Beep Beep! There’s a New Car Dealer in Town.

From its recently-opened location at 44 N. Rolling Meadows Drive, Byrider is looking to help those who have fallen on hard times get on the road with speed.

Formerly J.D. Byrider, the newly rebranded Byrider is a “buy here pay here” dealership, meaning it helps those who have poor or no credit score and are not able to buy a car through a traditional dealership, according to its website.

Many times, the people are in the situation due to “no issue of their own” but who have lost a job or have high medical bills they are working to pay, said Jimmy Lee, Byrider operations director in Wisconsin. Through in-house financing, Byrider helps the customers purchase a car and build their credit scores, as they report “to all the bureaus on payments.”

“We offer them a second chance,” Lee said. “You’d be surprised how many people come in who say, ‘No way I’m going to be able to get into a car,’ and how many we’re able to get into a car.”

With more than 150 locations across the country, the Fond du Lac dealership is the seventh franchise in the state of Wisconsin owned by the Russ Darrow Group. The opening of the location — and that of Oshkosh in 2019 at 3815 Jackson St. — was done to service customers between Milwaukee’s north side and up through US 41.

When coming to the newly constructed Fond du Lac location, customers will see vehicles from cars to SUVs to a few trucks, which have a larger down payment than other vehicles. The vehicles are generally from model years 2007 and up, with an average mileage of “a touch” over 100,000, said Lee. Each car goes through a reconditioning process to make sure the cars are “road worthy” and come with a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty, he said.

The dealership is fitted with the company’s new rebranding, which includes new signage and the slogan “Buy. Finance. Drive on.” Part of the rebranding is reducing the time it takes for a person to purchase a car. To help this along, in the past week the company launched an online application system where customers can input their information and “get a very good idea if they are going to be approved or not” for a loan without having to come into the store, Lee said.

“Our customers come in and want to be out quickly, so we’re doing everything we can do to reduce that time,” he said.

For Lee, some of the best moments come not only when Byrider helps someone get on the road to do what they need, but with the customer’s purchase of a second car, when they are eligible for a traditional loan and don’t need to return to Byrider.

“I’m happiest when I see a customer on the second round, not needing to buy from us,” he said.  “I like to have repeat customers, but I love to see it when you see them pay all the way through the loan.”

want to visit byrider?

Byrider, 44 N. Rolling Meadows Drive, is open for service from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and for sales 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Sarah Razner, Fond du Lac Reporter, Read the full article here