The founder of the Casa Auto Group dealerships always had an eye for Buicks, said Luke Lowenfield, his grandson and the group’s vice president.

“I was talking to my grandmother, Pat, and she said this Buick thing started a long time ago,” Lowenfield said. “She said in 1950 when they started dating, he would pick her up in his yellow Buick and take her to the Buick dealership on Texas Street, then to the Oasis. But he was never able to get a Buick or GMC dealership.”

The Lowenfields will take the wheel at Crawford Buick GMC in a year that is ushering in a number of changes to the El Paso car market.

El Paso is a driving city, through and through. We love our cars.

But as the world continues to change, the El Paso market car now includes new ownership of old dealerships, more convenience for online car shopping and getting ready for a future with more electric vehicles.

Last week, the Casa Auto Group announced it had acquired the Crawford Buick GMC dealership, at 6800 Montana near the airport.

The deal had been a long time in the making, and the time was finally right, Luke Lowenfield said.

“We always had a car business acquaintanceship or friendship, and respected his dealership,” Lowenfield said of owner Travis Crawford. “He really cares about his people and takes good care of his employees. Those were some of the similarities in the culture we were drawn toward.”

He said he’d been in conversations with Crawford for over a decade. At the beginning of 2020, Casa got even closer to that acquisition, but then COVID hit.

Crawford said it was the right time to move on. He purchased the dealership in 1974 from Jimmy Nance, and said he’s had over 200,000 customers since.

“I looked all around for the perfect candidate to take care of my customers and employees, and the Lowenfields fit the bill perfectly,” Crawford said.

Crawford is originally from Grandfalls, Texas. He said he plans to spend time at his ranches in several states.

“El Paso’s been really good to me. It’s been a real pleasure for me to be the Buick GMC dealer for that long,” Crawford said. “We’ve seen a lot of engineering changes, and automotive products that are put out today are just fabulous. I’ve had some employees with me for well over 25 years. We’ve grown together, had ups and downs, but that store has never let me down.”

Casa Auto Group signed the asset purchase agreement in October, Lowenfield said, and hints of the deal were reported in El Paso Inc.’s Whispers column two weeks ago.

Luke’s brother Ronnie Lowenfield will be the manager on site at Crawford.

Car dealerships changing hands but staying locally owned doesn’t happen often. But the past five years have seen a flurry of activity in El Paso’s car market, including new dealers like Charlie Clark.

“There’s a handful of locally owned dealerships and we’re all committed to the community,” Lowenfield said. “We all love what we’re doing and don’t want to sell our stores.”

While traditional car buying remains the standard for finding a new ride, new trends are forcing dealers to rethink their inventory, focus on used vehicles and offer more incentives to a new crop of buyers.

Lowenfield said the El Paso market has seen a downward year-over-year trend of fewer new and used cars, but that the market tends to go in cycles of about seven years, and right now we’re in a period of slightly less retail sale activity.

There’s also been a trend favoring used vehicles, Lowenfield said. Dealerships have also had to contend with supply chain interruptions, such as computer chips used to manufacture cars.

But carmakers have continually pushed incentives, low rates and discounts to sell what is available.

“All the Casa store inventory is lower than historically because of that, because it’s hard to access those vehicles. To compensate that we’ve been increasing our used inventory, and that’s probably a credit to that slight uptick in used sales,” Lowenfield said.

For those in the market for a used car, or looking for a non-dealership purchasing experience, there are new options to get a car fast. It’s 2021, after all.

Carvana, a Tempe, Arizona-based online car retailer, announced last week that its as-soon-as-next-day delivery service is now available to residents in the El Paso area.

Carvana has over 20,000 used vehicles in its inventory around the country.

“We pioneered the online car buying experience,” said Amy O’Hara, associate director of communications at Carvana. “Consumers have continued to choose online car buying. Others are wanting to get to know it a little better, and the pandemic accelerated that.”

O’Hara said Carvana has a seven-day return policy and that all fees are included in the price. Carvana also purchases used vehicles from inspection centers, individual sellers, auctions and wholesalers.

While there are now more options for how to buy a car, there are also more options for what kind of car to buy. That goes beyond choosing a truck over a car, or a Honda instead of a Toyota.

Now, drivers can choose whether they want to be beholden to gassing up at the pump or charging up at home.

Electric vehicles are here. Tesla has opened a gallery and service center in Northwest El Paso, at 7825 Helen of Troy Dr. Potential buyers can browse the offerings and schedule a test drive, but a purchase is handled online. That’s because Texas laws dictate that a car must be sold through a dealership and not directly from the manufacturer. A request to Tesla for comment to on its El Paso location was not returned.

GM also announced recently that it would begin phasing out gas-powered vehicles by 2035 and will begin beefing up production and investment in electric vehicles.

“GM as a brand has been on the forefront of so much recently,” Lowenfield said. “I think GM is a very progressive brand, and one we’re excited to get to partner with.”

Some dealerships are partnering up to offer discounts and credits towards an electric vehicle purchase.

El Paso Electric recently launched its Go EV savings program, working with Casa Nissan to offer discounts and credits on the purchase of a Nissan Leaf, an electric vehicle. The offer is available until March 31.

Angie Rodriguez, senior corporate development project manager for transportation electrification initiatives at El Paso Electric, said the utility began reaching out to automakers in 2019 to partner with on initiatives like the Go EV savings program.

El Paso Electric also keeps a running tab of public charging stations for electric vehicles, as well as an online community just for electric vehicle owners, at EPElectric.com/EV.

“A lot of auto makers are sharing their plans pretty much every day,” Rodriguez said. “We’re looking at trends and customer interests in EV, and preparing the grid for high adoption rates of electric vehicles. We’re doing a lot of research to ensure we continue to provide reliable service.”