Automobile dealership follows traffic

MOSES LAKE — From his office window in his new settings, Jerry Smith sees more traffic than he ever did in his old surroundings.

"If you sit out here and watch this road, the difference between here and where we were is, in about a 15-minute time limit, anytime of the day in the old location, you might have seen 10 cars drive by on Pioneer Way," he said. "Because this is your main road from town coming up, from Ephrata coming up to the freeway, and Othello, Warden, Spokane, if you look out here, there's probably, I would say, 40 cars every 15 minutes goes by. It's impressive. And yes, I'm going to draw hopefully half of them in here."

Smith is the general manager of Ponderosa Nissan, which moved from its longtime location at 1200 S. Pioneer Way to new facilities at 2311 S. Maiers Road March 1.

"With car business being what it is today, we needed a little more modern store with more modern technology," Smith said. "Between (owner Mark) Loy and Nissan, they decided to build a new building."

Smith said Loy has owned the business for 15 years. Smith started out 11 years ago as a salesperson, moving into positions as sales manager, and manager of the business' Ellensburg location, assuming in February 2006 the general manager position of both the Moses Lake and Ellensburg location. The Loys also have a Ford dealership in Cheney.

The move to the new facility increases Nissan's sales, service and parts capabilities. Smith invites customers to come walk through the new building, whether they want to buy a car or not.

"It's just an impressive building," he said. "I believe my show room is state of the art."

Many automotive dealerships are moving to the same area of town.

"Moses Lake is growing," Smith said. "In this business you have to be where your traffic is, because most of the people want the convenience of being able to pull into your dealership. This area right here is really building. This is going to be a nice location."

The dealership employs 11, and Smith expects to increase the number to 20.

"There'll be so much traffic here, I'll just have to have that many more," he said.

Traffic has already increased into the dealership, with the customer base doubling since the new facilities opened.

"We've been running on an average between about 13 and 21 people a day," Smith said. "Which is impressive."

Smith's enjoyment of the business is two things — his long-standing passion for cars and talking with people.

"Just being able to see every kind of car made, (they) will come on my lot at one point in time so I can drive them," he said. "And in Grant County, I've probably talked in 11 years to probably 90 percent of the people in this county. You get to meet a lot of people. People come in, their needs are looking at new cars and buying new cars, and I've gotten to help a lot of people buy new cars. And I enjoy doing that."