Golden celebration
Allen Tillery marks 50 years of car sales in Hot Springs
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article was originally published on May 28.
LONSDALE — The year was 1967, and a young Allen Tillery had been offered a position as a management trainee for Firestone.
He and his wife, Pat, were nearing a third wedding anniversary, and the couple was beginning to expand their family. As the job had a guaranteed salary, he was strongly considering the offer, but when he found out he would have to be away from the Hot Springs area, he turned it down and focused his efforts on selling cars.
Tillery had been fascinated by metal bodies and revving engines since his childhood, hanging around car shops whenever he could, and learning how to drive a standard-shift truck at the age of 6.
By age 11, he was ready for a car of his own. With the permission of, but no direct assistance from his father, the Lonsdale lad approached his Aunt Pearl about a trade — his cow for the dilapidated 1937 Chevrolet coupe she had inherited from her father.
She agreed, and after pumping air into the flat tires and adding water to the leaky radiator, the only Tillery child happily set off to drive the 3-mile loop on Danville Road laid out by his dad.
During his teenage and college years, he held the dream of NASCAR driving, but at the birth of his first son, he let go of that idea to embrace responsibility.
But his penchant for automobiles that looked good and sounded better would not be set aside, as he began in June 1967 a career that would keep the latest models at his fingertips for at least the next 50 years.
Tillery began work as a car salesman from a now-nonexistent building on Ouachita Avenue. Over time, he became manager at Gary Davis Chevrolet at Golf Links Road and Central Avenue.
In the first months of salesmanship, he wasn’t making much money, and gave himself six months to either do well or get out of any business related to cars. He began by bringing home a few hundred dollars a month, but when he hit $1,008.65, he felt confident and excited about his ability.
“It was like having cake every day,” he said of working at a dealership during the heyday of American muscle cars. His third sale, a 1968 Camaro, was to a man who would eventually buy more than 50 cars from Tillery before he died. And his fourth was a coveted Chevelle SS.
During his last year as a salesman, before becoming general manager, he sold 489 vehicles by the end of December. By then, his car dream had become to one day have a dealership of his own, so the family lived frugally and saved for that future.
In 1977, the timing was right. The dealer’s owner helped Tillery secure a note on a loan that would finance the birth of Allen Tillery Chevrolet at the Golf Links location.
Selling didn’t always go smoothly. At times time during the 1970s and ’80s, employees at auto manufacturing plants were often going on strike, which meant there was no inventory on his lot, and they had to go out and buy used cars just to have vehicles for people to purchase.
One night, Tillery experienced the worst point in his career, when a drunken man threatened him with a gun after having a truck out for several hours on a supposed test drive.
Fortunately, the trying times were few, and he has remained enthusiastic about being at the job. Pat Tillery alluded to the oftused idea that if a man loves what he does, he never has to work a day of his life, saying that’s always been the case for her husband.
Tillery said he’s always been a Chevy guy, even though over the years he owned smaller dealerships outside Hot Springs that carried other makes, including Nissan, Volkswagen and Chrysler.
But regardless of make, he’s always strived to have the Tillery name stand for honesty, fairness and good service.
Occasionally, service has included him allowing trades instead of cash for a deal. Over the years, cars have been traded for a condo, pieces of land, guns, countless jewelry items, and even a donkey.
He’s been building up his personal car collection over the past couple years through trading at auto shows, even though he still spends Monday through Thursday at the dealership.
In the building he had made to contain his collection, his favorite color stands out — red. He’s been a red Silverado truck driver so long that people have come to refer to the color as “Tillery red,” he said.
On one section of the building’s walls, photos are hung of family members standing by cars that date back to his great-grandparents, and the car collection includes a miniature tractor he bought for his first great-grandchild before the boy was even born.
Family is of paramount importance, and the dealership he began decades ago is now run by his two sons, Chad and Brad. Their children have also learned about work ethic there, whether it be by washing cars, dealing with motor grease or helping with advertising.
Now the oldest dealership in Hot Springs, Allen Tillery Auto found a new, larger home in 1994 at 4573 Central Ave. Its found-
er began flying a 30-by-60-foot American flag at the former location, and he couldn’t think of not having it as a commanding presence on the landscape.
While some things have remain unchanged, the world of car sales has seen plenty of shifts. He said modern vehicle quality is better than it’s ever been, and though a gallon of automotive paint can cost upward of $750, the color and finish choices are seemingly limitless.
Tillery said the majority of his customers are from repeat business or referrals, made not only of residents in the Hot Springs area, but from locales including Mena, El Dorado, Pine Bluff and Booneville. But social media has been a game-changer, widening the audience base even further.
The man’s love of cars and his enjoyment of talking with people have allowed for an enriching 50 years. He stands as proof that focus and fortitude serve well when reaching for big dreams, even from humble beginnings.