After buying out partner Troy Duhon in March to become full owner of what is now known as Gentry Chevrolet of Smithville, Eric Gentry has acquired a second dealership in Missouri. It’s the start of what Gentry plans to be a growing dealership group.
“I spent a lot of money a few weeks ago to go back to working 12 to 14 hours a day,” Gentry told WardsAuto on a Zoom call. “You know, I thought I was kind of done with that, but I’m loving it.”
In June, Gentry bought the former Hulett Chevrolet Buick GMC dealership in Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks area from the Hulett family. Rather than use a broker, Gentry bought the dealership directly because he knew the Hulett family and the dealership very well.
“This dealership is where I started selling cars in 1994,” Gentry said.
His first dealership job was working as a salesman at the dealership in the city of Camdenton, Missouri, where he spent eight years, Gentry said. He then left to work at Randy Reed Buick GMC store in Kansas City, Missouri for 11 years, rising to become general manager.
But Gentry had the itch to own his own store, so he started looking for a dealership to buy. The problem, Gentry said, was on his own he didn’t have enough money to buy a dealership the size he figured was necessary to be successful.
It led to betting the farm
A broker introduced Gentry to Troy Duhon, founder and president of Premier Automotive Group. Duhon backed Gentry financially to acquire what is now Victory Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram (it was Bob Hoss Dodge when acquired) in 2014 and a partnership was born.
When a Ford dealership in the area became available that same year, Duhon asked Gentry if he would like to partner in that store, too. He did, but didn’t have the $750,000 needed to buy in. Gentry’s aunt, who owned a farm, offered to borrow the money using the farm as collateral.
“So, you could literally say I bet the farm on the Ford dealership,” Gentry said.
While there were some sleepless nights for the first few years, the bet paid off. Then he and Duhon began growing the Victory Auto Group platform in Kansas and Missouri, eventually expanding to 10 stores — though they closed a Ford dealership in Garnett, Kansas in early 2026.
But those were all jointly owned with Duhon and “earlier this year, I sold Troy Duhon my percentage in all the stores except for the Smithfield store, and then I bought him out of the Smithfield store,” Gentry said.
Recuiting more techs—with A/C
The just-acquired dealership includes Chevrolet, Buick and GMC franchises. The building is image-compliant – the previous owners made a lot of facility upgrades, Gentry said. But he is going farther.
He will upgrade the computer systems and add multi-point inspection software, among other changes. Gentry also will install air conditioning in the body shop and service area, where he plans to add three lifts to the current nine and to hire another service technician.
The air conditioning will help in recruiting new technicians — some 94% of those surveyed in the 2026 Voice of the Technician Survey conducted by WrenchWay and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence said a temperature-controlled work environment was either “nice to have” or a “must have.”
All of the current staff except the two Hulett brothers who owned the dealership are staying on, including their sister, who is parts manager. “I have known her 30 years,” Gentry said. He has hired a sales manager and additional salespeople, he said.
Initially, Gentry sees the most opportunity in growing the used side of the business by increasing the used inventory. It helps that he can share inventory from his store in Smithville with the Lake of the Ozarks location. The two stores are about 175 miles apart. “I have two drivers going to Smithville today to pick up a truck,” Gentry said.
He aims to turn the used inventory faster, “making sure we don’t have stores sitting out there past 60 days,” Gentry said.
Moving marketing in-house and in-family
Gentry Lake of the Ozarks, as the dealership in Camdenton is now known, includes Chevrolet, Buick and GMC franchises. He has considerably more Buicks in stock than the other brands, so “I’m going to have a big Buick sale,” Gentry said.
Lake of the Ozarks, a large reservoir in south central Missouri, is truck and SUV country, he added.
Gentry will lean heavily on digital advertising, including social media, and that marketing will be done in-house thanks to an initiative by General Motors, which manufactures the Chevrolet brand.
“One of the things Chevy is leaning into is helping the dealers become proficient at doing the Google advertising themselves rather than pay a third party,” Gentry, who is on the Chevrolet National Dealer Council, said.
His daughter will be working on it at the dealership, which is a first. “She never wanted to have anything not do with the car business,” Gentry said. “Now that dad owns a car dealership, she wants to work here.”
Gentry aims to continue to acquire dealerships. He’s open to many brands though, as with most dealers, having a Toyota store would be nice. But for now, he will concentrate on running his two dealerships.
It’s a lot more work without the infrastructure that came with being part of Premier Auto Group, which he took for granted, Gentry said.
“I would say this, if the right opportunity came along, I would jump on it,” he said. “But right now, I’ve got my hands full.”
