A Few Minutes With ... Billy Conyers

Customers this Halloween didn’t spirit away vehicles from the used car outlet at 2250 Savannah Highway, but they came close. Try autos for $5.

A marketing move, Hoover Pre-Owned Supercenter attracted large crowds to the Oct. 31 event, where four motorists got the deals of a lifetime. Yet the dealership had another reason for the promotion: it’s a tough economy in the Charleston area and elsewhere, and this was a way for an established family-run business to lend a hand.

“It helped out people in the community,” said Billy Conyers, general sales manager. “We all need transportation.” The dealership may try the $5 car deals again “in the near future,” he said.

“We had people camping out,” sales manager Chris Massarotto said.

What’s interesting is Hoover Automotive Group went through a struggle of its own this May, as Chrysler said it would end franchise agreements with 789 stores nationwide, including two Hoover locations — its flagship West Ashley outlet and one on Trolley Road in Summerville.

In the aftermath, Hoover Automotive consolidated its new car operations at a second Dorchester County outlet on Marymeade Drive and its Moncks Corner store.

The company also had to make a decision about the Savannah Highway lot. In short order, Hoover Automotive chose to rebuild its inventory and sales volume as a used car hub. The move, at least this far, has proven prescient. In less than six months and without new signs, the outlet has climbed to 300 vehicles on the lot.

“We have more inventory now than we ever had,” said Conyers, who has 25 years experience in the car business locally. There’s all types of models from “$1,000 to $40,000 to $50,000 ones.”

And if someone wants a model not located on the premises, “We can find anything,” he said. The outlet is using “proprietary (computer) software” that pinpoints where to secure lower mileage used cars in good condition that can be purchased wholesale for not a lot of money, said Mark Hoover, general manager of Hoover Chrysler Dodge Jeep.

The Supercenter, situated on U.S. Highway 17 South just west of the Interstate 526 on-ramp, is gradually rebuilding loyalty with customers looking to buy or sell a car. “People thought we were closed,” Conyers said. “Hoover has been here for 40 years.”

Mark Hoover said, “A lot of the public doesn’t think you can get a car right now.”

Along with sales know-how, the store has another set of assets. Those are the existing service, parts and body shops. The dealership continues to work on vehicles — not just Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps but most any brand — in its 21-bay garage. Adjacent is the parts center. And Hoover has one of the most active body shops in the region. The outlet, which dates back more than two decades, even handles body work on vehicles sent from competing dealerships.

All told, the used car center has 35 employees.

Meanwhile, the store is using its showroom to display low-mileage used cars. Recently, the vehicles were a Pontiac Solstice sports car and a 2005 Chrysler Crossfire SRT 6.

Eventually signs will go up touting Hoover Pre-Owned Supercenter. The company currently is waiting on permits, Conyers said.

According to its top brass, the outlet already is a 'super' center. “We sell and work on anything,” Massarotto said.

Said Hoover, “We are completely new.”

Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com