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Central PA Auto Auction celebrates 35th anniversary

CHASE BOTTORF/THE EXPRESS Above, Grant and Doug Miller stand in the main lobby of the CPAA with the auctioneers who helped auction off about 750 cars.

ROTE — The Central Pennsylvania Auto Auction (CPAA) celebrated its 35th anniversary in style.

The auction held 750 cars for the anniversary with a $25,000 prize giveaway on Thursday morning at its facility near Route 220 in Rote.

The CPAA, a family owned and operated business, originally held its first auto auction on Sept. 1, 1987. Since then the auction has evolved with the ever-changing automotive industry, auctioning cars off along the way.

“We started here Sept. 1, 1987. For 35 years we have been here and that is to the day. I opened up with 510 cars; the second sale I had 187 cars; the third sale I had 122,” said president/CEO Grant Miller.

Grant Miller built the auto auction up with his own two hands in 1987 as his own contractor. He started construction in May of 1987, just four months prior to his first auction at the CPAA.

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“Everything I could do, I did myself,” he said.

Before helming his own lucrative automotive auction business, Grant worked his way up in the field as a car dealer. In 1959, he began selling cars for Ford and Spangler, formerly the Ford dealer in Lock Haven. That dealership is now Murray Motors.

As time passed, Grant chose to go into the used car business on his own, leaving Ford and Spangler. When he started up his own dealership, Chrysler came along in 1974 asking if he wanted to be a dealer for them, he said.

Despite lacking the funding, Chrysler upheld their deal and made Grant a dealer with the company. His dealership at the time was located along Hogan Boulevard in Mill Hall.

However, for Grant that dealership was short lived. In 1979, Chrysler was on the verge of bankruptcy and taking him right with them, Grant said.

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He sold his dealership in 1981. Following his departure from the Chrysler business, Grant ended up working for the Danville Auto Auction. He bought out the auto auction after his time there.

“I worked there for five years and ran the place. I decided that I wanted to try it on my own… running an auto auction. That’s how I came up here and bought ten acres of ground from a farmer,” Grant said.

On that ten acres of ground is where he built the CPAA and built onto it as time passed. As more and more cars came in, Grant had to add auction lanes for the cars. However, as the automotive industry changed, adaptations had to be made as well.

“At one time, we built the auction to where we were running about 600-700 cars every week. Then with the industry changing, it takes a new car to make a used car,” said Grant. “When the new car industry tightened up, we couldn’t get parts. The used cars dwindled as well. Our sales went from 600-700 cars to 50 cars.”

The CPAA used to run five lanes at a time, according to Grant. Now it is typically three lanes with the occasional fourth lane on a busy day.

CHASE BOTTORF/THE EXPRESS The Central PA Auto Auction is seen sprawled out along Airstrip Drive in Mill Hall.

“That’s just how much the industry has dried up. However, we have still been fortunate to be successful and to continue on,” Grant said.

Currently the auto auction has about 16 current employed transporters for cars, with some subletted transporters. The CPAA transports their own dealer cars to and from sales, according to Grant.

At one time 130 people were employed at the auto auction. Grant said there is around 100 current employees working, some since 1987.

Of those employees is his own son, Doug Miller, who has been with the CPAA since 1989. Doug helped build the auction to what it is today.

“I didn’t start until 1989 when I was 18,” Doug said. “I did a little bit of everything but auctioneer. I don’t know how to auctioneer.”

Starting at a lower level, he worked his way up to being vice president of the business.

The Millers and CPAA continue to hold automotive auctions every Thursday, 52 weeks a year. The CPAA is located at 41 Airstrip Drive in Mill Hall.

For more information call 800-248-8026 or visit their website at www.cpaautoauction.com or find them on Facebook @CPAA1987.

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