AUBURN — In 1926, there were roughly 20 million cars on the road in this country, compared to nearly 300 million today. With Ford the dominant automaker, half of those cars were Model Ts. Pneumatic bias-ply tires with inner tubes began replacing so-called clincher tires, named for the way they fit on the wheel rim.

It’s also the year that Edward Quirk started Quirk Tire in Watertown, Massachusetts. Decades later, the company would buy VIP Tires and Service, founded in Lewiston in 1958 and now headquartered in Auburn.

Edward Quirk’s grandson John now runs VIP, which has grown into one of New England’s largest, independent automotive service dealers, with 77 locations in five states, including 35 in Maine.

A SHIFTING INDUSTRY

In 1985, John Quirk was 26 years old, living in Manhattan and selling computers, when his father called him and told his son he wanted to retire. Quirk bought the family business, which at the time was focused on commercial tires for big off-road vehicles that serviced rock quarries, construction sites, and the Port of Boston.

Quirk said the industry started to shift. The state of Massachusetts was funneling all its federal money into mass transportation and away from highways. He said he found himself constantly chasing down contractors who owed the company money, and there was a higher profit margin in retail.

“I recognized that we had a real passion for the service business,” Quirk said. “A lot of those same principles in the commercial service we could apply to the automotive side of the business.”

A failed attempt to buy out a competitor in the 1990s led Quirk to call Tom Auger, owner of VIP Discount Auto Center in Lewiston, which had more than 40 stores. Auger had health problems and wanted to sell the business.

Financing became a difficult process in the midst of the dot-com bust, but Quirk convinced Larry Day, then president and CEO of TBC Corp. — one of the largest distributors of tires in the country — to back him for the VIP acquisition.

The deal closed two weeks after 9/11, and Quirk was the new owner of VIP.

FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE

The early pioneers of the automotive parts business included Pep Boys, Western Auto and Advance Auto Parts. As the auto industry changed, so did the service and auto parts sector, which became more competitive.

“The other real big thing was the life cycle of an auto part,” Quirk explained. “It changed dramatically (from) when you and I were kids,” referring to the 1960s.

“You look at Oldsmobile, Chevy, Cadillac … the cars all look different, but they had the same guts underneath, same 350 engine, same starter, alternator, battery,” Quirk said. “So, you look at the life cycle of an auto part SKU when it first was developed, and you have a nice, slow slope up, maybe 10, 15 years.”

SKUs, or stock keeping units, allow companies to track inventory. Today’s cars, Quirk adds, are globalized. While there might be the same engine, there are different brackets or connected parts. “So, the proliferation of SKUs just was mind-boggling.”

That meant more parts to be stocked and inventoried, which required capital, giving an edge to the biggest competitors. “Eighty percent of the market share on auto parts stays controlled by four companies in the U.S.,” Quirk said. “It’s AutoZone, NAPA, O’Reilly’s, and Advanced Auto is a distant fourth.”

Facing shrinking retail margins and a growing cost for inventory, Quirk concluded that getting out of the retail end of the parts business was the path forward. Pep Boys came to a similar conclusion and has phased out the parts business.

In 2012, VIP sold the parts business to O’Reilly Auto Parts after intense negotiations. O’Reilly was the only company of the big four to agree to a co-branding arrangement — and to buy all 56 stores at the time. AutoZone only wanted to buy 32 of the stores, but Quirk stood his ground.

Today, some VIP locations are standalone.

VIP Tires has expanded into Connecticut, with five locations currently, and Rhode Island is on Quirk’s radar, although the company’s expansion plans are modest.

“We’re not trying to chase any number to get to 100 stores or whatever,” Quirk offered, “but as long as we continue to earn our stripes … we’ll open two to three stores a year.”

Quirk said he isn’t ready to retire, but he is hopeful that at least one of his three children will be the next generation of Quirks driving VIP Tires and Service into the future.