Scott Pharr closed on his first dealership on Aug. 10, just hours before a tornado slammed into Chesterton, Indiana.
It was far from the start he envisioned after a long journey to owning his own dealership, Pharr Nissan of Chesterton.
“I think this is just another challenge from God. I mean, he made me wait 28 and a half years,” Pharr told Daily Dealer Live host Sam D’Arc. “I think, you know, what’s another month.”
Here’s what happened: Pharr was previously with P4 Automotive in Indiana.
After years of longing for his own dealership, he received a call with an opportunity to buy the Nissan dealership in the neighboring county where he grew up in Northwest Indiana.
He had talked with a previous owner about acquiring the store, but they chose to divest of the entire nine-store group.
When contacted by the OEM, he was given a couple of weeks to make the deal.
“I immediately said, ‘Well, yes, I want to do this,’’ Pharr said. “But I’d been down this path a couple of times as an individual, and it’s so damn hard.”
From there: Pharr said that it took cash, creditworthiness, and a proven track record of success.
When asked how much capital it takes to buy a store, he suggested: “north of two commas.”
He noted that winning stores are not for sale or the ones available for building a resume.
“You got to go take the 60-car Chevy store that should be doing 15 and make it do 200, and then you can become somebody,” Pharr said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever taken over a great store that was just checking all the boxes, and winning, and firing all cylinders. I think I’ve been a rebuild specialist my whole career. Quite honestly, I get bored when it’s fixed.”
Before this deal: Previous attempts to buy stores got hung up by real estate or floorplanning.
Pharr noted the difficulties of floorplanning as a new owner, with banks stating it has to go through the OEM.
Still, he was no stranger to the Nissan brand, overseeing four Nissan stores as the regional ops director for a group in North Carolina, and received positive feedback when visiting about buying the dealership.
“Every conversation that I had with Nissan was that they wanted a dealer that wanted to be here. This particular store has changed hands four times since 2018. I’m the fourth owner since 2018, plus one or two failed purchases.”
Ominous start: The transaction closed on Aug. 10, and Nissan and vendor reps were there the next day when “all hell broke loose” at 11:15 a.m., according to Pharr.
That was when a tornado hit the community, an incident the area is still recovering from three weeks later, with some businesses still not open.
“We were shut down until the following Monday,” he said. “I sat at the dealership every day from eight in the morning til eight at night in the dark, Tuesday through Saturday, just handing out water bottles and greeting the power workers that were coming in to check on us… So definitely not how I saw my 28-year chase of buying my own store starting.”
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Getting back up to speed: After the storm and getting the electricity back on, it took a few more days to get the internet operating and more than a week to get the phone lines restored.
There’s been no advertising outside of social media posts because of the limited ways for customers to reach the store after the storm.
Pharr explained that customers were reaching out through email and social media, asking about service.
The store had 28 total visitors since the storm, with Pharr saying 22 have gone home with new cars.
“If they come in, they’re going home in a car because we’re making every deal we can,” Pharr said.
Worth noting: Pharr made the purchase of this shop without an investor, explaining, “If it was a game of poker, I’m all in.”
He noted that, in the past, Nissan was a “tough OEM partner” but has worked to remove obstacles for dealers through the growth objective program, Nissan One.
He simplified it, saying if a dealer hits 80% of their objective, they make X, and then another amount for reaching 100%.
“Dealer confidence has come back,” Pharr said.
Firm goals: Despite the slow start caused by the tornado, Pharr is confident the store can match, and eventually go beyond, the previous ownership’s output.
“I’ve got the right inventory. I’ve got the right mix,” Pharr said. “This should be a 125- to 150-car store.”
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