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Longtime local car dealer Mike McGarrity sold his dealership on S. Main St. recently to the Sewell Family of Companies from Odessa. 

    McGarrity signed over his franchise, and after a couple training days, Sewell Chevrolet, GMC, Buick of Andrews opened for business.  Outside of a switch with general managers, all 18 employees with the former Mike McGarrity Chevrolet, Buick, GMC will remain with the new operator, according to McGarrity.

    "The town is getting a quality dealer in Collin Sewell," McGarrity said.  "He's a super guy and intelligent and he's very community-oriented.  They should triple our business.  I feel Sewell's will be a great addition to Andrews."

    One advantage of the Sewell expansion operation, company officials said, is the addition of the GMC line to the company.  Prior to the expansion, the Sewell Family of Companies' large dealerships consisted of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury in Odessa and Chevrolet-Buick that is being moved to Andrews from Crane.

    "What we gain with the move is access to GMC vehicles and parts," said Sewell spokesman Robert Simmons.  "It's another product line.  It's also exciting for us to be part of the community.  There are lots of people who work with us in Odessa who live in Andrews, and Andrews is a tight-knit community."

    "McGarrity's is a great facility with great history and it should be a great fit," he added of the expansion effort that has been in the works for a while.  "It's always been a family operation and Sewell is family owned.  McGarrity was a values-led organization, which is very much the way Sewell is thought of in Odessa."

    The truck line associated with GMC should be an added asset to Sewell, they believe.

    "A lot of folks like the Sierra," Simmons explained.  "And the Yukon Denali is another great addition to what we're able to sell.  The whole line of GMC-we already had Chevrolet and Buick-and now we're adding GMC and we'll have its whole truck line.  West Texas is truck country, so we're excited about that."

    Sewell will also vastly expand the parts business here, Simmons added.  McGarrity said Sewell is the largest parts distributor in the Permian Basin.

    An onsite warehouse will be used in that capacity. 

    "Where we were doing $40,000 to $50,000 a month, they'll likely sell between $200,000 and $300,000 a month," McGarrity noted of parts sales.  "We used the warehouse behind the (dealership building) for storage purposes and they have parts being loaded in there like you wouldn't believe."

    McGarrity ran the dealership for 28 years-they purchased it in February of 1983-and he's been in the car business for nearly 40 years.  The timing was right to sell the dealership to Sewell, McGarrity said.  He recently turned 70 and he and his wife, Shirley, purchased a lake house near Granbury they'll move to.

    "We bought the lake house in 2001 and some small acreage with a big garden about six or seven years ago," he noted.  "We plan to fish, travel and enjoy ourselves."

    McGarrity said he initially planned to get into the pharmaceutical field in the early 1970s, but he began selling cars at a Chevrolet dealership in Amarillo and figured he'd stick with that because the money was good.

    He learned the intricacies of the business from the ground up and went from a sales to an assistant sales manager during his time in Amarillo and later in Plainview.  That led to a dealership partnership here in the early 1980s and McGarrity took over the dealership in 1990 when he bought out the remaining partner.

    "We were a Chevrolet dealership when we first started in 1983 and later bought Oldsmobile," McGarrity recalled.  "Before that, we took on Chrysler for a short time before we terminated that and went to Oldsmobile.  Then, about two years ago, we took over the local Buick-GMC franchise (from the Wheeler family).

    "The dealership has been great to us," he added of its success.  "The people in Andrews and all our customers have been great.  In 28 years, I had maybe three or four disagreements and they were probably my fault.  Andrews has been good to me and Shirley.  I thank all our customers and employees-we'll miss our friends."