BEST PRE-OWNED AUTO DEALERSHIP
Cox Motors
New business sees success Cox Motors may be new to Park Hills, but it hasn’t taken the community long to embrace the pre-owned car dealership. March was the best month yet for the dealership, which opened last June, and on top of that, they have been named the Parkland’s Best PreOwned Auto Dealership. “As you see, after the last month, we are sold out,” Owner Jason Cox said of his depleted inventory. He said most of his business is from referrals. “Probably 70% of our business is from either repeat customers or friends and family of our customers because they’re happy with the experience,” he said. “They’re happy with the quality vehicle that they’re getting and the overall experience. Here it’s just really different, unique, and positive.” Cox said their personable approach sets them apart from other dealerships. “There’s no smoke and mirrors,” he added. “We’re not salesmen by any means. We’re just normal every-day, local people who are selling other normal every-day, local people cars. “We don’t have anything to hide. We’ve worked very hard to have the nicest cars possible. We probably spend more time and more money on reconditioning than any other dealership around and keep a very high caliber vehicle.” The dealership was originally located in Ironton, where Cox opened it in 2017. Once he and his wife moved to the Park Hills area, he decided to move the business, too, and change things a bit. “We’re keeping different cars than what we had over
Owner Jason Cox and Manager Casey Blumenstock offer financing options at Cox Motors in Park Hills. there,” he explained. “We have a lot of financing opportunities where that was pretty much a cash-only lot. We only kept five cars in inventory over there versus now we try to keep around 15 to 20 on the lot.” Cox is not new to the car business. Before opening his own lot in 2017, he worked at a few dealerships in the area and then started working at a large franchise dealership in St. Louis. But the commute and the long hours started to be too much. So he decided to start his own. “I learned the business inside (and) out pretty well working in the St. Louis market and knew that I could do it on my own,” he said. His experience running a finance department at one of the dealerships has allowed him to bring on several of the banks to help with financing
at his Park Hills business. They offer a credit reestablishment program and a first-time buyers program. Cox said they mainly offer newer cars with decent mileage that are $10,000 and under. But he does keep a few “exotic” vehicles in stock, such as sports cars, classic cars, and motorcycles. “We literally sell as many as what we have on our lot every month,” he added. “We’re turning our inventory very fast. Typically a car’s in inventory here about two weeks. That’s on the long end.” He said the pandemic has made it tough to find cars with many dealerships holding onto used cars longer because they don’t have as many new cars coming in. COVID has slowed down production for many car manufacturers. Cox said they also buy cars from customers.
He already has plans to expand. He has bought a piece of land across from the dealership to build a service shop that he hopes to open this summer. “It will be open to the public, as well,” he said. “It’s not going to be just for our dealership cars. We’re going to specialize in oil changes and general maintenance.” Cox is also a police officer in north St. Louis County, so he said the business is very pro law enforcement. Casey Blumenstock, manager of the dealership and the only other employee, is married to a police officer. Cox Motors, located at 3326 Commonwealth Drive, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. But Cox said he is also open to appointments outside of those hours.
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