My father was a natural salesman. Over the span of his life he sold a lot of different things. His various businesses put him in line to operate franchised dealerships for Piper aircraft, Cessna aircraft, John Deere farm machinery, Farmall farm machinery, Purina feeds, Simplot fertilizers, DeLavall dairy equipment., Jeep vehicles, General tires, Cooper tires, Jacuzzi pumps, Crisafulli dredges and pumps, Meyer snowplows, and dozens of other brands. He bought and sold used airplanes, vehicles, and machinery. He was known in our small town as a solid businessman and a fair dealer. During my high school and early college years, my father briefly entertained the notion that I might follow him into his businesses. I soloed in an airplane and became a licensed pilot as soon as I was old enough and I worked summer jobs in the family business. He never pressured me to take over the family business, but he shared with me some of how his businesses worked and talked to me about his philosophies of business.

He spoke of machinery and vehicle dealerships as “three legged stools.” The three legs of the stool are sales, service, and parts. Each leg is important and must be strong in order for a dealership to survive. Strength, however, doesn’t mean that each needs to be bringing in huge profits because they all work together. In his businesses at that time, sales were the profit centers. New machinery and vehicle sales were supported by a shop that kept those machines and vehicles working and producing income for farmers. That shop, in turn was supported by a parts inventory that kept repair and down time to a minimum. There were times when he didn’t care if he was turning a profit on service or parts because the overall business was turning a profit and salaries were being paid for employees from active sales. New sales meant that customers had to have ways to get value from their trade-in vehicles and equipment. Once again, large profits were not needed in used sales if new sales were the key drivers of the business.

Of course, my father sold his aircraft business before the product liability crisis of the 1980’s brought general aviation sales to a standstill. He sold his machinery, vehicle, and feed businesses before the farm crisis of the 1980’s drove major machinery businesses to bankruptcy. He didn’t live to see the double punch effect of the Covid-19 punch that drastically reduced manufacturing while sales plummeted and supply chain issues made resupply impossible emptying the showrooms and sales lots of car dealerships.

I did not inherit my father’s love of sales. I have never worked in a retail business. I have had a life of ministry in the church and I have taken great delight in my career path. But I learned enough from my father and have gained enough from being a customer to understand some of the dynamics of vehicle dealerships. So I get it. I understand that sales continue to be slow in the automobile industry. Dealers could sell more cars if they could get more inventory. However, in order to keep their dealerships in business they have been forced to raise the prices of parts and service. The profits from parts and service are needed to do more than keep those areas of the dealership going. They need to pay overhead costs that allow the dealership to remain active selling new and used vehicles and reduced profits.

Still, I continue to experience sticker shock when I take my vehicles to the shop for service. Yesterday I took my pickup to a dealership for routine service. There were no problems that were preventing me from driving it. I simply wanted to be proactive and have service provided that would help keep the vehicle from major repairs and problems. The service involved a few parts: a belt, a gasket, some filters, and fluids including oil and antifreeze. It took less than eight hours of labor to complete the work. The bill was just under $2,000. A simple oil change, performed in less than 15 minutes is well over $100 these days, and double that for a diesel pickup.

Part of the cost is the result of choices we have made. We choose to purchase used vehicles and to drive them for many years into high mileage. The vehicle is a dozen years old. It has been well maintained, but it has accumulated a lot of miles. And we choose not to carry extended warranties. While repair insurance policies can result in big payoffs, we feel that in general another for profit business - maintenance insurance and warranties - results in more total expense than simply paying for repairs as they are needed. However, it would take less than 20 trips to the shop at that price to exceed the acquisition cost of the vehicle. It won’t be the first vehicle we have owned where we have spent more on maintenance than we did on purchase.

Still the rise in maintenance costs over the past four years is staggering, and I retired in that time so I’ve become a bit less of an active participant in the economy of inflation. My income doesn’t keep up with some of the rises in expenses in our current lifestyle. I’m all in favor of independent vehicle dealerships and locally-owned businesses. I try to support them as part of my purchase choices. However, I don’t want to be the only customer who is propping up the business. It feels like the profit from yesterday’s maintenance on my vehicle produced enough profit to pay the light bill for a whole month at the dealership. Judging from the line of vehicles at the service department in the morning, however, I know I’m not the only one who wrote a big check yesterday. OK I didn’t pay with a check, I used a card, sharing some of that profit with an inflated banking industry.

And I know that every time one of those independent dealers ceases to make a profit the only way out is to sell that dealership to a larger chain of dealerships that invest fewer profits in the local economy and export profits to support additional acquisition and corporate growth. That in turn drives prices up even more. I also know, however, that costs will continue to affect my decisions about travel and even what type of vehicles to own.

I’m glad I chose a career in the nonprofit world. It hasn’t made me rich in money. It has, however, helped me avoid the complexities of the boom and bust cycles of dealerships. I’m pretty sure that had I taken over my father’s businesses, they would have long since gone broke.