Doug Knust wants all dealers' voices heard

Doug Knust makes it his business to make sure that the business interests of small-store dealers are represented in discussions at the National Automobile Dealers Association.

The president of Harry K Chevrolet-Buick in Oacoma, S.D., and of Harry K Ford-Lincoln in Winner, S.D., has taken on the unofficial and self-appointed role of advocate for dealers in small and rural communities.

"It's so easy to think that "everybody is just like me' when it comes to being a car dealer whether I'm a big car dealer [in terms of sales volume] or a medium car dealer or a small car dealer," said Knust, the NADA director representing South Dakota.

Knust sells 275 new and 325 used cars and trucks annually at both his stores combined. He is in good company.

In fact, about 40 percent of NADA members sell 300 or fewer new cars and trucks a year, he said.

"In many small communities across our country, they're doing the same work that the big dealers are doing in the metropolitan areas, and they're keeping people from having to get in their car and drive 20, 40, 60, 100 or more miles to go have an oil change or have service work done," Knust said.

According to Knust, dealers in small and rural communities have a lot in common with those who own larger groups or stores in metropolitan areas. Their concerns are generally the same but with a twist. 

Stair-step incentives, the bane of most dealers, are doubly difficult for dealers in rural and small communities because their economies are often dependent on one or two industries such as agriculture. 

If the local industry falls on hard times, factory goals for stair-step incentives, which may be built on the previous year's sales, are unachievable, he said. 

Knust said dealers with small-volume stores generally dislike mandatory dealership upgrades. 

Besides the upgrades being costly and dictated by the factory, dealers in small communities must deal with small-town pettiness and jealousy that come with "everybody knows everybody," Knust said. 

When local residents see a dealer spending money on what they perceive as unnecessary upgrades, they question whether they want to continue to do business with that dealer, he said. 

"Everybody's business is everybody's business in a small town," said Knust, who sees and sits next to a lot of his customers at church, ballgames and chamber of commerce meetings. 

"Unless you've lived in a small town, that's really difficult to understand and appreciate."