About Number One Auto Sales

In 1994, Sid Phillips found himself at a crossroads. He had been a banker in his hometown of Buckhannon for 12 years, but times were changing. Bank mergers usually make it harder for a loan officer to make a decision for his or her customer, and Sid was feeling the effects of this after TWO mergers. He simply didn’t feel he could help his customers the way he was accustomed to.  

Sid was an athlete from a young age. He was a very talented artist, painting countless paintings for people. Not as a means to make a living; he usually gave them away as gifts. He was a loan officer who was there to help his customers. He had zero experience selling cars, but he did have plenty of experience buying them.

“I remember test driving a car that I only drove about a mile up the road and back to the dealership. I made the quick decision to buy it. A day or so later, I took that car up a hill for the first time, and it had ZERO power. Had I known this, I would have NEVER bought it.”

When Sid made the risky decision to leave the security of his 9-5 job and jump into the auto industry with both feet, he had one mission: help people buy a dependable car they could afford. (notice that doesn't say sell cars… that’s not how Sid viewed it).

“When I was at the bank, people would come to me needing a loan for all sorts of things. I took a lot of pride in helping them secure the funds they needed. It was gratifying to help people, which was my main focus when I opened Number One Auto.”

So, on Valentine’s Day 1995, Sid opened the doors on a 12x24, two-room “hut” he built himself, and Number One Auto was open for business. The small lot housed 12 vehicles on a gravel lot.  

Today, Number One Auto is a family-owned and operated business that Sid and his son, Shea, run together. Sid is the President and Shea is the General Manager. Together, they have built Number One Auto into one of the top independent dealerships in all of West Virginia. Their main mission, their “motto”: Help people. That’s it… it really is that simple. Help people.

Helping people is why Sid & Shea have a full-service department that is exclusive to their customers. What does that mean? If they have a customer in need of a mechanical fix on their vehicle, the customer gets in for service fast. In addition to this, Number One Auto’s hourly labor rate for their service department is a fraction of what most service shops charge. This is a testament of the commitment they have in helping people: be here when their customers need them, and help keep the cost of auto maintenance to a minimum.  

“Giving away a lot of free labor doesn’t make much business sense from a financial standpoint, but that’s not what it’s about,” remarked Shea. “We’re not required to have a service department; we choose to. In fact, we are one of the only independent dealerships in Central West Virginia that have one. But we know we wouldn’t be able to take care of our customers’ needs if we didn’t. So it’s there for them as a courtesy. And they love seeing how much money they save over the life of owning a vehicle from our family business. That’s why they come back again and again, and we love them for it.”