U Haul Dealership - Good Idea?

[PAPShop]

The "in town" U Haul dealership went out of business - their other business, not the U Haul part - and we have been approached to take it over.

 

Is anyone else an independent U Haul dealership?

 

Pros and cons? We are in doing due diligence and researching everything about it.

[HarrytheCarGeek]

Great opportunity! It's a money maker for one of my guys.

 

The cons? Oh, boy, the things you see come through.

[defiancetire]

I'm interested as well

[phynny]

NOT AT ALL! I did this for a couple years and it's so lop sided and frustrating for the tiny bit of cash it brings in.

[carolinahigear]

Whenever I see a shop with U-Haul's I have these thoughts:

 

1) Client cars could be using those parking spaces

 

2) A heck of a LOT of aggravation for little money ** Think 1st of month renters moving, etc.

 

3) Dealing with non-client folks that probably will never spend money with you on their cars

 

4) The shop must not have very much business if they need to rent U-hauls. I wonder why they don't have much business.

 

5) See item #2

 

6) Just my 2 cents

[lmcca]

we had a shop across from us do it........for a few months, i think you get screwed doing it.

[HarrytheCarGeek]

Ok, here is the feedback from my guy:

 

Commission is about 20% of gross sales, he does about $15K week in sales which works out to about $3k in revenue for him.

 

The neg, people leave all kinds of stuff in those trucks. Some are even used for crimes, and you have to be careful to keep excellent records.

[PAPShop]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Very good food for thought. Since we operate under a zoning conditional use, we are taking it to the city to see if it is against our CUP.

[Bob K]

Did it for 1.4 years. I do not recommend doing it. It takes you away from your core business. Glad I had the opportunity but it wasn't worth the hassle. All the negative comments by the others in this thread are accurate.

[UsedTireShop]

The original guy went out of business for a reason.

[xrac]

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[Dustin Rutkowski]

Not really worth it. Been doing it for 3 years and I'm about to drop them. Takes way too much space and time from business with very little return.

[PAPShop]

The original guy went out of business for a reason.

You are required to have a second business, the original guy tacked his UHaul onto his wife's business selling purses and women's accessories. When she passed away, her business closed and he lost the UHaul franchise.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. The owner wants to test it and see what happens.

Edited June 20, 2016 by PAPShop