A CUSTOMER SHOULD have fun when purchasing a car from us,” says North American Auto group co-owner and founder Joe Johnson. “Our motto is ‘We Make it Easy!’ ”

Johnson and business partner Michael Pierce have seen their business grow to four locations in five years in the greater Baton Rouge area. Johnson and Pierce have more than 40 years combined experience in automotive sales and finance. They saw a solid opportunity in the pre-owned side of the business.

Johnson opened the first location of North American Auto Group in Gonzales in 2011. He and Pierce became business partners in July 2012, allowing the company to “start its real journey,” says Johnson.

In December 2013 they added a second location at 2216 South Burnside in Gonzales in a former Yamaha dealership. The new location helped the company jump from about 60 cars a month in sales to 80 cars a month. Sales increased to about 130 cars a month in July 2015 when the partners opened a third location on Florida Boulevard in Baton Rouge. When opening this location Johnson and Pierce recruited Marlon Antoine as an operating partner to run the location.

“Marlon has more than 20 years of experience in automotive sales and when the opportunity presented itself to grow into that location, we were pleased to partner with him,” says Pierce.

By December 2015 the company had expanded again, adding another location at 9977 Airline Highway in Baton Rouge that features many higher-end vehicles and imports. This addition brought the total sold for February 2016 alone to more than 300 vehicles.

“The difference in the way we run things,” says Johnson, “is that we are very much locally owned and operated.” Johnson sources the inventory, traveling several days a week to car auctions throughout the Southeast to find the best value, he says.

“We’re not satisfied by the inventory that’s easy to get because it’s close by,” says Johnson. “We make an effort to go out and hunt for the greatest possible value in the region so we can bring it back to our customers.”

Pierce is in charge of business operations, working with sales managers at each location and monitoring inventory. As units move, he generates reports that help drive Johnson’s selection process as he travels to several established auctions.

Pierce says that about 90% of the company’s inventory is still under the original factory warranty. About half the cars in the fleet are 2014 or 2015 models. Generally, all cars currently fall between 2011 and 2015.

Customers have access to the inventory at all four locations. If a customer is searching for something in particular, and the dealership doesn’t have it, Johnson will do his best to locate it.

The partners say their financing vehicles helps onboard all sorts of buyers, including those with perfect credit and those whose credit needs to be reestablished.

“We offer a full spectrum of financing,” says Pierce. “We can tailor the financing to meet the needs of our customers.”

“What separates us from our competition is our inventory and our personal, transparent service,” he adds. “Our business is driven by a lot of referrals, personal relationships and from social media.  We want this to be as pleasant and satisfying an experience as possible.”

Johnson says North American Auto Group plans to continue to grow but will maintain its relaxed way of doing business.