Longtime Used Car Salesman Says He Treats People Right
Two other local dealers had made promises about cars and financing that they later reneged, Morgan said. The Car Company dealt with her honestly from the start. “These guys are very open and honest,” she said. “They treated me with honesty and respect.” A native of the Buffalo, N.Y., area, Mospaw started in the restaurant business after finishing a stint in the U.S. Navy in 1966. He managed the former Foxfire Inn in Lakeland from 1972 to 1975.
“I have two things that have always been a great interest in my life - food and automobiles,” he said. So when his restaurant career faltered, he turned to his other love. “I’ve always played with cars. Now I can play with as many as I want,” Mospaw said. He started The Car Company after working for another local dealer and an unsuccessful try at running a new car dealership for Chrysler in Winter Haven. The latter sank with Chrysler’s financial and market misfortunes in the late 1970s.
“The only people who came in were the old guys, and they came in only to tell us the latest Chrysler joke,” hesaid. Auto financing is one of the biggest changes in the business he’s seen in three decades, Mospaw said. The Car Company started as a “buy here, pay here” dealer, he said. That means the dealer provides financing out of the company’s own resources.
That was the dominant model at the time because banks, credit unions and other lenders did not want to deal with credit risks, said Allen Monello, a spokesman for the Florida Independent Automobile Dealers Association in Tallahassee, which represents more than 1,350 used car dealers in the state. About 10 years ago, those lenders entered into the subprime auto loan business in a big way, Mospaw and Monello said. Subprime auto lending grew “by leaps and bounds,” Monello said.