By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 12, 2021 | A Lawrenceville auto dealer is marking its 50th anniversary this month. Hayes Chrysler-Dodge began operations on Scenic Highway in 1971. Today the Hayes Automotive Group operates another dealership in Gainesville and two more in Baldwin, selling Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. It’s a fourth generation family business, with 14 Hayes men working in the various dealerships. Their biggest seller is Dodge Ram trucks.
The late A.D. Hayes, who died in 2009, originally bought a two-bay service station in Decatur, and started Hayes Auto Service in 1953, specializing in repair service. A.D. Hayes first operated with his father, C.A. Hayes, while his brother, Donald Hayes, came on board in 1956 after finishing his industrial engineering study at Southern Tech and completing two year’s service in the Navy. Two years later, C.A. Hayes retired, and Donald bought him out. At its height, that Decatur operation had 14 service and transmission bays, and 30 employees.
The pair of brothers in 1971 purchased a Chrysler-Dodge-Plymouth dealership in Lawrenceville that had been owned by Maxie Price. Donald, now 87, who lives in Buford, remembers that times were tough then. “We lost money for a few years. Back then we might sell 10-12 cars a month.” Today the dealership has 700 vehicles to choose from, selling perhaps 375 cars a month, and in pre-Covid times sales hit 500 a month.
What’s the secret of their success? Dusty Hayes, who lives in Statham, says: “The company has always tried to take good care of its customers, especially in our service department. Most auto dealers don’t come out of service as we do, but out of sales.”
The hardest time for the company was when Chrysler was about to go bankrupt. Donald remembers: “If Jimmy Carter hadn’t made sure that Lee Iacocca got that $1.5 billion government loan, Chrysler may have gone bankrupt, and it would have ruined us. And Iacocca paid the government back every penny. It changed the auto industry.”
In 1980, Hayes moved their dealership to its current Lawrenceville location on Pike Street near Georgia Highway 316. Ted Hayes, who lives in Dacula, says: “We originally bought six acres, and wish we had purchased all the way to the four lane.” The company kept adding on facilities as their business grew and now has 10 acres at the site.
In 1984, Hayes started their Gainesville operation on 10 acres with Chrysler and Jeep products. And in 2001, Hayes bought out Hardy Chevrolet in Toccoa, and eventually moved that operation to 30 acres Highway 365 near Baldwin.
The company has been innovative in selling vehicles. Ted Hayes recalls: “In 2005 Mike Hayes brought Dusty to the Lawrenceville store to work on internet selling, and things started taking off.”
Dusty adds: “We were the first dealership here to wrap our arms around the Internet, and the first in the area to actually list the price of vehicles there. We showed prices before others, and then buyers started coming to see us. Where before customers often took a Saturday to visit several dealerships, today the average customer visits 1.7 dealerships and 98 percent start shopping for vehicles on the internet. ”
Another element of the Hayes Group is their wholesale parts sales, starting in 1996. It’s a 20 hour a day operation, as Hayes sends 24 trucks plus couriers to the four corners of Georgia to repair shops, working out of a central warehouse in Byron. It grossed $2 million a month last year.
Congratulations to the Hayes family dealerships, as their first location marks 50 years of service!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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