Danville to Oakhill or whatever the case may be. So
7:21
we really really try hard to make it easy on the customer. So normally
7:26
with We've actually got a jeep on the way from Nitro to Beckley this morning
7:30
that somebody in Beckley's buying. So we were always working on that, trying
7:33
to make it easy on the customer. That that's a huge benefit if you're
7:36
out there and you're looking at these types of things where you don't have to
7:40
either drive or you have somebody that's just working for you, you know,
7:42
a partner basically that can help you find these things that you're looking for,
7:44
and somebody that's knowledgeable in the industry, so you can say, hey,
7:46
I'm looking for a particular caller or maybe engine or something that you're looking for
7:50
an amenity something like that that they can help you out with to make sure
7:54
they could get it on there. You know, a lot of folks I
7:56
know also, and this has been a complication not just in the in the
8:00
the automobile industry and home buying. Heck, just going on vacations until just
8:03
recently was a big thing. But a lot of people changed their their their
8:07
patterns and their habits over the course of the COVID pandemic and the and the
8:11
years that led into that. There used to be a real a lot of
8:13
people really had a real cycle of for example, like buying new cars.
8:20
You know, a lot of people were on a cycle where they would do
8:22
it every five years or four years or whatever it might be. Or even
8:26
people that maybe didn't do it, that didn't do it that often, still
8:31
they missed one of their maybe they did it every decade, but they missed
8:33
one of their cycles where they would typically you know, trade in a car
8:37
and get a new one. Because of everything that was going on during COVID,
8:39
and so I think you have a lot of people out there, despite
8:41
you know, the the the industry being find for the most part, I
8:46
think you have a lot of people out there that may be elected to sit
8:48
on the sidelines because they were like, you know, first prices seemed to
8:50
like if you're looking at used cars, there was no inventory for a long
8:54
time, and then prices on newer cars maybe seemed to accelerate a little bit,
8:56
and then interest rates when so suddenly before where you're keep on waiting and
9:01
waiting and waiting. You know, we're never going to go back to twenty
9:03
seventeen unfortunately. So I mean, you got to find the right place to
9:07
get into into the market now. Yet no, that's that's very much accurate.
9:13
One of our managers, Tom Brown, at our Somersville location, he
9:16
and I had this exact conversation just probably about a month ago. Is you
9:22
know there was people that wanted to buy or maybe we're even ready to buy
9:24
three years ago and they looked at the prices of the cars and they're like,
9:28
oh, man, I just you know, I'm I'm not paying not
9:31
paying those prices for a car, so I'm going to wait. Well now
9:35
the last year, you know, they're well, I'm I'm ready. Prices
9:37
are coming down, so maybe I'll do something now. Well now interest rates
9:41
have elevated. But you're seeing people that are you know now they're scared because
9:45
they've waited so long. They're like, oh man, my car's got one
9:46
hundred and fifty thousand miles on and I've got I've got to get a new
9:50
car. So we're seeing seeing a lot of that play out right now in
9:54
the market. We're trading for a lot of cars that unfortunately we're not able
9:58
to keep that we do wholesale to another daily or take to auction. One
10:03
of the things I think that when we look at the if somebody's looking at
10:07
the price. At the cost of a car, and you're looking at it
10:11
over the course of time, you might wonder, what's so different now than
10:15
even five years ago or seven years ago or something like that. Is it
10:18
all just the economy, And the answer is no, that's not the case
10:20
because some of the things that have been incorporated now into the new cars that
10:22
you're making. When you talk about safety features, we talk about self driving
10:26
features, whatever it might be, and you know, amenities and different things
10:30
like that, those have also come a long way in a very short amount
10:33
of time. The options and the things that go into your car to make
10:35
it safer, easier to drive, easier to get around, more ergonomically flowing,
10:39
and things like that. I mean, all of these things have also
10:41
gotten a huge bolstering in the last decade or so. Just incredible amounts of
10:46
technology that go into the vehicles now. I tell our guys all the time,
10:48
it's overwhelming. I think for a lot of people if they're a in
10:52
an eight to ten year old car or older and they come in and buy,
10:54
especially a brand new car. If you go it from a fourteen Chevy
11:00
truck forward truck into a twenty four model new truck. The amount of technology
11:05
and that car is overwhelming. You've got a you know, they're they're coming
11:09
out of a truck probably that just had a radio in it, and now
11:13
they've got a TV screen where the radio was, and they've got all these
11:18
safety features that either you know, have to exceed or a blind spot monitor
11:22
or even some of the trucks now even drive themselves. I mean, you
11:26
really have to take some time with the customer to let them know that they're
11:31
getting a lot more. You know, it's not only is it a newer
11:33
truck, but there's a lot more to help them in these vehicles. And
11:39
I'm spoiled. I mean, I like I'm on the road a lot.
11:41
So the adaptive cruise control, I was just going to bring that up.
11:43
It's crazy that you bring that up. I mean it's nice. You know,
11:46
my guys know, if it doesn't have adaptive cruise and blind spot minitors,
11:50
I'm not driving it because that's I've gotten used to it. I'm on
11:52
the turnpike all the time. Those safety features mean a lot to me.
11:56
So and I think, especially as we've got an older demo graphic in this
12:00
state, I think it means a lot to those people. They like to
12:03
you know, they like to feel safe. Maybe you're not as uh,
12:05
you're not as aware as you once were, so having those safety features is
12:09
a nice thing to have. Adaptive cruise control just I'm a big cruise control
12:13
user. I've driven it a lot, and and when I lived out,
12:16
when I moved out of West Virginia, I would drive back here a lot,
12:18
and I've driven circumvented the country a couple of times. I'm a huge
12:20
cruise control user. One of the things that I've found that I don't like
12:24
admitting to. But sometimes in gamifying cruise control, you hate to disengage it.
12:28
You know, it's like you're in that nice cruise you know, you're
12:31
you're you're not exceeding the speed limit too much, You're in that sweet spot,
12:35
and then there's that car that's going just a little too slow right ahead
12:39
of them. You're like, man, I got to break my whole flow
12:41
just to reset my cruise control. And you know, of course you can
12:43
coast and reset, but but adaptive cruise control is great because it detects those
12:46
things and automatically keeps your following. Just int that a proper way you can
12:50
tell it. You know, I'm driving a new Silverado that has the adaptive
12:54
cruise and you can you can tell it you wanted one car link, two
12:58
car link or three car links from the car in front of you, and
13:01
it just does its thing. I mean, you just hold the wheel,
13:03
it slows down, you change lanes, it speeds up. It's I just
13:07
love that. It's like and now they have the supercrews, you know,
13:09
the supercrews, Supercreanue on General Motors, Blue Crews on the Fords. It'll
13:15
actually, it'll it'll even steer itself. Wow, you can take your hand
13:20
off the wheel. The Chevies I'm more familiar with because I've drove more of
13:24
those, but they have a sensor on top of the steering column so it
13:28
knows if your eyes are on the road. You can take your hands off
13:31
the wheel and just look out the window and enjoy the drive. But if
13:35
it thinks you're looking at your phone or doing something you shouldn't, then it'll
13:37
tell you to re engage with the vehicle. But it'll it'll steer for you,
13:41
it'll change lanes for you, It'll it'll turn the blinker on if you
13:43
get up behind somebody. There's no car in the next lane, it'll turn
13:48
the blinker on change lanes, pass the car, change back to the other
13:50
lane. It's it's really it's kind of mind blowing, and just the convenience
13:56
is something like that. Like I know, years ago, I used to
13:58
run a rental car company and some of our top clients were business people.
14:03
You know, they would come in and they'd rent a car for like a
14:05
week because they had to go on the road for a week, and they
14:07
would come back and return the car. And the amount of knowledge that they
14:09
would put on a car in a week was just incredible. No wonder that
14:11
you know, they were renting cars to be able to do that, but
14:13
I could just imagine that person that was out doing pharmaceutical sales or whatever it
14:18
might be, and suddenly, I mean, the stress of being on the
14:20
road just becomes a lot less because you don't have to worry about you know,
14:24
because it can be stress well even when you're on the on the turnpike
14:26
in your cruising and it's just normal amount of traffic and things like that,
14:30
but you're constantly having to disengage, put on the cruise, take off the
14:33
cruise, or you're engaging in the traffic, it could be a little stressful,
14:35
you know, being able to kind of have that peace of mind and
14:37
have the safety features built in. What I love about it is I think
14:41
most people probably don't have that two or three car following distance. You know
14:46
that that's not a typical thing. Although it doesn't matter. I mean,
14:48
you're going to get there at the same you know, if you're going to
14:50
speed, it doesn't matter how close you are to when I'm down to one
14:54
car length, Yeah, right, exactly. So it's nice to see,
14:56
you know, when you have something like that because it is safer. You
14:58
know, when you have that following distance, it is safer. So it
15:01
kind of instills those best practices too. There's a lot of benefits for something
15:05
like that when you start talking about incorporating technology, and I know there's a
15:07
lot of people out there that a little bit you know, maybe again they've
15:09
been on the sidelines a little bit because they're like, well, I don't
15:11
like all the voice assistant stuff and things like you don't necessarily have to use
15:15
it. But maybe the first time that you're in a situation where you absolutely
15:18
have to respond to a text and you can do it because it's completely unsafe
15:22
to ever look at your phone while driving. But when you could say,
15:24
when you could tell your car respond to that text I'm driving, I'll call
15:28
you back in ten minutes or whatever it might be, that's a safety feature.
15:31
It's nice, you know. I mean, the Blue Tooth has been
15:33
around for a while, and now I guess even the Apple Car Play and
15:35
the Android Auto has been around for a while, and it's and that's really
15:39
nice. I love the Apple Car Play. It's wireless now used to have
15:43
to use your lightning cable, but now that's even wireless in most vehicles.
15:46
But you just click the button and Siri comes on. You say, hey
15:50
Siri, text Ole Cooper, I'll be there in fifteen minutes, and it'll
15:52
read the message back to you and send it. So it's it's very nice.
15:56
And the nice thing about like the Adaptive crew who when that first came
16:00
out, I don't know, probably fifteen years ago, that was a pretty
16:03
exclusive, like you had to buy the top trim level Jeep, or you
16:10
had to buy, you know, a Mercedes or a BMW something that was
16:14
a lot of money. Well, now the Adaptive Cruise, I mean it's
16:15
on the new Chevy tracks it's twenty five thousand dollars with adaptive crew. So
16:21
the technology is coming down in prices helping the manufacturers include this on vehicles,
16:25
and it's really nice for customers. That's a you know, you get a
16:27
new vehicle, it is a little more, but you're you are getting more
16:30
banged for your buck to right. That's the thing when I did a little
16:33
research after Larry texts me to let me know that you and I are want
16:36
to do this together today, I wanted to do some research into some of
16:40
the time because I haven't bought a brand new car in a long time.
16:42
That just the way that really I decided to have a kid instead of my
16:47
new car, so that that's sort of where that went a few years ago
16:51
when I would normally be in the market for one. But some of the
16:53
things that that have been coming along, of course, things like like the
16:59
customized seats and climate control that's been a thing for a long long time,
17:00
but even those have been escalated to a point that's beyond like they call it
17:04
climate concierge. Now you know, you can create an entire environment in your
17:08
vehicle that meets all the environmental benchmarks that you want. I mean, that's
17:12
a pretty incredible benefit as well. If you again, if you're somebody that
17:15
drives, or you're sensitive to certain types of environmental types, even something like
17:18
that is a really beneficial feature that you have on the modern cars today.
17:22
It does a lot of the filtration and then the you know, the different
17:26
We've got some of the jeeps that have a quad climate control system, so
17:30
it's front, front, passenger side, second row, third row. You
17:33
know, you can all set your different air temperatures and where the air is
17:37
flowing from, which is pretty cool. Heated seats, cool seats. We
17:41
have a lot of vehicles that have massaging seats, So I mean, you
17:45
know, at at this point, if you're not careful, you know,
17:47
you turn your adaptive crews on and you're heated or cool seat and your massage
17:51
seat, you're going to fall asleep. I have a hard time staying awake
17:53
up the stopwaights as it is. I don't know, I don't know if
17:56
that's great for me. Yeah, so it can almost be too really.
18:00
Chase Martin is here today from Stephen's Auto. If Nitro and gives a call
18:03
three or a fourth, threes are a four, three, four, five
18:06
fifty eight fifty eight three or a four three four five fifty to fifty eight.
18:07
Have any questions for Chase about the new or the previously owned car industry
18:11
and give us a call this morning. Ask Chase any questions. He can
18:14
point you in the right direction. If not answered directly again three es are
18:17
four three four five fifty eight fifty eight, you can text over your questions
18:18
to three zero four non three five fives zeros your eight. Lots of other
18:22
things that are incorporated into newer cars that have come a long way in a
18:25
long time. Of course, we've talked about one of the things people complain
18:26
about the technology in the computer sometimes if they're not used to those type of
18:30
things. One of the things that's kind of nice where now it used to
18:33
be anytime that you needed like a software problem or you had a software update,
18:37
you had to take it to a specialist and they're the ones that hooked
18:41
it into the system to get the update or whatever it is. A lot
18:44
of these updates can be done over the year now because you have connectivity in
18:47
the cars, so there is a benefit. We've come through the other side
18:49
of that technology now where maybe it was a little bit of a mess for
18:52
a while because you'd have to take it somewhere and they'd have to put it
18:55
up on the diagnostics and then download the patch or you know whatever it might
18:59
be. Now, some of that stuff can be taken care of over the
19:00
air, just within how your car operates on a day to day basis and
19:04
stuff like that, like basically a software upgrade. That's also a benefit because
19:07
it keeps you from having to necessarily go in to get servicer or anything for
19:11
an update exactly. I mean most of us have a cell phone, so
19:15
just think about it like that. You know, you get a message on
19:18
your iPhone that it's time to update your iOS operating system. That happens pretty
19:25
frequently, and it happens, you know, you can set it to do
19:26
it while you're asleep and you're connected to Wi Fi. Your car is the
19:30
same way now, so if there's an update that one of the manufacturers needs
19:33
to send, it's over the air, the car is connected, it does
19:37
it while you're driving seamlessly. You never even know it was done. So
19:41
it hasn't been that long ago. You know, when the when the screens,
19:45
you know, when the enpotainment system started getting bigger in these vehicles.
19:48
I remember they would send like a USB drive. You would have to stack
19:52
the USB drive in your car to to do an update on your forward sink
19:55
system or whatever the case may be. So yeah, they're they're making it
19:57
easy. And one thing like I said, you us as a dealer group
20:00
trying to meet people where there are where they are, is with service too.
20:07
We just started about five months ago our store in Danvill, the Ford
20:11
Chrysler, Dodge g Bram store. We're doing a lot of pick up and
20:14
delivery. If you can't make it into the dealership or it's just inconvenient for
20:18
you, you can set an appointment. We'll have somebody come get your car,
20:22
take it to dam and we'll get a service and bring it back to
20:23
you. Oh wow, what a nice. Yeah, you never have to
20:26
come to the dealership and it makes it really easy on folks that people have
20:30
been really receptive to that, So I expect we'll probably start expanding that to
20:33
the other stores. But also now Ford is big on mobile service. You
20:37
can buy a transit cargo van. It comes outfitted with a lot of tools
20:42
that you need for service, and you buy it as a Ford dealer.
20:45
We buy it from Ford but we have ordered one of those and it is
20:48
coming in soon, so we'll be able to, you know, show up
20:52
with a Steven's Auto Center mobile service unit and take care of your vehicle on
20:56
site. Man. Now that's fantastic right there. That's I'm really excited about
21:02
that. I know if a few of our competitors in the area already have
21:04
them, And I think it's a real game changer because, as we've already
21:07
talked about, people are just super busy and they can't make it in our
21:11
service department between seven thirty and five thirty. You think about the amount of
21:15
people that have started using like a Walmart delivery and things like that just because
21:18
they don't have the time to get to the store or whatever it might be.
21:21
This is the same type of thing that's just a convenient thing. You're
21:23
not getting any less service, but you're just getting it at your location,
21:26
which makes it so much easier for people that you know, have kids,
21:29
they're running to their because everybody plays a travel sport. Now they are kids,
21:33
they have to run to their travel sports and whatever else it might be.
21:36
Taking you into some of that drive out of people's lives is a good
21:38
thing. It definitely is. We think that'll be be a game changer,
21:42
and that's what we continue to look to do. Is as we've as business
21:47
has changed and COVID has changed, everything is you know, how do we
21:49
how do we continue to adapt and continue to take care of our customers Because
21:53
when I've been before, you know we're we're not in this for the short
21:57
term. We're in this for the long term. Build, build our customer
22:00
base, and take great care of our customers and keep them coming back to
22:04
us. We don't want them going anywhere else to buy a car to service
22:07
or car to get parts. We want them to stay in the Stevens family.
22:10
So whatever we can do to elevate our service to earn their business and
22:15
continued business is really what we want to do. Chase Partin is here from
22:18
Steven's Auto Group Steven's Auto of Nitro. A couple more questions before we take
22:21
a break. When we come back, we're going to talk. We're going
22:22
to do a little bit more in specifically to financing options that you're running into
22:26
these days. Exactly what is the finance environment like Again, I'm thinking about
22:30
the people out there that's been on the sidelines for a while maybe haven't looked
22:33
into these things. We want to just set the stage for you little but
22:36
we can't get specifics because everybody's portfolio is a little different when it comes to
22:38
their credit and things like that. But we're going to try to generally alleviate
22:42
some tension when it comes to financing and financing options. And also we want
22:47
to talk a little bit about the cost of vehicles and also what the manufacturers
22:51
and the automakers are doing to make it a little bit easier for you to
22:52
get into a newer vehicle, if that's what you're looking to do. One
22:56
of the things I want to ask you about before we went to the break
22:57
chase, because this is something I've been seeing a lot of. It was
23:00
easy for me to follow kind of the bouncing ball when we started going to
23:03
like LED lights and different things like that on like headlights and things. Now
23:07
I see things now on newer vehicles. I'm not even sure what they're using
23:10
anymore, or they're using like lasers or something. I mean, some of
23:12
these things that you're seeing are incredible. What are we looking at here?
23:17
Yet? Still a lot of LEDs and you know, probably the Ram and
23:21
Jeep brands have the most that's in years past has been a big option on
23:26
wranglers. I mean, we would have wranglers, we wouldn't sail because they
23:30
were missing the LED lighting group. It's it's big to people like you say,
23:33
I mean, it's you know, it looks like when you're driving down
23:36
the road at night in one of these vehicles with these LED lights, it's
23:38
like you know, your football fields in front of it really is, and
23:41
you can see everything. It's it is incredible. I almost didn't because having
23:45
older vehicles. That's one of the things that I really am sort of jealous
23:49
of, despite all the other technology that's out there. When I see this
23:52
these well lit like really wonderfully lot cars, what I really appreciate is when
23:56
one's in front of me and it's dark, because it's a real easy to
23:59
see what the road reference exactly right. You know, you can really see
24:02
where things are going. I'm I'm just fascinated by where I was in the
24:06
rental car industry for a long time. So for many years I saw the
24:08
new remakes as they were coming in, right when they were coming off the
24:11
lines, and kind of got to play around with them a lot. I
24:12
had company vehicles, and so I got to play around with some of the
24:15
technology when it was first coming out. Was really an amor by it for
24:18
a while. But I'm, you know, a few decades out of the
24:19
game now, so I'm really interested in some of these changes that are coming
24:23
in the cars that are making them, you know, because people, you
24:26
know, people do talk about the price, sure, but we're also looking
24:30
at these amazing features of technology that not only get you from where you need
24:36
to go, but they're safer in doing it, they're more reliable in doing
24:38
it, and connect your life in ways that we never thought we would be
24:41
able to be connected in our automobiles. And that's not it may not be
24:45
necessarily for everybody, but I think that we're becoming a society where we need
24:48
those things. It's not only just an option anymore to participate. We need
24:52
to have those things a lot, and your car is one of those things
24:55
you need to invest in to get there. Absolutely, Yet it's important to
24:59
a lot of people pool and even I think to some of the buyers,
25:03
you know, if it's not important to them maybe to be connected, well,
25:04
if you've got your your kids or your grand kids riding with you,
25:08
well, they're you know, they're connected. So I mean it's just a
25:11
it's it's it is a connected society that we live in Dale. There is
25:15
no doubt about that. We're talking about that and plus many other things when
25:18
we come back. You can control the conversation as well. If you have
25:21
questions three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three zero four three
25:23
four five fifty eight fifty eight, you can text over your questions to three
25:26
zero four nine three five five zero zero eight. You're listening to ask the
25:29
expert. Chase partner is here. He's from Stephen's Auto Group and Steph's Auto
25:32
up Nitro. More information online Stevens of Stephen's Auto dot com. That's Steven's
25:37
Auto dot com or Stephen's up Nitro dot com. You can find more information
25:40
there as well. Located for eighteen First Avenue South in Nitro, West Virginia.
25:44
The eight eight eight numbers okay to give yep okay. The the tot
25:47
fhree number is eight eight eight seven one two eleven sixty two. That's eight
25:49
eight eight seven one to two eleven sixty two. Let's take a break.
25:52
We'll be a backcraftter this you're listening to that's the expert w se HS,
25:56
the voice for Charleston. Hey, it's day valid for Parmore stores and now
26:00
that the warm weather monster here. You know where you need to be your
26:03
local Parmar store heading to the lake, the ball field or your favorite picnic
26:07
side are just working around your place. Parmer has everything you'll need from gas
26:11
to grocery, snacks and much much more. Download the Parmar app and sign
26:15
up for the Parmar Rewards card Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland,
26:19
Pennsylvania and Virginia. If there's not a part of our store near you now
26:23
there will be sent. With this hot summer, it seems we can't get
26:27
enough ice. Ice baby. Hi. I'm Kanahah County commission Candidate Natalie Tenant.
26:34
I hope you're having a great summer and enjoying the fun and festivities the
26:37
county has to offer, whether it's a town summerfest, the regatta with Vanilla
26:42
Ice, or Kanah State Forest. As a County Commissioner, I'll work to
26:47
ensure all parts of the county can thrive and provide opportunities. Thank you for
26:51
your continued support for Natalie Tenant for Kanawah County Commission paid for by Friends of
26:55
Natalie Tenant. Celebrate July fourth with savings at Lows for a limited time,
27:02
save on the essentials you need to make your garden pop for summer, like
27:04
Miracle Grow twenty five Court Potty Mix. Get two bags for just sixteen dollars
27:08
and get up to forty percent off, plus save an extra fifty dollars and
27:11
every five hundred dollars you spend on select major appliances. Hurry. These deals
27:15
won't last long because Lows knows Summer Savings Ballot through seven ten Miracle Grow Schools,
27:21
Alaska, Hawaii. Our client saving is very based on purchasing my exclusion
27:23
supply. Seelows dot com for more details. WoT supplies last brought to you
27:26
by City National Bank, where you can get a special low interest rate on
27:30
a home equity line of credit for a convenient location near you. Log on
27:33
to bank Atcity dot com. Good morning, here's your traffic update. Drivers.
27:37
We advise that doh will have rolling roadblocks for road patch repairs on I
27:42
sixty four east and west between fifty seven and fifty eight mile markers here in
27:48
Charleston around Virginia Street beginning at nine am this morning and lasting possibly to eleven
27:53
am, and the stern Will Regatta kicks off today. Canall Boulevard will be
27:59
closed from Clinton Street to Hale Street. I'm Chapel in the WHS Network traffic
28:03
studio you're listening to as the expert WCHS. The voice of charleson amdel Cooper.
28:21
Chase Barton is here. He's from Steven's Auto Up, Nitro and Stevens
28:23
Auto Group. More informational line Stephens of aud Or Stephens of Nitro dot Com.
28:27
Stevens of Nitro dot Com located four eighteen First Avenue South and Nitro West,
28:32
Virginia. Their phone number eight eight eight seven one two eleven sixty two.
28:34
Eight eight eight seven one two eleven sixty two. You can call us
28:37
this morning. Any questions for Chase about the car industry newer use, Chase
28:41
can point in the right direction. Three zero four three four five fifty eight
28:44
fifty eight three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. And I
28:47
did want to talk about I've been set in the stage a little bit this
28:48
morning talking about the kind of the industry where it stands, talking about some
28:51
of the recent upgrades that that cars have gone through, and I want to
28:53
talk about the the brass tacks of rolling four tires off the lot now.
28:57
So so that's what it's That's what it all comes to. And things have
29:02
changed, there's no doubt in the last I mean, you look at a
29:04
four or five year period, every industry has changed to some degree or another.
29:08
After we've come through COVID this this thing, will we or won't we
29:12
land into some sort of recession or not. I think we're probably past recession
29:17
fears, although things are certainly not great as far as as far as that
29:19
goes, and so a lot of industries were recast a little bit on the
29:23
other side of COVID and things along those lines. The audio industry did pretty
29:26
well. And I think what happened a lot during the time, as we
29:29
have talked about, not only were things happening in the world that changed the
29:33
outlook of things, but also technology improved as well. So what we see
29:37
on the other side of all this is not only a different financial landscape worldwide
29:42
in every industry that we're looking at, but also a major increase in technology,
29:45
some of that that we've covered here today. That being said, we
29:49
are in an environment now where for years you guys were able to offer like
29:53
zero interest. I mean that was just an environment that we worked in and
29:56
people took advantage of that. That environment may not be around right now,
30:00
but there is still a very competitive environment that if you're looking to get into
30:03
a vehicle, there's opportunity out there for folks. There is definitely, And
30:07
we're seeing some of the banks, you know, they're uh, you know,
30:11
they kind of they almost got full too. They you could see that
30:14
they were they had made so many loans during COVID because money was cheap and
30:19
people were buying cars at a rapid pace. They kind of backed off.
30:23
I mean, they were still doing loans, but they weren't really competitive.
30:26
Now we're seeing them, you know, things have slowed down for them as
30:30
well. So the banks are being competitive. They do want business, so
30:33
it is it is a good thing for our listeners right now. They do.
30:38
They do want to try to get you the best rate, to help
30:41
help you get in the car, help us sell you a car, help
30:44
you get a new car. It's you know, it's always I tell people,
30:47
they it's a three way transaction. I mean it is the dealership and
30:49
the customer, but most customers don't have one hundred percent cash, so you
30:53
get the lenders. You have to involve too. You got to keep keep
30:56
all three parties happy. And with the new car manufact actors, we do
31:00
have some you know, there actually is some zero percent, which is kind
31:03
of crazy to think about, but Mitsubishi does have some zero percent. I
31:08
know General Motors has something I'm learning today. I had no idea that those
31:11
were still available. Well, General Motors has some on select models from one
31:15
point nine percent financing, so does Ford Credit for new Ford vehicles. And
31:19
we're blessed to have some good partners. We represent some of the best brands
31:23
I think anywhere, with General Motors, with Chevrolet, Ford, Chryst or
31:29
Dodge, g Bramman and kind of Mitsubishi. People people underestimate Mitsubishi, but
31:33
what a great product that is. It's you know, people talk about Toyota
31:37
and Honda and Japanese quality. Well, Mitsubishi is also made in Japan,
31:40
very good quality vehicles with as you were alluding to earlier, the warranty on
31:44
those cars is phenomenal. I mean a five year, sixty thousand mile bumper
31:48
to bumper and a ten year, one hundred thousand mile para train warranty that's
31:51
included with the car. That's that's incredible, man, that's incredible. Yeah.
31:55
Yeah, that's off the hook, that really is. And how those
31:57
things have changed just in the last ten or fifteen years. It's pretty amazing
32:00
when it comes to the durability of things like that when we talk about with
32:04
these new vehicles. One of the things that I was looking at, and
32:07
I subscribe to some newsletters and different things like that that I cover all kinds
32:10
of different In my afternoon show we cover all kinds of stuff, and then
32:14
in the Expert Show we do different things, so I get a broad smorgas
32:16
board of different types of things. But one of the things that I was
32:20
looking at is people that track auto manufacturers rebates, discounts, different things like
32:24
that, like what you could look into this month or this cycle or whatever
32:27
it might be. And there's opportunity there as well. I mean, sometimes
32:30
manufacturers really are trying to push a particular product or car or something like that
32:34
and offer fairly aggressive rebates that they could entice a potential buyer with. There
32:39
are potential out there as well. Yes, yeah, definitely, it's a
32:44
Bishi with the zero percent with some rebates on the outlanders. Chevy trucks have
32:49
some low interest even long term financing, like a five point nine for eighty
32:52
four months. I know people think, well, maybe you know five point
32:55
nine sounds high. Well, regular rate on eighty four months right now is
32:59
around eight percent, So I mean to get a five point nine, that's
33:01
that's really good and helps keep it affordable. And something we haven't touched on
33:06
today but is the people in our stores. You know, they're the ones
33:08
that they make the biggest difference for us and for our customers, I think,
33:13
and they you know, if they come into one of our stores,
33:15
they can definitely sort all this out for them. And we don't you know,
33:20
we don't do anything. You know, you hear dealers advertising all this
33:22
crazy stuff. Twenty nine dollars down, delivers and we'll give you twice what
33:27
your car's worth. We don't do any of that stuff. We're very transparent.
33:31
We'll break everything down and show it to you however you want to see
33:34
it. We don't have anything to hide. So our people, our people
33:37
make a big difference. So one of our one of our people that actually
33:40
manages the nitro store. Jody Johnson. Today is his fiftieth birthday. Oh,
33:45
happy birthday, Jody. Yeah, so Jody the Bears Johnson. He
33:49
loves the Chicago Bears. Happy birthday, buddy. He's he's one month older
33:52
than me. I'll turn fifty next month. I'll turn fifty next month.
33:55
So I hear where you're coming from. Jody, Happy fiftieth, man.
33:59
I hope everything goes right well for you today. I feel you believe me
34:02
when it comes to that. And you make a great point there, because
34:05
as much as we can talk about cars and rebates and financing and all the
34:07
great technology and stuff like that, when it comes to doing business with another
34:12
company, it is you are talking about the people that you're doing business with.
34:15
And I know from engaging with you, I'm getting to know you.
34:19
I can kind of feel where you look at as far as the customer service
34:23
and things like that goes. And I feel that's probably reflected throughout your staffing
34:27
that you have at your stores. I mean, you're a very customer forward
34:30
type of guy. We definitely are. We're in all of our dealerships are
34:35
family friendly. I think we operate as a you know, you're at work
34:38
a lot in the car business. Most of our dealerships are open from eight
34:42
thirty to seven or nine to seven every day, so you know, you're
34:45
almost with your work family as much as you are your family. So we've
34:50
got great leaders in all of our stores. We've got some of the best
34:52
management. I think anywhere. I'd put our management staff up against anybody.
34:57
They want to do what we do. They want to take care of our
35:00
customer and we want that as a company. Richard Stevens and myself and my
35:06
wife and our other business partners, Richard's sister and brother in law, we
35:12
all want that, and our team shows that as well, and we also
35:16
want to take care of our team, so we try to do things to
35:21
keep them happy. We're actually going to Charleston Dirtybird game Sunday. We're taking
35:27
all anybody that wants to go from all the dealerships. Oh that's great.
35:30
We've rented the party decks and I'm going to take a baseball game in Sunday.
35:32
So we try to promote that family environment of where we take care of
35:37
each other and take care of our customers. And generally, if you do
35:40
that, everything works out pretty well. Dale. I think you're right.
35:44
I mean, it's really if you set, really, if you set the
35:47
idea at the top, everything that trickles down from there is going to be
35:51
is going to have that spirit in it, you know. And so you
35:53
do everything right at the top, and you know, the people that work
35:55
underneath you are going to do it right. The people that work underneath them
35:58
are going to do it right. And just you know, just tell be
36:01
honest with yourself, be honest with your customers, and be honest with us,
36:05
and we'll always have your back, just even if it's bad. Just
36:07
tell me, tell me what happened. And and there's there's a lot of
36:13
truth that that definitely goes into that. I've had a great conversation this morning.
36:15
I think that taking a little different tact and talking about some of the
36:19
things that you want to see in newer cars today, I know that I
36:22
learned a lot. Hey, I used to be dialed into the industry where
36:23
I was, where I ran a rental shop for a long time. We
36:27
got the newest cars in I got to play around with some of that stuff,
36:30
and hey man, I lost resolution a little bit. I kind of
36:32
you know, I see the new stuff that's on the roads now and it's
36:35
like sci fi to me. Sometimes I'm like, wow, I can't believe
36:37
that that's happening, even being dialed in. You know, you think just
36:39
when you've seen it all and you're like, wow, how they think of
36:43
that? Right? And some of it is like I mean, I get
36:45
I get that there's people out there that's like, man, this technology is
36:49
complicated and confusing. It can be, but man, once you get passed
36:52
over that horizon just a little bit, it really can make your life a
36:55
lot easier to once you get used to it. It's life changing. Yeah,
36:59
it really can. So. But the point of the matter is,
37:01
regardless of what direction that you're going in and what you and what your what
37:06
your true north is as far as the type of car that you want,
37:07
Steven's Auto Group, one place or another, whether it be Nitro, one
37:09
of the other locations, is going to be able to help you out.
37:12
That's the bottom line. Absolutely. Ye. We we've got great people that
37:15
are ready to take care of you at any of our six dealership locations or
37:19
two buying centers, and we'll we'll do all we can to earn your business
37:22
and keep your business. Let me get the information out one more time.
37:25
Chase Parton's been with me this morning from Steven's Auto and Stephen's Auto of Nitro.
37:29
Generally, you can find information online at stephens Audo dot com Stevens Auto
37:31
dot com. You want to take a look at our local dealership here in
37:35
the Nitro area that Stephens of Nitro dot com Stevens and Nitro dot com for
37:38
eighteen First Avenue South in Nitro, West Virginia. Their phone number is eight
37:43
eight eight seven one two eleven sixty two. That is eight eight eight seven
37:45
one to two eleven sixty two. Chase, thanks so much for your time
37:50
today. I really appreciate it. Man. I learned a lot and I
37:51
think we had a good conversation. Dale, I enjoyed it. And Larry
37:53
Dawson, if you're listening, I hope we hope we did you welse hope
37:57
we did you proud. Larry hope we did you proud. Might see you
38:00
back here next time. So that's Chase Barton once again from Stevens Auto Stevens
38:04
Auto of Nitro dot Com at four eighteen First Avenue South. Thanks so much
38:07
for tuning in today. Dave Allen is up next on five eighty Live.
38:09
Dave Wilson will be after that on talk Line, filling in for Hoppy Archiball
38:14
and then Dave Weekly and I will be back this afternoon at three oh six
38:16
on Hotline. Have a great day everyone on five eighty WCHS, the Voice
38:20
of Charleston.