Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 21, 1993 TAG: 9311220283
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
George Harvey can remember Duncan buying old bicycles, repairing them and selling them for profit.
"He became a businessperson at a very young age," recalled the owner of Harvey's Chevrolet in Radford.
With such an early start, it's no surprise that Duncan - with only an 11th-grade education - is one of the most successful car dealers in Southwest Virginia. His family owns nine dealerships stretching from Pulaski to Rocky Mount.
The oldest - Holiday Ford - is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month.
Its location on U.S. 460 on the edge of Blacksburg could be dubbed "Duncan Auto Avenue."
In addition to the Ford dealership, Duncan's family owns Mazda, Honda, Mitsubishi and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships on the same road. They also have bought 15 acres adjacent to New River Valley Mall, where they plan to open an auto mall next spring.
In short, anyone buying a new car in Blacksburg in recent years has put a few bucks in Duncan's pockets. The family owns every new-car dealership with a Blacksburg address.
Duncan, 63, gets help running the dealerships from his sons Gary and Gerald and a host of other managers. He credits his success to hiring people better than himself.
"I don't do much these days, just show up every day just to see what's going on," he said.
"That's not true," Gerald Duncan said. "He's here all the time."
That type of dedication has driven Duncan to success, said Jim Rakes, president of the National Bank of Blacksburg. Duncan has been a member of the bank's board for more than a decade.
"All the hard work has paid off," Rakes said. "Paul has a real ability to look at a deal and decide what's profitable and what's not profitable. Just that little sixth sense."
Coupled with his sharp business instincts is a mixture of pride and stubbornness that pushes Duncan to get the maximum payoff from every deal.
"He's never been arrogant, just tough," Gerald Duncan said.
Shortly after leaving high school, the Pilot native left the New River Valley to take a job selling Miracle Made Cookware in West Virginia and became one of the company's top sellers.
He returned in 1955, bought a gas station in Christiansburg and opened a used-car lot at the site.
On weekends, Duncan would catch a train to Washington, Pennsylvania or New Jersey and buy used autos. He would drive one home and use a tow bar to haul the other.
"Sometimes I would be gone for two days at a time and never lie down in the bed," he said.
"I progressed with used cars pretty well and decided to sell the service station and go into used cars full time." Soon he had also caught the new-car bug.
In 1959, Duncan bought a Studebaker franchise, and a year later he opened a Mercury dealership in Christiansburg. In those days, an average monthly car payment was about $70.
Not one to back away from a deal, Duncan has made some unusual ones over the years.
He once accepted four pigs as payment on a car. The dealer has also swapped payments for guns and diamonds.
"We once advertised the dealerships would trade for anything of value and I guess we still would," he said.
That policy almost got Duncan in trouble in the early 1970s when he accepted a trunk load of dress shirts - still in the wrappers - only to find out they had been stolen. In 1963, he and a partner bought Phillips Ford, moved it to the present location of Hokie Honda on South Main Street near the U.S. 460 Bypass and renamed it Holiday Motor Corp.
The lot featured Galaxy, Fairlane and Falcon models. In the last three decades Holiday Ford has sold nearly 40,000 new cars.
Duncan, 63, shakes his head and grins when he thinks about how much cars have progressed in that time period.
"It's really unbelievable," he said. "The cars coming out today are like some of the cars in the comic books back in the 1950s.
"People say they don't make them like they used to, but that's not true."
Shortly after starting Holiday Ford, Duncan won a sales contest sponsored by the national dealer and was presented a 1964 Mustang convertible by Lee Iacocca.
Duncan sold the convertible for $3,100 and then bought it back this year for $16,100. It now sits in the Holiday Ford showroom, part of the 30th anniversary celebration.
Holiday Ford moved to its 30,000-square-foot building just outside Blacksburg corporate limits in 1984. It's been known as Holiday Ford-Mazda until this month, when Duncan split the two dealerships.
While Holiday Ford is Duncan's oldest dealership, Hokie Honda has been the most successful.
"Our bread-and-butter car," Duncan said. There were times in the 1980s when there were up to 100 Hondas on back order.
Jimmy Robertson, vice president and senior regional account manager for First Union Bank, said very few people see the warm, human side of Duncan.
"Paul's a very genuine and humble person and a good friend," he said.
The Greater Blacksburg Chamber of Commerce named Duncan businessperson of the year in 1986 and Robertson said he can still remember how excited Duncan was to receive that award.
Duncan's knack for selling cars has helped create hundreds of jobs through the years. His dealerships - still 90 percent owned by family members - employ about 250 people. The eight dealerships have sold roughly 7,500 cars so far this year.
Of all the makes and models, Duncan said his favorites are the Ford Explorer and Mustang, yet he drives a used Jaguar.
When he's not selling cars, Duncan collects old Volkswagens. His collection includes a 1974 Karman Ghia with 24 miles and a '77 Beetle with 11 miles.
Over the past three decades, one of Duncan's biggest competitors has been Harvey's Radford dealership.
Harvey said that despite the rivalry, he feels a special bond with Duncan.
"We both started with nothing," he said. The two dealers now have second homes beside each other on the lake.
"Paul's a fine somebody," Harvey said. "A real self-made man. He deserves every bit."
Duncan-owned dealerships
Franklin Ford Mercury in Rocky Mount
Precision Acura-Audi-Saab in Roanoke
Holiday Mitsubishi in Roanoke
Heritage Buick-Olds-Pontiac-GMC Inc. in Pulaski
Holiday Ford in Blacksburg
Mazda of Blacksburg
University Motors LTD in Blacksburg
Hokie Honda in Blacksburg
Hokie Mitsubishi in Blacksburg
by CNB