Used-car salesman with heart
By RICK BADIE | Thursday, August 2, 2007, 06:00 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He’d been a fraud investigator for three years when his boss suggested he go into business for himself. It was a nice way to tell Ron Rigdon his services were no longer needed.
One day, Rigdon and his wife, Debbie, were driving down West Pike Street in Lawrenceville when traffic slowed. Rigdon spotted a defunct car lot to his right with a “For Rent” sign.
“I looked at Debbie and said, ‘Honey, let’s sell some cars.’ ” he said. “I knew nothing about the car business.”
But this country boy, whose grandfather was the late Mack McCollough, a Lawrenceville police chief, knew how to survive.
With a $20,000 equity line, he launched Ron’s Auto Sales Inc., in 2002. He couldn’t afford to buy any vehicles so he put his 1996 Ford F-150 in the lot. (It wasn’t on the lot long. About a week, selling for $8,200.) He arranged consignment deals with folk trying to sell privately owned vehicles. A family friend who ran a used-car dealership lent Rigdon 10 cars to beef up inventory.
Today, Ron’s Auto Sales is located at 366 W. Pike St., a mere two blocks from its original location. Only difference: The Rigdons own the business.
Last week, the boss of an East Point car dealership apparently snapped and killed two employees who had been hounding him about raises. He told police he had been under a lot of financial stress.
This story got me to thinking about family-run dealerships, how they don’t have the franchise budget to rely on when business goes south. Research led me to Ron’s Auto Sales Inc., where the Badie Tour stopped Wednesday.
Ron Rigdon attributes my visit to divine intervention. He does more than sell cars, but more on that later.
The Rigdons know what it’s like to weather the ups and downs of the used-car business, an industry not for the faint or fickle.
“If you aren’t prepared for the down times — and right now, the times are slow — you’re in trouble,” Debbie Rigdon told me. “[The East Point dealer] probably didn’t have the money to pay his bills.”
And there are many to pay, noted Ron, her husband of 30 years.
“Everybody wants a piece — the parts store, the tire store, the dent repair man, the advertisers, the detailers and the auction house” that you bought the cars from, regardless of whether they sell or not.
Their business expects to sell about 250 cars this year, for a gross revenue of nearly $3 million. July’s been brutal, though. Only 17 vehicles moved.
For the record, I’ve never bought a car from Ron’s. Before venturing out Wednesday, I checked with the Georgia Better Business Bureau and found no record of customer complaints on file.
Ron Rigdon, a Clark Howard fan, abhors the gimmicks, half-truths and hagglings that take place at some franchises, practices that Mark Solheim, automotive writer for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, says sullies the car-buying experience for the consumer and the deal-makers.
Apparently, Ron Rigdon likes helping others. He’s established Circle Heart Racing, a race team in which proceeds benefit Speedway Children’s Charities, a NASCAR-sanctioned nonprofit that supports programs for special-needs kids. Rigdon drives the car on the circuit; sponsors and donors pledge money. His 2007 goal is $10,000 and he’s right at $7,800.
“I wanted my racing to be more than just pleasure for me,” he said. “I want it to mean something.”
For more information about Speedway Children’s Charities, visit
www.speedwaycharities.org or contact Ron Rigdon at 404-925-7350.
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