Texas Quality Dealer: Industry Veteran Phil Lathrop Earn Honor

Industry veteran and activist, Phillip Lathrop, has earned the 2010 Texas IADA Quality Dealer of the Year Award during the association’s annual convention last month.

Lathrop, owner of VP Auto Sales in Garland, Texas, sells about 40 buy here-pay here units a month, which is actually down from the 130 units a month he sold in 2007 and early 2008. He has one location, 14 employees and a portfolio of about 650 accounts.

He joined the retail industry as a new car salesperson in 1976, and continued in that business until 1998, when he left his position as a franchise dealership general manger, and opened his own lot in Garland.

He opened the dealership with his partner Vernon Schoemaker, owner of Toyota of Irving. Lathrop runs all day-to-day operations.

“We first opened as a retail store because we had a bank willing to buy ‘C’ paper, but that ended fairly quickly and within nine months we were selling strictly BHPH deals,” Lathrop said.

He said downsizing his sales operations in the fall of 2008 was necessary as the recession cranked up.

“I began lengthy discussions with my fellow Leedom Twenty Group members at the time, and I saw they were making more money selling fewer units and I had to move in that direction,” Lathrop said.

Over the years, Lathrop’s operation has been a family operation with both a son, Graham, having worked at the dealership off and on. He said he has always enjoyed the business, but, at times, it has been a challenge.

For instance, Lathrop is currently involved in a battle with the City of Garland, which wants to change the automotive overlay district. Lathrop helped to organize a group of dealers, which has grown to 70 members, and currently serves as the group’s secretary-treasurer. His dealership has also been very supportive of the local school district, the Future Farmers of American and the local boy’s basketball team.

“It’s so important to give back to community in which you and your business resides,” he said. “It’s just the right thing to do.”

Lathrop has been very active with both the Texax IADA and the Dallas-area IADA over the years. He has served on a variety of special committees. He was instrumental in bringing about a change in the way buy here-pay here related finance companies can defer sales tax, which made the business more beneficial for nearly every buy here-here pay here dealer in the state. He was also on the Texas IADA Class-Action Lawsuit committee, which was able to fend off a potential suit that would have negatively affected every dealer in the state.

“Phil Lathrop is a great person and a fine business operator,” said Chuck Bonanno, Lathrop’s Leedom Twenty Group moderator. “He’s been instrumental in getting important legislation passed on behalf of car dealers throughout Texas. He hasn’t done it for the attention or for any accolades, he did it because it was the right thing to do for dealers and our industry.”

Lathrop said his Twenty Group involvement has been an important part of his business. He had his first contact with Leedom Group training programs in the mid-1990s and joined a Twenty Group in 2004.

“If I had done it earlier I would have been far more successful in my business,” he said. “Joining a Twenty Group takes you out of isolation. You see other dealers who’ve been at it for 10 or 15 years and they’re doing things another way. Suddenly, what you considered impossible, is now possible.”

Lathrop sees many opportunities for buy here-pay here dealers in 2010.

“We should have more quality customers to choose from,” he said. “Consumers are taking their credit history much more seriously, even in our market segment. They want to pay their loans on time to try and raise their credit scores. That bodes well for us. If the economy improves significantly in 2010, we’ll look at ramping up growth, but for right now we’re content where we are.”

Lathrop will compete with all the other state IADA Quality Dealers for the 2010 NIADA Quality Dealer of the Year Award during the association’s annual convention in June in Las Vegas.