Writer: Jon Shoulders
Photographer: Amy Payne
In under two years, Noblesville Imports has established itself as a premier northside used car dealer.
Co-owners Jeff Long and Zach Yale were no strangers to the car industry prior to founding the company. Long served as marketing director for a large Indy dealership for four years, and in 2016 he felt the timing was ideal to open a Northside-based car business that would offer a diverse selection of cars, trucks, & SUV’s.
“Our goal is to provide reliable import vehicles, such as Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, etc.,” says Long. “We carry everything including trucks, vans, SUVs, as well as things like BMW and Mercedes, we just try to weigh it towards the more reliable imports.”
Approximately 70 cars typically fill the lot, all of which are hand-picked, serviced and detailed and most of which have under 100,000 miles. Long says while the company has seen a steady amount of local drive-in traffic since selling its first car back in January of 2017, online sales comprise a large portion of its business.
“The used dealership market is really an internet-based world now, so if a car someone wants is 300 miles away, they’ll come get it,” says Long, adding that the company also buys and trades used vehicles and offers free shipping within 150 miles. “It’s all about pricing, options and dealer ratings. So we do quite a bit of out-of-state sales where people fly in or we ship them the car.”
Yale, a long-time friend of Long and fellow Fishers native, says the duo was excited to open up shop in the area where they grew up.
“It’s great to be operating in this community, and we try to focus on the customer,” he says. “There have been times where we’ve gone over and above to make the customer happy. We’re excited to grow organically here locally, being northside residents and having grown up here.”
Yale and Long say their small-scale approach – Noblesville Imports currently consists of six employees and will soon acquire two more for a service center that opens this fall – gives them an edge over many competitors when it comes to customer service.
“We get people who come in dreading the dealership side of things, and we tend to change a lot of people’s perceptions of the used-car buying process,” Yale says. “We like to make it a quick, low-pressure experience. With our small-scale model, we’re able to focus on the customer.”
Next spring Long and Yale will open a second Noblesville Imports store at a location on the northside to be announced at a later date. Long says the company’s success so far lies in its combination of small-scale, customer-focused service and big-franchise-like capability.
“We’re a young dealership but the owners come from a lot of industry experience, so we’re the small guy that operates like a large franchise,” he says. “We do everything from full-service warranties to in-house financing to free delivery of the car. We do it all as a small operation, and we’re still growing.”
Noblesville Imports is located at 12226 Greenfield Avenue in Noblesville. For more info, including a listing of current inventory and financing details, call 317-456-5446 or visit noblesvilleimports.com.
