Auto dealerships shovel out this winter

Winter clean up isn't easy, and yet the car dealerships on Central Avenue are sparkling. From Armory Auto to Orange Motors to Lia Hyundai and Advantage Suzuki, Central Avenue is home to some of the biggest auto dealerships in the area. How do they manage to get all of winter's mess of those brand new hoods every day?

"It's a job, I'll tell you," said Armory Auto Salesperson Alan Alpart. With the spate of snow and ice storms we've had lately, the dealerships have to scrape the cars down almost weekly, and then drive them around the lot in a carefully choreographed series of moves, to allow for the snow plows to come through.

At Lia Hyundai, the staff cleans the 300 cars off by hand, using long snow brooms with foam pads, said Larry Burwell, Sales Manager at Lia. Once cleaned, they move them to one side of the lot so they can plow, then move them to the other side so that side can be plowed. "We move them around the lot all day," Burwell said. Usually, the whole staff teams up to make quick work of the clean-up project, he said. "You just get out there and do it."

At Armory, the sales staff runs the cars through the car wash they have on premises, and then hires an outside company to do the plowing and salting. With 800 cars on the lot, clean-up has to be strategic, Alpart said. They keep some cars inside, and try to clean the cars in front first, and then move back through the lines, depending on the time and weather, he said. Freezing rain is the worst, because the cars can't be banged up or scratched, so the ice has to be melted off.

"We hope that we don't have too much weather, but this year we've had some," Alpart said.

We wish you a short, dry winter, guys!