WACO, Texas (AP) - Bill Miller’s Used Cars, an iconic business that can trace its founding back 105 years and survived urban renewal, the deadly Waco tornado of 1953 and the owner’s battle with cancer, is selling its last pre-owned vehicle this week and will retire as arguably the city’s oldest car dealership.
The Waco Tribune-Herald (https://bit.ly/1EGQHXB ) reports Trey Miller, nephew of the establishment’s namesake, said he is tending to last-minute details this week, including selling every vehicle on display at the company’s decades-old headquarters.
He was down to three vehicles Wednesday after finding buyers for 27 a couple of days earlier.
“It’s hard to shut down the oldest automobile dealership in Waco and maybe in Texas,” said Bill Miller, 78, in a text message. “I want to thank all my customers and employees that stuck with me over the many years. The car lot is in a good location on East Waco Drive and should make a good place for some young businessman.”
Bill Miller no longer can call the shots, his voice ravaged by treatments at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
“The radiation that cured the cancer did a number on my neck and throat,” he said via text, adding he still feels well enough to walk 3 miles a day.
Miller, whose nickname is “Tiger Bill,” joined the family business in 1960 after graduating from the University of Texas and fulfilling his obligation as a captain in the U.S. Army. He eventually would take control of an enterprise that his grandfather, Fred Miller, founded in 1910 and his father, Allen Miller, continued.
In the beginning, Fred Miller sold wagons and mules, not contraptions whose pep was measured in horsepower.
But his world changed with the growing popularity of Henry Ford’s Model T, which went into production in 1908.
“He would take 40 men to Detroit on the train and buy 80 cars and pickup trucks,” Bill Miller wrote. “They would drive one and pull one with a trace chain. They were all Model T Fords and all black. They had to haul their own gas, since there were no service stations on many roads. They had to cross Indian Territory in Oklahoma before they became a state. The Indians chased them but never hurt them. I think they just wanted to look at the cars.”
Miller’s salesmen would have found buyers for all 80 vehicles by the time the crews made it back to Waco, so they immediately would return to Detroit.
A Model T sold for $595, and the Millers would place payments in a bushel basket before depositing the sale proceeds at the First National Bank of Waco.
“There was no paperwork at that time,” Bill Miller wrote. “Just $595 and a bill of sale. No tax, no title and no contract.”
Miller estimated that his grandfather sold 50,000 vehicles, though not all Model T’s, between 1910 and his death in 1945.
“They were the main car dealer in Waco, so if you bought a car in Waco, you just about had to buy from the Millers,” Bill Miller said in his text.
The Millers launched their business empire at 115 Washington Ave., about where the Courtyard by Marriott now operates. They later relocated to an area now occupied by the Waco Convention Center, selling cars there until 1969, when the federal urban renewal program bought the site.
Shortly thereafter, they bought the original Kim’s Drive-In location and have never left East Waco.
“I guess in the past 45 years, I personally have sold around 20,000 cars,” Bill Miller wrote. “In my day, I bought most of my cars from the new car dealers. We advertised in the Trib that we would pay top dollar for your car or pickup truck. We had a salesperson from the Trib call on us every day to get our listing of cars for sale.”
Miller said he financed just about every car he sold and tried to keep prices below $4,000.
“I loved the used car business,” he said. “I thought it was the last frontier of free enterprise.”
Trey Miller, 52, said he began working at the dealership when he was only 10 years old, his uncle Bill putting him to work washing cars. He recalls how Bill Miller’s Used Cars became an East Waco institution, where many customers bought their first set of wheels and established credit.
“We tried to be good neighbors,” Trey Miller said. “We didn’t repossess cars at midnight. Ninety-five percent of the time, they knew we were coming, and we’d let them get things out of the car before we took it away. If you were facing lean times, we might give you an extra week or so to make your payment.”
But the dealership contracted in recent years, and with Bill Miller facing health challenges, Trey Miller more and more ran the place by himself. He said he became frustrated with the growing amount of red tape required to operate a dealership, saying, “My grandfather could sell a car in 10 minutes. Now I can’t sell one if my computer is down.”
He has decided to join his father, Allen Miller, in running a growing bee-removal business called Bees Be Gone.
McLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson, who once represented East Waco on the Waco City Council, called Miller’s business a “cornerstone” of that community.
“He came here and never left,” Gibson said. “That would indicate he liked East Waco, and it liked him. He was a good businessman and well respected.”
Gibson chuckled and said he grew up hearing people joke about “Bill Miller’s three-day thriller,” a reference to the three days of life left in some of the older cars he sold.
The Millers were aware of the unflattering rhyme, “and I suppose it will live in infamy,” Trey Miller said with a laugh. “But it didn’t bother me.”
He added that his uncle could poke fun at himself, and even placed a sign in his office that said, “If you’re not completely satisfied with your vehicle, bring it back and we’ll apologize.”
Trey Miller said the thrill ride for Miller’s Used Cars ends Friday.
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Information from: Waco Tribune-Herald, https://www.wacotrib.com
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