Tom Saunders, service manager for Hertz Car Sales Northwest's Car Care Center, stands in front of the construction site where the dealership's on-site gas station and carwash will be. The dealership is adding the station partially to increase customer traffic. The Auto Warehouse, formerly Thrifty Car Sales, also is planning a gas station.

Central Oregonians will soon be able to purchase gas as well as cars at one local dealership. The sales concept, if successful, could spawn similar moves by other car dealers and intensify the local gas sales competition.

Hertz Car Sales Northwest, a regional dealership chain of 13 stores, plans to open its first on-site gas station at its Bend location, off Highway 20, in July. The $2 million project, which includes a carwash, will become part of Hertz’s Car Care Center maintenance facility once completed.

The on-site gas station will work just like a conventional gas station, as it will be open to the general public.

”Depending on how this one does, we’re planning to put one in at all of our stores,” said Tom Saunders, service manager at the Car Care Center. ”Again, it depends on whether it works or not, but there’s no reason it wouldn’t work.”

The Hertz gas station is part of a ”one-stop shop” sales concept that is designed to provide car buyers with many vehicle services, ranging from maintenance to gas, at the dealership location.

By combining the services into one location, the ”one-stop shop” concept also combines the customer traffic for all the different facilities to one place, increasing potential sales.

Hertz

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The concept, although not yet widespread in the car sales industry, has also intrigued another Central Oregon dealer.

The Auto Warehouse in Bend, formerly Thrifty Car Sales, has purchased gas storage tanks and is also planning to open an onsite gas station in a year’s time.

”It’s a way to service customers every day instead of on a 90-day basis (for oil changes),” said Chris George, owner of The Auto Warehouse. ”If we do it right, they’ll come back every week.”

Both Saunders and George said their on-site gas stations would sell cheaper gas than neighboring stations, although neither indicated exactly how much the discount will be.

Saunders said people who purchase cars from Hertz will get an additional 5-cents-per-gallon discount on gas at the on-site station.

”(Nearby gas stations) aren’t happy, I’m sure,” he said. ”We haven’t heard anything yet, but I’m sure we’ll hear them soon.”

Saunders said the dealership’s other business revenues allow the company to sell at a slightly lower price than other stations, which could potentially drive local gas prices down.

”(Gas sales) isn’t the only profit center we have, because we have the car care center, the carwash, the detailing center, and the dealership,” he said. ”So we’re not just selling gas to make money.”

Kent Couch, who owns the Shell gas station on Highway 20, said he isn’t worried about the lower prices a car dealership can offer on gas.

”I think it’s good for competition,” Couch said. ”As long as they go by all the rules and regulations that restrict gas stations, it doesn’t bother me.”

He added that it is unlikely the new station would impact his prices.

”It’s just fair practice,” Couch said. ”I can only charge what I charge, and if they can go lower than what I have, that’s what they’re going to do.”