Jeff Smith car dealerships in Perry sold. New million-dollar KIA facility planned

The new owners of two well-known car dealerships in Perry plan to build a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art KIA dealership while repurposing the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram dealership, a high-ranking company official says.

Jeff Smith KIA and Jeff Smith CDJR in Perry are now ALM KIA and ALM CDJR.

ALM Automotive Group finalized the purchase of the two dealerships Monday, said Cade Ekes, vice president for operations.

“We’re excited to be a part of the community,” Ekes said. “We do plan on building a new facility for KIA. That’ll be in the next year or so.”

The new ALM KIA dealership is expected to be three times the size of the current structure at 103 Iffie Road. It will utilize the latest KIA Gallery 2.0 design, Ekes said.

Also, the new location is expected to be in the general area but may be closer to Warner Robins, Ekes said.

The company’s construction of the ALM Mall of Georgia represented a $10 million investment in Buford, he said. That dealership was completed in 2023.

Meanwhile, the company expects to remodel and expand the now ALM CDJR dealership also at 103 Iffie Road, Ekes said.

More details are expected to be released down the road, the company said.

Hiccup as company takes over Perry dealerships

The initial transition of the Perry dealerships to ALM was not seamless. All computer systems were down the last few days, which led to 15 customers being turned away whose vehicles needed specialty or recall work, Ekes said.

“Regular maintenance, oil changes, tire rotations, alignments, those kinds of things are still being done,” he said.

The impacted customers were expected to receive an email invite for a free oil change and car wash detail, Ekes said.

The company also plans to send an email blast introducing themselves to all of the dealerships’ customers once the computer system is up, he said.

Reynolds and Reynolds, which provides the management software for the Perry dealerships, assured ALM Automotive Group that “all systems and all data transfer would be done by the end of day,” Ekes said Wednesday.

Closed for the Fourth of July on Thursday, the dealerships were expected to reopen Friday with the computer system up 100%, he said.

ALM Automotive Group started in 2006 in Woodstock with one dealership that sold used vehicles. The acquisition of the two Perry dealerships brings the total number of ALM dealerships to 13.

The late Jeff Smith, who died Jan. 14 at the age of 63, was known for his entrepreneurial spirit and his philanthropy — including multiple vehicles donated over the years for an annual raffle that benefited the United Way of Central Georgia. The 2024 raffle raised a record $191,000.