Jun. 26—LIMA — After nearly a quarter of a century selling affordable used cars and trucks at the corner of Cable and Allentown roads in Lima, the Superior Auto dealership has moved into more spacious surroundings.

Superior Auto opened its new site at the former JD Byrider location at 2144 Elida Road during the last week of May. In doing so, the dealership quadrupled its lot size and service area and also changed its business model, General Manager Kayla Williams said.

She said the move to Elida Road was necessary “because we kept getting bigger and bigger.” The new location includes space for a future “re-con” center, a space Williams said will be used to service and prepare vehicles that will be shipped to one of the company’s other 72 locations in Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky.

The addition of the re-con center in Lima allowed the local workforce to expand from four employees at the Allentown Road site to a current roster of 15 workers. Business at the new site, Williams said, has been brisk, noting that 28 cars sold just since the move.

Asked what sets Superior Auto apart from other dealerships, Williams was quick to offer a laundry list of examples.

“We offer extremely low down payments because we finance in-house. And we custom-tailor the payment plan to fit each individual customer’s needs,” said the St. Louis native, who has worked at the Lima location for the past 11 years.

“With the additional space at our new site, we also have more and newer makes and models of vehicles to choose from than before. I think we have a more professional atmosphere at our new office, but what really sets us apart is how quick the process is,” Williams said. “Typically customers drive off the lot in a vehicle in two hours or less after they first walked through the door.

“And it’s a lot easier to get in and out of our parking lot” than it was at the busy Cable-Allentown road site, she joked.

Williams said the company’s typical customers are people who face credit obstacles and in many cases are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Finding a payment plan to suit those persons “is something I do well,” she said proudly.

The manager offered a tip to potential customers who are in the market for a truck: Act quickly.

“Everybody wants a truck right now,” Williams said. “They’re hard to come by, and typically they’re not on the lot very long.”

Superior Auto was founded in Fort Wayne in 1975 and opened its first Ohio location in Celina in 1996. The first Michigan location opened in Coldwater in August of 1995, and the company expanded to Kentucky in 2017.