Drawing a Crowd: Jersey Dealer Commands 4x4 Attention With Service, Events

Print Article

Email Article

When Jim Oostdyk rolled his 1961 Jeep CJ-5 back in the late 1970s he began the long, hard task of rebuilding his pride and joy. It didn’t take long for others to take note of his work ethic and attention to detail. Soon they began to bring their trucks, jeeps and other 4x4 variations to him for the same kind of creative, quality work. Oostdyk’s career was taking shape.

He became a one-man business working out of a two-bay gas station owned by Jim Getty, but that didn’t last long. After getting a taste for success, he bought the business 30 years ago and turned it into OK Auto 4WD & Tire in Stewartsville, N.J.

Today customers from New Jersey, as well as and up and down the Atlantic seaboard, come to him for work or modifications on their trucks. Thanks to a very strong Web site, Oostdyk does business in all 50 states. He also sells a ton of accessories, especially during Christmas time.

Building a Foundation
It didn’t take Oostdyk long to expand his business by selling truck parts and light truck tires. But the business really exploded with the many events it hosts: the Truckfest held every October, rock crawling, 4x4 truck pulls, trail rides and mud bogging. It didn’t happen all at once, but by the late 1980s and early 19-90s, Oostdyk had many well-known and well-attended events firmly in place.

One thing he learned quickly was that each customer who wanted a truck modification had different opinions about tires, wheels and accessories. “So I decided to make any tire a customer wanted available to him as quickly as possible. Anything. What-ever they said they needed, I got for them.”

That was a turning point for OK Auto 4WD & Tire. Once committed to this kind of personal service, there was no turning back. “To help me along, I have literally hundreds of suppliers who deliver what I need quickly.”

At the same time, Oostdyk began to carefully hire employees whose passion was the same as his: off-roading and motorsports. He also makes certain each of his employees, now numbering 29, receive full certification from ASE, TIA and SEMA and attend as many factory and supplier training seminars as possible.

It was at the turn of the century the New Jersey tire dealer plugged into the Internet with an easy-to-use, great looking Web site that dramatically boosted his business until the recession hit tire dealers around 2006-07. “We felt it pretty hard, but so far we have been able to sustain ourselves even though our business has been flat for roughly three years,” he said.

Nope, three flat years didn’t stop this very aggressive tire man. Taking stock of where he was and where he was going, Oostdyk did what he always seems to do best: Grow. He expanded OK Auto’s footprint from about 17,000 to 25,000 square feet, with most of the expense going into new equipment and an additional 6,000 square feet of showroom and customer space. OK Auto has eight bays, which are almost always full.

Customers are impressed by the brand new 120 capacity tire carousel – usually found in warehouses – smack dab in the middle of the show­room. Where Oostdyk was once able to show only 20 tires, he can now show 120 with the push of a button. And now he’s looking ahead at the possibility of building another store.

Oostdyk holds regular meetings in the new conference room, also used for training, so everyone is on the same page regarding the business. Incredibly, a newsletter is created weekly to keep every employee updated. Communication is key at this successful dealership and always will be, that way no one is ever surprised.

Bonding with Customers
Oostdyk’s employees, with their always-professional attitude, and his events, which draw more people to the business every year, keep customers coming back. To amplify a bit, every October, OK Auto sponsors the TruckFest, which draws hundreds of light trucks and more than 1,000 spectators.

The shop sponsored a Rock Krawl that drew around 200 vehicles and another 1,000 spectators came to the open house at the newly remodeled store. The event included food served by the local fire department and vendor booths staffed by experts from various companies to talk to customers on a personal level.

Add to that the 4x4 truck pull and mudbog competition, held at the Warren County Fair in mid-summer, and a trucks-only trail ride, which is free with a $50 purchase of anything in the store. The trail rides, held at Rausch Creek Off-Road Park, attract a large number of loyal customers.

“We also advertise our events in the local newspaper with big inserts,” he says. “That seems to work best for our business model and the kind of customers we have.”

The techs at OK Auto know how to install every kind of accessory designed for a pickup or Jeep, and do a beautiful job of lifting a vehicle or extending suspension travel or adding a skid plate. They will cut metal so just purchased tires will fit. While the work is difficult, it’s never boring – a fact that contributes to the 12-year average that employees stay at OK Auto.

Aside from adding another store, Oostdyk’s five-year plan also includes employing a strategy to make sure customers in his region understand that he services and sells tires for passenger and light truck vehicles, not just 4x4 tires.

“We like the people who like their light trucks and are generally known as the place for light-truck enthusiasts to go,” he says. “While we love this business, we also pay attention to auto enthusiasts and anyone who needs high quality tires for the family car. Still, we haven’t spent as much time in this segment of the business and we’re going to take steps to correct that.”

OK Auto will also launch an updated Web site within a few weeks.

Oostdyk’s business intuition always seems to precede what others are doing to compete against him. He isn’t sitting on his laurels, he’s going for more – and he’ll get it. Keep your eye on this go-getter.