‘Excited about the future.’ Longtime State College dealership has new ownership
A longtime State College car dealership is now under new ownership.
The Bobby Rahal Automotive Group recently acquired Joel Confer Toyota to launch a joint Toyota, Lexus and BWM dealership at 120 E. Clinton Ave. The deal, which brings Bobby Rahal Toyota of Lewistown to State College, aims to expand sales and service offerings at the former Confer dealership site.
Plans to acquire the former Confer dealership and move Bobby Rahal’s Lewistown operations to State College came to fruition back in June, according to Matt Knaby, general manager of Bobby Rahal of State College. Major changes involved in the deal — including the manufacturer-required shutdown of the Lewistown dealership — can often take as long as eight months or a year, but the dealership is already up and running after the Confer dealership ceased operations in mid-September.
“The plan, for a long time, has been to bring our Lexus store from Lewistown into the State College market,” Knaby told the Centre Daily Times. “This change in ownership happened pretty quickly. It wasn’t something we necessarily planned on, but Joel Confer decided it was time to spend a little more time fishing and whatever else he wants to do in his retirement years.”
With a Toyota and BMW dealership already established in State College, the Bobby Rahal team brought over its Lexus offerings to create a huge inventory between the three automakers’ fleets, Knaby said. Through the move, Toyota essentially combined the State College and Lewistown markets and shuttered the latter’s existing dealership.
The new-look dealership is already fully operational with sales, service and parts offerings, including pickup and delivery services and an enhanced Toyota and BMW loaner vehicle fleet, Knaby said. Remaining work on the dealership aims to enhance longstanding services and amenities, including efforts that will move the dealership’s service reception desk toward the front doors to speed up appointment check-ins.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel here,” Knaby said. “We have over 30 years of experience in the industry as the Bobby Rahal Automotive Group, so we kind of know what our customers want and expect. We’re making facility enhancements, adding to our fleet, making sure we have enough drivers and keeping service up to our standards.”
While working through the acquisition, Bobby Rahal offered every Confer dealership employee a job, Knaby said. Nearly all of them stayed with the new-look dealership, which carried over most of its Lewistown employees to create a team of around 75 workers.
“That was really important to us,” Knaby said. “This was stressful for the Confer team. You know, this was a surprise for them, but it was also a surprise for our team in Lewistown. A lot of them lived close to the dealership there, and we understand it’s a big change. We really felt it was important, to our customers and to our team, that they all have a spot with us.”
Moving forward, the Bobby Rahal dealership plans to continue honoring existing leases, warranties and service agreements made through the former Confer dealership. Any agreements made directly through manufacturers, including lifetime state inspection deals, are likely covered, Knaby said. He noted that new ownership may not honor some benefits from the Confer dealership, including service programs that had customers accrue points through regular visits.
The Pennsylvania-headquartered Bobby Rahal Automotive Group already had its foot in the door in the State College market after purchasing the former Dix Honda dealership at 2796 W. College Ave. in 2016. Nearly a decade later, Knaby said another expansion to Happy Valley presented a “tremendous opportunity.”
“This market has a lot of potential, especially in State College and the surrounding areas,” he said. “There’s a lot of clients who find they don’t have a lot of choices. There’s more rural areas and people are spread out a little bit, so this becomes the center for those outlying areas. We want to provide opportunities for all of our customers.”
Eventually, Bobby Rahal’s team hopes to consolidate its State College-area dealerships on a 20-acre campus along Shiloh Road and Interstate 99 for “one-stop shopping” of Toyota, Lexus, BMW and Honda vehicles. Knaby said the group hopes to start construction within the next year.
“We want to thank our customers for bearing with us as we made these changes,” Knaby said. “All these things are being done to benefit our clients in the long run. We’re really excited to have all these brands available to our customers here in State College, and we’re excited about the future.”
Bobby Rahal Toyota of State College’s sales department is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and is closed on Sundays. The dealership’s service and parts departments are available from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed on weekends.
%202.JPG)