By Kay Harris
VALDOSTA — The dealership formerly known as Sunny Honda-Kia has officially changed hands.
As of June 1, the dealership on North Ashley Street became Langdale Honda-Kia of Valdosta, reflecting a change of ownership and a shift in philosophy.
New owners, attorney Pope Langdale and his longtime friend Brad Cobb, along with general manager Lee Schilly, are implementing a renewed emphasis on customer service and salesmanship while respecting the traditions of the decades-old dealership.
Langdale, a senior partner with Langdale/Vallotton law firm, said that although he’s never been in the car business, he brings an element to the new venture that the others don’t have — the ability to see things as a customer would.
“I don’t understand all the car lingo yet. They’re teaching me, but I know customer service as that’s what I do in my business, too,” Langdale said.
When asked why he wanted to enter the car business, Langdale said he and his father were always looking for new ventures, or adventures, as the case may be.
Sharing a very congenial relationship with friend and former classmate, Brad Cobb, Langdale said the two are helping reinvigorate the dealership. The two met while students at McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn., where Cobb makes his home. He began working for his father-in-law in the car business more than 15 years ago, and today oversees the operations of four dealerships in the Chattanooga area, including Toyota, Honda, Audi and Volkswagen.
Schilly is managing the daily operations of the dealership, and said he is excited to be using “new management ideas and new techniques. We are taking customer satisfaction to another level.”
The signs on the dealership still say Sunny, but new signage is on order and should be up in the next 30 days. The partners plan to do some renovation and repair work on the showrooms, but nothing major at this point, including no plans to relocate the dealership to another area.
“We could move, but this is such an established location. Everybody knows that Honda is down here on Ashley Street and we don’t want to lose that,” said Cobb.
One of the new programs which will be implemented at the dealership was brought to Cobb by an old friend, Hugh Hathcock of Fresh Beginnings in Valdosta.
“Hugh has a company called ELead, which offers a software program to track customer service and do followups. We are really going to be stressing customer satisfaction,” Cobb said.
Langdale said one of the advantages of the dealership is that they are selling two of the hottest, most desired cars on the market right now — Honda and Kia. “Hondas have proven that they are reliable, safe, have low mileage, plus they hold their value well,” said Langdale.
Schilly said Kia has expanded its offerings and now has eight models that are fuel efficient and reasonably priced.
When asked about doing business in this economy, all said the sales in the past month have been terrific and they are looking forward to a rebound in the economy.
And although financing may be an issue for some, Honda still does its own financing for car buyers.
Langdale said there will be a grand opening for the dealership in about a month or so after all the signage is up and everything’s been refurbished, including the Web site.
“We want to be the pre-eminent car dealership in Valdosta,” he said.
