Corpus Christi’s Automobile Whisperer

When Curt Hills buys a used vehicle, it’s a labor of love — a devotion that extends beyond the actual purchase into the cleaning and care of just about anything motorized and on wheels. As the owner of Oasis Motor Co., Hills said that between the jobs of preparing a car for resale and actually selling it, he’d rather be up to his elbows in engine grease. Which is why, if you find him at his desk, he’s usually searching the Internet for a part. Otherwise, he’s in a service bay.
“Working on cars is a hobby that turned into a business,” Hills told Corpus Christi Business News. The evidence is on every wall in his office. His bookshelf is crowded with model cars and other vehicle memorabilia. 
“I used to build model cars, then take the leftover parts and create my own cars,” he said, adding that he still has every model he ever built — somewhere.
“Curt Hills is not the average car dealer,” said Mauricio Ramirez, the general manager of Oasis Motor Co. “Curt handpicks his cars like a good chef going to the produce market. He loves fixing and detailing cars and spends more time with the mechanics in the shop than with the sales staff.”
Hills has been doing just that since he was 14 years old — before he even had a driver’s license, which he got when he was 14½. He borrowed the money from his younger brother, Craig, who has worked in the business with him for 30 years now, to buy a 1928 Model A Ford. The car was 31 years old. 
Hills painted it black and had it in perfect running order before he traded up to what he calls his “real car,” a 1958 Chevy Impala. 
Despite his love of cars, he claims getting into automotive sales as a livelihood was an accident. Just out of the Navy, he took a job selling copier machines in Corpus Christi, where he has lived since he was 5 years old. His sales manager, who was supposed to be training him in the business at hand, was instead driving to car lots across South Texas looking for cars to buy and sell. The goal was to buy a car during the week to sell on the weekend.
“It just fell right into what I always wanted,” Hills said. “I just found some cars that I liked, and the next thing you knew, I was selling them. I bought cars I wanted to keep myself.” 
Which is how he and a partner started JC Classic Cars in 1971. Located on Leopard Street, the lot featured muscle cars, antiques and classics.
“I like older cars. Don’t ask me why,” he said, spreading out pages of photos showing the inventory on his first lot. “I had a partner, and we bought what we liked and we did our own work. We did everything. We did it all ourselves.” 
Demands of the market and the need to make a living soon led him to stocking family cars, but he retained his habit of restoring each one to like-new condition before putting it on the lot for sale. 
“We didn’t enjoy working on them so much, but they were fun to drive,” he said. “We never had to buy a car again for ourselves.” 
Which isn’t exactly true. Although he claims only his wife owns a car — he drives any car he wants off the lot when it’s time to go home — he actually has six. Four of them fill up his four-car garage, and two are on the lot where he can work on them when he wants. All are classic muscle cars, including an orange and white Camaro. Photos of all six hang on his office wall. He starts them once in awhile, he said, but doesn’t have time to really enjoy them.
Hills concentrates most of his time on finding just the right automobile for his customers. What he looks for changes with the times, mainly because of the changes in the car business, from the quality and price to the way they are financed.
“When I started out, everything we sold was cash,” he said. “We used to sell Corvettes for $2,000 and still make a little money on it.”
Today, cars are more expensive and more complicated but also last longer, he said. 
“The cars are better,” he continued. “They used to rust real bad. Now, they don’t seem to rust anymore. They last a lot longer. I see cars at auction with 300,000 miles on them, and they sell.” 
Not to Hills, they don’t. He won’t buy a car with more than 80,000 miles on it, and it can’t be any older than 2006 — next year, 2007. 
“We’re only buying what the lenders will lend money on easily,” he said, “and the most current models. The older they are, the more problems they have, and we try to fix everything we find.” 
Another change in the market is the competition. Used car lots dot South Padre Island Drive, and many shoppers browse the Internet looking for even better deals. 
“A new car is used the minute you drive it off the showroom floor,” Hills said, not shying away from the term used for the industry euphemism “pre-owned” vehicle. “I’ve always said a used car is the best deal.” 
A used car is an even better deal when it’s been in the hands of someone who loves the business the way Hills does.
“I started out loving cars at an early age and stumbled into the car business” he said. “I’ve worked hard at it, you have to. It gets in your blood. It’s long hours and a lot of work, but you know what they say about car dealers: Car dealers don’t retire, they die behind their desks.”
Curt Hills most likely will be in a service bay when that day comes. Until then, he plans on staying in business and working on and selling the best used cars available.