Business View Magazine | April/May 2022

115 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 RENO BUI CK GMC CADI LLAC often – usually once a month – teaming up with different community organizations and charities. Much of those activities, however, slowed down due to Nevada’s COVID restrictions. “We’ve become golf event Extraordinaires,” Hoel laughs, “because those events are outside.” They were still able to entertain people and show off their inventory. But there is a slight downside: “In the last couple of years, we’ve had to use personal vehicles at those events. So, we keep our fingers crossed that no one hits a hole in one and drives away in my truck!” Customers have even more choices now, since Hoel and Green opened a Mitsubishi franchise right next door to their Reno Buick GMC Cadillac dealership in October of 2021. “We’re pretty excited about it,” Hoel says, “because Mitsubishi hits a whole different market demographic in Reno and Northern Nevada that we really haven’t been able to serve.” Even with very little advertising, they’ve averaged about 30 Mitsubishi sales a month since November. They’ve got big marketing plans for the future, including lots of fun events. They are just waiting to land some more inventory. Like many industries, car sales look a bit different these days. Inventory isn’t great. “We haven’t had a new car on the lot since July of 2020,” Hoel shares. They are receiving new vehicles regularly (about 40-60% of their normal rate) but they are all spoken for by the time they arrive. The waiting list is long. Folks call from all over the country, looking for Escalades or Yukons. Hoel says they’ve filled about half of their Escalade orders. He adds, “I don’t see it clearing up anytime soon. We’re hearing from insiders that we aren’t going to see ground stock for the remainder of the year.” Garrett Green believes that the shortage of new inventory benefits the consumer because they are retaining value in their vehicles instead of taking a 40-50% hit a year or two after purchasing their car. “Now vehicles are valued where they should be,” he says. “I hope that