The company's biggest accolade came when the firm was awarded the 2013 Joe Krier Quality Dealer of the Year prize by the Indiana Independent Automobile Dealers Association, and represented Indiana for the top dealer of the year award at the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association Convention in Las Vegas in 2014, placing in the top 18 dealerships for the National Quality Dealer Award.
In announcing the state award, the IIADA wrote, "The dealership must be consumer oriented and the dealer must have a record of good business decisions based on honesty and integrity. Also, the dealership must represent themselves as a civic leader within the community. Concord Cars represents all of these attributes."
"I think we have an outstanding reputation, and the award helped solidify that reputation," Jamesen said,
"We're not afraid to spend the money to get the cars ready for sale. We have them checked out and inspected. If they need tires, we put tires on them. If they need brakes, we put brakes on them. I do the majority of the buying and I'm pretty picky about what I buy. If something comes in that's less than what it should be here, that's rougher than it should be, I don't want it. We send it back.
"It's all about doing the right thing and doing what's right for the customer. A car is a machine. Things happen. They break down. Nobody's got a crystal ball to tell when that's going to happen. We try to take care of the customer, do what's right and everything else just kind of takes care of itself."
Jamesen has served on the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce's ethics panel and supports Bashor Children’s Home, Premier Arts and the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Today, Jamesen's dealerships employ 26 workers, move about 2,500 vehicles per year and have carved out a specialty niche in the Michiana market. He estimates that he has sold well over 20,000 cars in his career.
"We're definitely one of the top dealers in the area," Jamesen said, "but we don't do a lot of the sporty fancy stuff, like Corvettes. We do more middle class family cars."
Not all deals are winners. Used car dealers, Jamesen said, are "professional gamblers. We're betting we're going to sell this car for more than we paid for it, and sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Most of the time we win but occasionally we lose, If I'm buying and selling cars, I don't need to go to the casinos, and I don’t."
However, that doesn't stop him from buying. "If you make money on everything you buy, you're probably not a very aggressive buyer. It's like investments. If you always make money on your investments, you're probably not investing the way you should.
"A bank loan officer was telling us that she had never had a loan go bad, and my partner told her, " Hey, if you're a loan officer and you've never had a loan go bad, you should be fired.'
"If you're doing it right, you're going to make a mistake now and then. If you're so conservative that you've never made a mistake, you're probably not very successful."
