Posted by Betsy Briggs on Sat, Dec 18, 2010 @ 02:43 PM
We are blessed with the nicest bunch of customers! I don't know how we get them, but we see them every day. They say great things about us on our reviews, they write in nice things when we send them their photo calendars, they even send us thank you notes sometimes! We are blessed and here are a few of our wonderful customers' pictures!
Steven and Ruth T said, "Wonderful company - we will buy all our cars from them!!"
Debra K said, "You made car buying a good experience, thank you and thanks to Sam"
P.S. Auto Buying Service wants to thank everyone who has done business with us and taken the time to write a review for us on Google, Yahoo, or any of the internet search engine/ review sites. It really helps our success! Don't forget to mention to all your friends that we buy cars and sell used cars. We buy trucks - sell trucks - buy vans - sell vans - you get the picture! :)
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Wed, Sep 22, 2010 @ 12:42 PM
Are you selling your vehicle or thinking about trading it in a new one? Call me, Betsy Briggs, for a quick phone estimate on the value of your vehicle 703-849-0080. It only takes about 5 minutes and you may decide to go ahead and sell it to us!
Also, it will give you a starting point for negotions if you choose to sell it, on your own, to an individual. Additionally, I can pull a CARFAX report for you and tell you if there is anything negative you need to be concerned about there. Just call me at 703-849-0080 and tell me you saw our blog and I will help you in any way I can with the sale of your vehicle. Betsy :)
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Wed, Jul 21, 2010 @ 01:58 PM
We want to welcome our newest team member, Mike Green. Mike has been hearing our ad on Christian radio for many years and was impressed with our emphasis on honesty, integrity and fair prices in a family atmosphere. This is the type of dealership he has worked with in the past (30 years with ONE dealership!) so he knew this would be a good fit.
Mike brings many special skills to Auto Buying Service - first and foremost are his strengths in customer service. His experience is broad and covers new and used cars (particularly management), but he has worked in nearly every department of the dealership. We are glad he chose to join the ABS family.
Mike has been married to his wife, Linda, for 37 years and they live locally in Fairfax. He is the father of 4 children (including 2 adopted children), and 1 grandson. He loves spending time with his family whenever possible. Mike also enjoys serving at his local church, Sovereign Grace Church, in Fairfax. He recently helped the church begin a program called "Mercy Ministry" which helps people in need in many ways. Mike enjoys gardening, visiting local and national parks, and tinkering with antique Lionel and American Flyer trains. (Ask him about his Christmas train layout each year).
P.S. Mike asks for your prayers for his 21 year old son, Jeffrey, who is currently serving our country in Afghanistan with the 3/6 Marines. He is on the front lines in very dangerous, harsh, and primitive conditions.
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Thu, Apr 08, 2010 @ 04:28 PM
"PK" joined our team in 2007 as our lead appraiser and buyer. He knows cars inside and out and he keeps up with the current buying and selling trends in the marketplace. PK is celebrating his 50th year in the auto business.
"Say hello to a good buy" was one of the standard slogans developed by my in-house advertising agency at Phil Kleckner's Used Cars. I opened and operated the used car lot for 15 years in my home town of New Rochelle, NY. Among other ads, I created 30 spot TV commercials that were aired in New York City. I was interviewed by the New York Times for a story about independent used car dealers, which was published on the front page of the business section with a large photo of me in front of the dealership.
I have always loved the car business. My first purchase was a two-car deal from my friend's father; I sold them for a good profit. I continued to earn money buying and selling individual cars until I was able to open my own used car lot. I earned my reputation by providing excellent customer service and became known as an honest owner/operator who always tried to satisfy the customer. Thus, I gained countless referral business.
As a youth I enjoyed playing hockey and baseball. As a young adult, I liked fast cars, motorcycles, boats, water and snow skiing. I attended the University of Tampa, The New School for Social Research, NYU, and Columbia University. While living and attending school in New York, I drove a Yellow Taxi Cab and worked with at-risk youths for the federal job core program located at Federal Plaza in New York City. At the age of 21, I was hired under a special General Motor's Training program, "The Buick Caravan," to sell new Buick's.
As a Buick salesman, I received many awards for excellent sales and customer service, including the Sales Masters Award six times. My performance placed me among the top in the USA. When I was 24, I became a manager of a Buick dealership and was an important part of the team that created one of the most successful dealerships for GM at the time in the US. The standard used was by units sold, customer satisfaction, and market share. I also have held a number of other managerial positions in high-line foreign and domestic new and used car dealerships. In 1993, while operating my own dealership in NC, my wife had an opportunity to serve in the Clinton Administration; and we relocated to Arlington, VA, where I still reside.
I have a 21 year old son, Max who is an honor student at NOVA. I am a history buff and have served on the board of directors of a number of non-profit historical associations, which lead to an important role in the Thomas Paine exhibit at the Freedom Forum's NEWSEUM.
A beautiful car still gets me as excited today as it did 50 years ago.
Philip Kleckner
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Mon, Apr 05, 2010 @ 03:54 PM
Steve came to Auto Buying Service in 2008, not long after retiring from a 28 year career in the auto sales industry. He was ranked as one of the top 10 salespersons in North America in 1985 by Volvo.
Steve volunteered at the American Cancer Society for 25 years and served as President of the Northern Virginia Board and was a board member of the Virginia Division. He was also named the American Cancer Society volunteer of the year.
Steve spent 20 years volunteering his time as the Easter Bunny at Arlington Hospital. He has a wonderful family consisting of wife, 3 children and 2 grand children... so far. He says... "The world is full of friends, you just haven't met all of them yet!"
Steve is a vital part of our team. We greatly appreciate his efforts, particularly in customer service. He is great with people and knows his stuff! Thanks Steve! We appreciate you!
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 04:20 PM
"Back in the day" Auto Buying Service was located at 9854 Lee Hwy, now known as Fairfax Blvd. It was one lane in each direction then and we were right between the Hess gas station (when gas was under a dollar) and the Fairfax Raquet Club and Kenny Roberts Plant Nursery.
In 1969 (when I was five), my parents purchased a new home in Mantua with a HUGE, oversized 2 car garage. They could actually fit 3 cars in there! My dad had a vision and they started buying and selling cars out of their garage until they found their commercial property at 9854 Lee Hwy.
In 1970 they moved the operation to the new property and began Auto Buying Service. They had cheap cars, gave car loans and had as many as 100 cars for sale at one time. My dad was a bit of a motorhead, so would tend to stock a lot of fast cars - GTOs, Mustang Cobras, Vettes, Olds 442s, Novas, Cudas, Shelbys, Camaros & Trans AMs... you get the idea.
Soon they were known as "the dealer in Fairfax with all the muscle cars and hot rods". Back then they had a little problem with theft, so each night they would line the cars up end-to-end so that no car could be driven out of the place while they were closed. I have a few pics:
Auto Buying Service stocked used trucks, cheap used cars, economy cars, luxury cars, and all kinds of other vehicles including passenger vans and work vans.
They were different than other auto dealers and used car dealers. They rarely went to the auto auction. Instead they advertised that they buy used cars. They knew the used car values and they would do a used car search for their customer (before the net). If they didn't have the vehicle their customer was looking for, they would find it!
I worked in sales back in the late 80's and I would find a car for customers on a regular basis. Dad paid a great bonus when you did that! If you had a used car for sale, we were probably knockin' on your door trying to buy it.
More to come soon...
Check out our website and current inventory! Click here!
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Sat, Mar 06, 2010 @ 03:27 PM
I bet when you decide to sell your car, you look up the Kelley Blue Book value. Am I right? This is what most people do. It's all they really have to determine the value of their car. Is it right? Is it a good guide? Well yes and no. First of all, if you own a newer car, it tends to be high and if you own an older car, it tends to be low. But what about the 3 price points? There's Suggested Retail, Private Party Value and Trade-in.
Suggested Retail is supposed to be what I can ask as a dealer. I rarely can ask that much, unless it's an older car. Private Party is supposed to be what YOU the individual seller can ask/get for the car. But the individual BUYING from you wants a deal! They are taking all the risk, so they want a heck of a deal! If they buy from a dealer, they have a company, brick and mortar, to go back to and complain and demand their money back or get a problem corrected.
Trade in value is supposed to be the wholesale value. The amount you will get if you trade your car in at a dealer. This range of low to high is usually about right. After I appraise a vehicle and determine its value based on many different pieces of information, I check Kelley Blue Book trade in. I am usually somewhere in that range with my offer. But that doesn't mean I EVER just look up KBB trade to determine my offer.
Here's the "catch 22" on selling your vehicle privately. You want MORE than trade in or wholesale for your car. The buyer wants to pay much less than he/she would at a dealer. I, the dealer, can't ask KBB Suggested Retail for my car because it would place my car at a higher price than the other comparables out there for sale. So my price is closer to Private Party. So your buyer is most likely going to want to be somewhere between trade and private party values. Keep in mind the pricing seems to be most accurate on middle aged vehicles but Suggested Retail is still too high.
The other catch is the time (and possibly money) you must invest in this process. You need to put your car on the web. You need to have it detailed or clean it really well - it's like selling a house! You have to be home when your buyer wants to come see it. They will keep you home on weekends, stand you up, offer way less than you are asking and ask if you will take payments! The nerve of them! All for a potential what? $500 - $1000? maybe? Will it sell? How long will it take? Some of my inventory sells in a few days and some takes many many months. You just don't know. All the while your depreciating item is continuing to depreciate! How frustrating!
Come straight to Auto Buying Service and you will get a fair wholesale offer for your car, truck, or van! If you owe money on it, we will handle the payoff. You don't have to go to the bank with the stranger buying your car so they can watch you pay off your car and be promised a title. We won't ask you to leave your plates on the car just long enough for us to get it home. We will have your plates removed for you and give them to you in a bag so you don't have to touch them.
You get the idea. We are a small company, family owned and operated. We have about 12 employees, 4 of which are family, the rest just feel like family. :) We will offer you coffee, give you a comfortable place to wait while we appraise your vehicle / buy your car. The process of buying your car only takes about 15 minutes. Next time you decide to sell you car, think of Auto Buying Service in Merrifield / Fairfax.
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Thu, Mar 04, 2010 @ 09:22 PM
Here's a great commercial we put together for our dealership a few years ago. The jingle was written by a girl in my parents' church back in the 70's. My parents were the youth group directors at Immanual Baptist Church in Springfield, VA and one of the teens wrote this jingle. I have never forgotten the jingle... it's very catchy. It was so much fun to have it professionally put together.
If you need to buy a car or sell a car, give us a call. We can finance the vehicle you buy from us and we take trade ins. Call 703-849-0080 during our hours of operation, 9-6 M-F and 9-5 Sat.
Posted by Betsy Briggs on Tue, Mar 02, 2010 @ 05:52 PM
Well, here it is. The Auto Buying Service blog. My name is Betsy Briggs and I am the only child of Frank and Wanda Lewark, the owners and founders of Auto Buying Service.
Auto Buying Service, to put it simply, is a used car dealership that buys and sells quality used vehicles. We like to buy only good, well kept used cars from local individuals who are selling for various reasons - moving - upgrading - downsizing - need $$. We see it all. We provide a needed service for the person who needs to sell their vehicle.
On the flip side of that, we also like to meet our customer's needs by PROVIDING good, quality used vehicles. After we buy them, we take them to our AAA approved auto repair shop - ABS Unlimited Auto Repair. We have them check a long check list of items covering everything from the tires to the exhaust to the engine. Then we fix what needs to be fixed, put the vehicle through VA State Safety Inspection, have the car professionally detailed and put it on our lot for sale.
We have a great website - http://autobuyingservice.com - check it out!!
We began in 1970 on Lee Hwy in Fairfax. 9854 Lee Hwy, across from the Anchorage Motel, between the Hess Gas Station and Kenny Roberts Plant Nursery (which are both gone now). We rented our old property out about 15 years ago and moved to our current location in Merrifield (Fairfax). We are now located right between Route 50 (Arlington Blvd) and Route 29 (Lee Hwy) on Prosperity Ave in the Dewey Business Park. Our old customers still found us because of the web and our new customers find us mainly because of the web now.
I will post lots of interesting stuff including old pics, new pics, videos, new inventory, etc.