Lowe Toyota Turns High-Mileage Camry into a Sales Tool

Still Good to Go

Owner Oscar Chambers (right) shares a moment with his old Camry that he traded to Lowe Toyota through Sales Manager Jeremy Smith. The dealership now uses the high-mileage road warrior as tangible confirmation of Toyota’s legendary reliability.

Like their counterparts at other Toyota dealerships, the salespeople at Lowe Toyota like to talk about the brand’s legendary durability when they interact with their customers. But since June, when the Warner Robins, Ga., dealership took in a 2005 Camry with more than 620,000 miles on it in trade, they’ve been able to actually show it, too.
 

Oscar Chambers bought the car when it was new from Lowe Toyota and, without fail, brought it back to the dealership for regular maintenance. That proved to be a nearly monthly ritual, due in large part to Chambers’ 200-mile roundtrip commute to and from Atlanta each workday. When the Camry needed a new catalytic converter, he decided to trade it for a new Avalon. In turn, Lowe Toyota decided to park the road warrior on its showroom floor rather than wholesale it.
 

“It’s worth a lot more to us as a sales tool,” says Sales Manager Jeremy Smith. “People see the odometer and think it’s a joke. But then we hand them the CARFAX report and the service history. We sell 50-60 Camrys per month and every one of those customers checks out that car. It makes quite an impression.”