Car dealer scooters in new direction

They wait and they wait. Parked neatly in a row the pick-ups and SUV's at Moody Chevrolet in River Falls, Wisconsin wait for buyers that are too slow in coming.

But a few feet away from truck row stands proof that Mike Moody and his brother Bobby aren't waiting for the market to come back. The Moody's are moving on.

"This is the Laser model," says Mike as he explains the features of a lime green scooter. The lifelong car dealer is on a roll. "This is the Sunset model, kind of the same front end but a little different back end."

If you're looking for a sign of the automotive times, you can find one in a Moody's dealership logo pasted not just on the bumper of a Tahoe, but on the fender of a scooter.

"You just try to do what you can to get through the tough times and weather the storm until it's over," says Bobby.

The Moody brothers last sold a pick-up truck in February. They've sold more than 20 scooters so far this year, and could have moved a lot more but for the high demand and short supply that have kept them from getting additional inventory.

"People [are] coming in on a daily basis," says Mike, "just wanting to know, when are you going to have more, when can I get one?"

In the showroom, new cars now share space with an electric scooter model, Moody's added to its line of scooters just last month.

But the red scooter just beyond the showroom door isn't for sale. That's the one Mike Moody now drives to work. His suburban is home in the garage. "It hasn't been out of the garage since Friday when it rained," smiles Mike, having already considered the 45 miles-per-gallon advantage his scooter has over his SUV.

When the Moody's started selling the scooters three years ago, they expected students at UW-River Falls would be a primary market. Instead more than half their sales have been to people over 50.

To the Moody's, survival in a bad economy is not about looking truck tough, but just toughing it out.

"Another mode of transportation and that's the business that we're in," says Bobby.

By Boyd Huppert, KARE 11 News

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