N.Y. dealer finds commercial niche

Chris Mackey, managing member of Mackey Auto Group, distinctly remembers when he decided servicing commercial vehicles at his Ford dealership wasn’t going to cut it.

Mackey, who formed the group in February 2019 with his son, Christopher, after having bought a Ford and a Subaru dealership, was not long into his store ownership when he had the revelation.

“It was 90 degrees. We had an ambulance and we had a motor home in the middle of August in our parking lot,” Mackey recalled. “I had two technicians with these huge vehicles up on jack stands melting in the sun. I looked at them and said, ‘One of these guys is gonna get hurt.’ That moment the alarm went off and I said, ‘Wait a second — we’re not the only one with this problem.’

“And I took a complete gamble.”

For Mackey Auto, the gamble was purchasing and renovating a 26,800-square-foot former FedEx warehouse a mile away from the Ford and Subaru dealerships in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and turning it into a commercial service center. It also houses the group’s headquarters and space for a vintage and exotic vehicle sales business.

The group spent around $4 million for the property, building and renovation costs to turn about half of the warehouse into the service center complete with 12 lifts, an exhaust system and an oil dispensing system — among other features.

The service center space had a soft opening last fall, Mackey said.

It didn’t take long for the business to take off; the group is already planning to invest more to expand its service capacity.

“We’re busting at the seams, we really are,” Mackey told Automotive News. “And the commercial customers that were always our customers love this because they’re not standing in line with five people with an Escape and Explorer talking about a jingle in the trunk. These people come in, they drop their keys and they go. We’re one of the only centers in the area that can align a motor home or these extended wheelbase trucks.

“The commercial customer knows they’re being catered to here.”

About 75 to 80 percent of the center’s customners are new, Mackey said. Some have come to the service center after being turned away from other Ford dealerships in the area because of a lack of equipment or interest in the job.

Mackey estimated about 90 percent of the vehicles being brought in for service, which ranges from routine maintenance to engine overhauls, are Ford vehicles.

The Adirondack Mountains, a popular upstate New York travel destination, are less than two hours north of Saratoga Springs. Mackey said the center attracts some of those travelers with campers and motor homes, which often are supplied with Ford engines, transmissions and chassis.

“We have customers that are traveling here from Binghamton, N.Y., [and up] by the Canadian border,” he said. “We have a company that’s based in New Hampshire that’s three hours from here that’s sending their entire fleet here.”

Other fleet customers include companies such as Best Buy and Frito-Lay, but also a home appliance repair company and local municipalities, Mackey said.

Mackey previously was vice president at New Country Motor Car Group before retiring from the group in 2019. In 2020, Mackey Auto bought a Chevrolet store in Middlebury, Vt., and acquired another Chevrolet dealership in Greenwich, N.Y., in December 2021.

The group sells about 200 new and used vehicles per month, Mackey said.

The commercial service center has nine employees, including six technicians. Mackey Auto has not been immune to the industrywide shortage of technicians, either.

“We could double the business we’re already doing here tomorrow if we had the techs,” Mackey said of the center, which takes in around 12 to 15 new repair orders a day.

Mackey described the business as a profitable niche and well worth the large investment.

“Mechanical labor gross is probably up on average $40,000 to $50,000 a month,” Mackey said. “Then you’ve got the parts on that also. We, for sure, have covered our nut and made some.”

Despite the technician shortage, Mackey is going ahead with plans to invest more capital and space into the center.

Mackey Auto plans to add about another 5,000 square feet of usable space to the service center by April 2023 at a cost of about $250,000 to $300,000. He thinks the group will spend about the same amount when it completes the service center build-out in the spring of 2025.

By that point, the building will house just Mackey Auto’s corporate office and a 24-bay service center.

That number of bays is important because it’s the amount required by Ford Motor Co. for a service center to be Ford Pro certified, Mackey noted.

“Our goal is to turn this into the Ford Pro center,” Mackey said, “and brand the whole building Ford Pro.”