“The number of dealerships we have right now is right in line with where the market is,” Martin said.
The Centerville site operated as Planet Ford until January 2010, when the dealership merged with Fairfield Ford. Owner Martin then opened three local Thrifty lots, renaming the Centerville lot on Alex-Bell Road Thrifty Car Sales of Centerville.
Martin also opened Thrifty lots at 1575 Miamisburg-Centerville Road (the former Lincoln-Mercury of Dayton) and on Ohio 235 South in New Carlisle (the former New Carlisle Chevrolet). Martin said the motorsports business in New Carlisle will remain open.
Martin also said he wanted to focus on selling new vehicles, and used vehicles on lots where the focus is new vehicles. He declined to provide figures, but he said the Thrifty lots outperformed the surrounding market.
“I think it’s a great model,” Martin said of Thrifty. “(But) I think for our company, I didn’t think we could manage it in the way we like to manage new car dealerships.”
He estimated that his company still has about 100 Dayton-area employees. He said employees at the closed Thrifty stores were transferred to other Martin-owned dealerships.
Cornelius Martin got his start in the Dayton area when he opened what was Saturn of Dayton (now Subaru of Dayton) in 1991.
The Thrifty brand name is owned by Tulsa, Okla.-based Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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