Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed this place was boarded-up as I drove past, so I turned around and took a closer look. As far as I can tell from the Google reviews, Entity Motors closed up in the time frame of "a year ago", having received mixed reviews.

The place is a solid looking older style house that would be attractive with a bit of TLC, so perhaps some sort of professional office will move in eventually. The LoopNet information is here.

The last google reviews for this place say "9 months ago", so I'm just going with 2024 for a closing date here.

I believe this building was once a maid service headquarters, though I did not do a closing on that. I know that at one time it was an Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which did feature here.

Despite the eye-catching bright yellow trim, I don't ever recall actually noticing this place while it was in operation though it looks to have been there at least since October of 2018.

Here is the LoopNet summary of the property, and here is the actual real-estate listing: The place can be yours for $700,000.

Cars & Beyond set up shop on the old National Pride Car Wash lot after the existing structures were razed (other than the sign, which was re-purposed). From the name of the place, I assume they were connected with the nearby Tires & Beyond, which closed in 2022 with a promise to re-open, though that appears to have fallen through.

Actually until commenter Gypsie mentioned that this place had closed, and that it had definitely had had an online presence as open, I had it in the "never opened" category in my mind. I saw some guys setting things up, as you can see in the first picture, but after that, it never actually seemed to be a working car lot -- at least I never saw any stock there when I would drive by.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

UPDATE 10 February 2025 -- They are back:

Commenter Gypsie speculates that Craft Auto Mart might be gone.

By the time I got there, it was pretty much a done deal, as the office trailer itself has vacated the premises.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

It appears that Latino's Used Cars (and towing) has moved from this Two Notch storefront to 10531 Farrow Road, according to their Facebook.

Looking at Google StreetView, they had moved in by 2016, before which the building had been vacant for a number of years.

This location of American Car Center has a much less distinctive building than the one on Two Notch, but like that one was caught in the bankruptcy of the whole chain in February of 2023.

As Fortune put it:

American Car Center told employees the business was closing its doors, a day after it pulled a $222 million bond sale from the market, according to people familiar with the matter.

The used car retailer, which tends to target consumers regardless of their credit history, said in an email to employees on Friday the firm was ceasing all operations, closing its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, and that all employees would be terminated by the end of the business day, the people said. The headquarters has about 288 people.

The closure email came a day after the company sent another message to staff saying management and advisors had been working with lenders to improve liquidity and continue operations, the people said. American Car Center, which has more than 40 dealerships across 10 states, is owned by York Capital Management LLC.

Interestingly, both Columbia locations have electronic signs that are still active. However, I can tell you that as I took these pictures, it was neither 6:52pm nor 38 degrees...

United Auto Sales moved to this location in 2012 after their old location on Forest Drive was torn down to build Cook Out. Although Google is labeling this location as Temporarily Closed, I think it is more likely that United has shut down for good after a 12 year run here.

(Hat tip to commenter Payne)

I did a closing recently for American Car Center, and it seems that another subprime used car dealer down the street closed not too long after they did. WLTX has the story about the Columbia location closing here, and about the chain as a whole here.

The closing was supposed to be temporary, but we are closing in on a month of downtime now when what was promised was two days, so who knows the current state of things? There billboard, which is still active, certainly puts on a show of normal activity, but their website https://www.usautosales.info/about-us now redirects to a site which is strictly about loan payments.

I'm trying to bring to mind what this building was before. It looks like it has always been a dealership, but I'm drawing a blank on the history. Nice color scheme though.

This WLTX article (which is actually mostly about another used car dealer closing) mentions in passing that American Car Center closed in February. The story also calls it a subprime auto dealership, a term I am unfamiliar with, but which doesn't sound like something you would care to be called.

The property is fairly attractive. It's elevated with a nice view, and the buildings still seem to be in good shape. Assuming the economy picks up some, I expect another dealer will move in soon.

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I drove right by this place the other day when I was looking for it, because I forgot to write down the address, and I thought a vacant used car lot would be pretty easy to find. In fact I must have driven by hundreds of times while it was in business, and never noticed it. I can't find a standard review site but reviews on some of the smaller sites lead me to believe they were in business at least until fall of 2022.

At any rate it is good to see that the building is still being watched over.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)