Local car veterans start Web site aimed at auto sales to military
The Post and Courier
Business partners Henry Rudzki (left) and Paul Jones look over their new Web site. Their Summerville-based venture helps people in the armed forces find car deals.
The idea seems as rudimentary as basic training. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines serve our country but can't catch a break on buying a car.
Sure, businesses say they reach out to service men and women. But no one has really offered deals, online or otherwise, to auto shoppers in the military before, Paul Jones and Henry Rudzki contend.
The two longtime car retailers, one specializing in the computer side and the other sales, say they want to fix that. How? By launching an Internet venture specializing in matching people in the armed forces with dealers willing to sell vehicles at attractive prices.
Jones and Rudzki run MilitaryAutoDealers.com out of a small office in Summerville. As a Web site, it reaches anywhere someone has a computer and online account.
"I've been in the business 12 years," said Jones, whose family owns cars dealerships in the United Kingdom and who coordinated Internet operations at a local dealership.
The military car shopping Web site is an outgrowth of Automotive Templates, a company that e-mails formats that dealerships can use to contact customers and compile information.
Some of the work involved "mystery shoppers" who tested the systems. From there, Rudzki struck on the idea of advertising to the military where they can get good car deals.
"People are coming back into the States (after being deployed overseas)," said Rudzki, a 36-year auto veteran who moved to the Charleston area three years ago. "The military are Web leasing, finding a multitude of cars. This feeds right back into dealership Web sites."
The pair launched MilitaryAutoDealers.com in early April. "We've got over 22,000 hits," Jones said. So far, 12 dealerships nationwide have signed up to promote military business.
General Motors has offered a sales discount to people in the military, but "they haven't pushed it," Rudzki said.
MilitaryAutoDealers.com has targeted advertising via military base newspapers and other media.
The Web site basically runs itself, Jones said, although he is always tweaking and updating it. "We are trying to keep it as simple as possible."
Rudzki said the military offers a large group of potential car buyers.
"The actual idea is good. It's getting people fired up," Jones says.
Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com
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