In an industry well-known for its slick talk and shady deals, retired car salesman Paar Colvin always opted for honesty and care instead.
“I was the rare, and very proudly to say so, the rare honest car salesman,” he said.
Colvin sold thousands of cars to people in Columbus over his 36-year career, earning customer loyalty that often ran as deep as family ties.
Now retired, Colvin passes on his honesty-first philosophy to marketing students during annual lectures at Mississippi University for Women.
“This is what I teach these kids: You don’t have to mess people over to make a good living,” Colvin told The Dispatch on Monday.
Born in Columbus, Colvin’s father was a football coach and his mother was a businesswoman who owned five beauty salons in the area. It was in one of her salons where Colvin developed the gift of gab, he said, often by chatting up the beauticians down the line.
By the time Colvin graduated high school in 1976, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. He attended Mississippi State for a year before joining the workforce instead, though looking back, there were indications that sales would make a good career choice, he said.
“I should have gone to some type of counselor or adviser there and just talked to them,” he said. “They would have figured out, ‘You need to work in marketing. You can run your mouth. You love talking to people.’”
He bounced through a series of jobs, from working in garment factories to selling insurance to one blistering stint on a construction site. It was at that construction site, in a 20-foot pit on a hot July day, where Colvin had an epiphany.
“My first day in that hole out there … I thought I’d died and gone to hell,” he said. “… I promised myself that day, when I get out of here, I’m going to work with my mouth. I learned … I did not want to do that type of labor, or any labor period, for the rest of my life. I wanted to work with people.”
From construction to the car lot
Colvin started selling cars in 1984, and by January 1986, he’d found his home at Carl Hogan Honda in Columbus, where he remained until retiring in 2022.
He sold hundreds of cars a year, once rolling 26 cars off the lot in a single month in 2006. But Colvin didn’t measure his success by numbers alone.
“I’m proud to say – and this is unheard of with the level of production I did – I never made six figures,” he said. “I would not let them mistreat my customer, even if I just met you.”
With the mentorship of Ed Trapp and other local veterans in the business, Colvin skirted the typical car salesman stereotypes in favor of an approach on treating the customer with care and respect.
“The car business is known for some of the most unscrupulous characters you could ever imagine,” he said. “They’re everywhere. They’re like sharks. They get the taste of blood (a good commission) and … it’s a feeding frenzy. They do anything and everything to get that commission.”
Colvin’s approach to sales hinged on a single piece of advice Trapp gave him: Treat everybody like you want to be treated, and they will drag customers to you.
The return was undeniable. Colvin built a network of customers who knew he would give them an honest deal on a car that fit their wants and needs, even if that meant sending them to another dealership.
“You can’t emphasize that enough – that you care, that we’re not trying to stuff you in a seat and roll you in the street,” he said. “… There’s not a worse feeling than buyer’s remorse after you bought something, especially if you know you got screwed.”
Colvin gives that same advice to his students, who often follow him out of the classroom to ask their car and career questions. He’s sold his fair share of cars through the interactions, and he’s also helped college students navigate refinancing the vehicles – always trying to give the same level of care that built his reputation as a salesman.
“Because I can’t stand to see people get screwed over,” he said. “There’s no point in it. I couldn’t live with myself like that.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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