Marc Garvey’s 2 daughters now own 90% of the auto dealerships

By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor

Sisters Shannon Garvey Bruhns, 39, and Kyle Garvey, 36, are now “dealers in principal,” each owning 45% of Garvey Hyundai in Queensbury and Garvey Nissan in Rutland, Vermont.

Their father Marc’s remaining 10% is slim compared to the daughters’ combined 90%. If the two daughters agree on something, they easily outvote him.

But if they disagree, Marc’s 10% breaks the tie. “That’s why it’s set up the way it is,” said Shannon.

She said that as far as their taking over the business, “we always have talked about it — my father, Kyle and I. We’re always on the same page. And I think that’s our strength.

“When we made the ownership change with my dad and his brother [splitting into separate dealerships], we just kind of started making plans for it.”

Marc’s brother Sean now has the Garvey Kia and Volkswagen dealership on Quaker Road.

Shannon says after high school, “I went off to college in Boston, and I got my master’s degree [in “applied behavior analysis”] at Northeastern and kind of did my own thing — until I got a great opportunity to go to South Korea and work for Hyundai Capital.

“I was over there for about six weeks, and I was immersed in this culture over there — that I just was like, ‘All right, Dad, I’m ready. I’m ready to be involved in business.’” That was 11 years ago.

Kyle says, “I also went off to college out in Boston, 10 minutes away from my sister and then I decided to come home.”

“I started at Volkswagen Kia, and I worked in every department. And 18 years later, here I am…It was just interesting learning each department, and learning how departments make money, and just the whole” operation.

Shannon says she wondered at first about her career shift. “I was making great money using my degree. I was like, did I waste all these years of studying and working in this field?

“And I’m like, geez, well, I really want to be in the family business too. But when I came in, I realized the psych background is so important, because a lot of my job is managing people and talking with people and working with all of our employees. So I realized it was not a penny wasted at all.”

Are there disadvantages as women owning a car dealership? “There’s not a lot of us,” said Shannon. “Kyle and I go to all the dealer meetings, local or when they’ve got their big ones in Vegas. We just were at one in Boston, and there’s just not a lot of women.”

But she adds, “Hyundai has expressed excitement about having women owners, and I think that in this day and age, we’re just going to try to use that as an advantage, like we are.”

She said, “We’re doing spots this month showcasing women in business, Kyle and I being owners. And I think there’s at least 40% of our staff being women, almost half, which is really incredible in the automobile industry, because it’s so male dominated. So we’re really proud about that.”

Shannon said, “I feel based on our numbers, because we are number one in our market, and have been for quite some time, our colleagues are always asking, What are you guys doing?

“So I think in some ways, it makes us stand out, and I’m always happy to share our stories and our successes, and I’m also always happy to learn from other people too.”

As far as divvying responsibilities, Shannon says, “Kyle’s sort of managing the store [on Dix Avenue]. And she’s still doing used car management, because her forte is used cars.

“I really run the Nissan store [in Rutland], so essentially the General Manager, but I’m here every day at Hyundai too, so that question’s always a tough one when people ask. Because it’s not just one thing —we do a lot of different things and help out wherever we need.”

Sale of electric vehicles has been very different in their two stores ­— torrid in Rutland, ice cold in Queensbury.

In Vermont, Shannon says financial incentives sent the EV market into overdrive. “You had the state incentives, and then you had the manufacturer incentives. So sometimes you had anywhere between maybe $10,000 to maybe $16,000 of money to go against the lease. And if you’ve got a short term lease, payment just shrinks right down.”

She said a customer’s monthly lease payment went as low as “$5, if you qualified for all the incentives.

“Five bucks a month whether it was a 24 month lease or an 18 month lease. You’re almost getting the car for nothing, and customers were like, ‘you know what? This is my opportunity to try out an EV, and does this fit my lifestyle?’ So people were taking advantage of it.

“We were number one in EV sales in the Northeast for September and October, and that was a huge accomplishment, and it was just these customers — if they qualified for all the incentives, how do you say no to a $5 payment?”

Shannon notes even at that price “you also had people try to negotiate the $5.”

Alas, Shannon says, “Vermont just ran out of money. We lost the state incentive on October 8, so the car payment is now in the two hundreds,” per month, lease.

In the Glens Falls store, they said they see far less demand for electric vehicles, and earlier state incentives ended.

Overall, “I think right now is getting back to pre-Covid car selling, if that makes sense,” Shannon said. “It’s tougher to sell. Everybody wants to negotiate again. During Covid, because inventory was low, people weren’t negotiating. People were coming in buying cars at sticker. We never sold above MSRP. We’re very proud of that.(MSRP is Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.)

“But we are kind of back to this negotiating with a customer, and with the interest rates being so high and inflation, customers are coming in saying, ‘I want to keep my payment the same,’ and it’s really impossible….People are still wrapping their head around” what prices are now.

“The average monthly payment’s like $650, $700, so that’s the biggest struggle, and a lot of our customers are payment driven. So we’ve got to figure out how we can explain to the customer and show the customer that this isn’t the same car buying experience two years ago, and especially the last five years.

“We’ve got to educate and continuously train our sales staff to make sure that they’re educating the customer — going back to the basics too, of taking that customer around their car when we’re doing the trade appraisal, and you know, if there’s damage or it needs new tires. Who’s going to pay for those tires?”

Kyle adds, “Sometimes it’s difficult too, because there’s all these sources telling people what they should buy cars for, what their car is worth.

“But obviously, those people aren’t selling cars, and those people aren’t buying cars, so it’s a lot of education you have to give to the customer as well, which — we have a great sales staff. We’ve trained them well.”

Finally, any advice for women entering the car business?

“Not to be intimidated,” Shannon said. “I think a lot of women are like, ‘well, I don’t know anything about cars.’

“We just got a couple of new saleswomen that don’t have any automobile experience, but they have great personalities. They’re relatable, and they can sell. We can train them on the car and what the car is all about.

“I think there’s a lot of room for women in this business, and I think having more women around makes the customer feel a lot more comfortable.

“And we’ve got to break some of these stereotypes too. I hate even saying that, because that is a stereotype, but, you know, the negotiation and a pushy salesperson. I feel like we just need to be relatable with these customers and educate them, making sure we’re helping them because that’s a big decision to buy a car. It’s some of the biggest decisions these customers are going to make, besides buying a house.”

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