Shane G. Rhodes, Founder
Shane G. Rhodes was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on February 27, 1958. He moved to Houston in 1963, just in time to start elementary school (he was not from Texas, but he got there as fast as he could). Shane attended Eisenhower High School where he played on the golf team and lettered all 4 years. They were Texas State Golf Team Champions his sophomore and junior years.
He attended Texas A&M University for three years. He finished his senior year at the University of Houston where he majored in Industrial Distribution graduating in 1981.
Shane had always had a passion for automobiles and decided he wanted to try commission sales. He was hired for his first automobile sales job by Gullo Haas Toyota. He worked with Toyota and Lexus as a Fleet manager until 1994. 7 of those 8 years he earned the Toyota Sales Society Award which was awarded to the top 10% of sales people based on sales volume and customer satisfaction.
Early in his automotive career Shane became aware of the buy here pay here industry. It sparked curiosity in Shane and he studied the idea, and talked to other people in the automotive industry for the next 7 years to try to better understand opening his own business.
Shane and his father opened Rhodes Auto Sales in 1996. The first location for Rhodes Auto Sales had space for 8 cars for sale and an office with one desk. Shane washed all the cars and did all the mechanical repairs on the vehicles they were selling.
In March of 1997 they moved to a larger location that would hold 45 vehicles and had a three bay shop. In August of 1997 they hired their first full-time employee, Edgar Rodriguez, who still works for the company to date. In two years they grew thee business and were averaging 20 sales per month.
In August of 1999 they opened a second location in the same neighborhood to allow for more growth.
Early on Shane's father and he decided that they wanted to run a different type of BHPH dealership. In 1998 they started to sell all the cars they finance with a 30 day or 1500 miles almost bumper to bumper warranty and 60 days or 3000 miles on the motor and transmission. This warranty has a zero deductible and includes a local tow. All of their vehicles go through a 100-point certification process to ensure quality. They worked to install professionalism in their salespeople and office people. Shane taught his salespeople to treat the customer with the same respect and professionalism that he had afforded his customers when he worked at Lexus.
Good employees, treating the customer right and sound business practices have allowed this growth.
Shane is married to Debi Rhodes, an Operating Room Nurse at the Spring Branch Medical Center for 32 years. Debi has 2 children who Shane has helped raise since they were 3 and 6 years old. Their oldest son, Chase, just graduated in August from Texas A&M University and is now working in Houston. Their younger son, Colt, is also attending Texas A&M University and is in his junior year. Colt was awarded a scholarship through TIADA for his freshman year at A&M.
Shane has been active in his local dealer association the Houston Independent Auto Dealers Association. Shane and his father joined the Association in 1996. Shane served as an officer of HIADA from 1998 to 2000 and was the program chair for two years. They have only missed 6 meetings in the past 20 years they been members. In 1997, they also joined the TIADA and NIADA. Shane has attended every TIADA annual state convention since 1997 and has attended all summer conferences since 2001. This year he went to Austin twice to help the TIADA lobby Congress to pass legislation for car dealers.
Shane has also served as chairman of his high school class reunion committee for the 20th, 25th, 30th and 35th class reunion.
Shane and his father won the Quality dealer of the year for HIADA in 1999 and 2009. Shane is still active with HIADA serving on the board of directors and several committees. He is also on the board for TIADA and looks forward to continued service to both.
