At a time when the U.S. auto industry is struggling to stay afloat, Weaver Auto and Truck Center sits vacant, and the winter doldrums is coming on fast, Lee Hartwell is jumping into the used car business in Grass Valley.

This week, the biker and retired line man opened his gravel car lot quietly at 1417 East Main Street. Florescent colored flags flapped wildly from string marking the business where four clean used cars sat facing the traffic.

He doesn’t deny the economy is bleak, he himself lost “a ton of money on the stock market,” but he is optimistic that he and his fiancee, Connie Reisenweber, can tap into a niche market— selling cars priced under $5,000 to high school and college students.

“There’s a lot of students who need transportation but don’t have a lot of money,” said the Peardale resident. “People still need vehicles in a lousy economy.”

On the same street, two other used car dealerships are holding their own and learning to adapt to a different type of market where everyone is searching for value.

“It’s a challenging market, no doubt about it. We’ve adapted to a new market,” said Tom Rubino, who took over ownership of Pioneer Motors three years ago. He specializes in nearly new “squeaky clean” vehicles with low mileage.

Being in the used car business has its benefits during tough financial times.

“With used car dealerships, I’m not forced to stock unpopular items. I am much more nimble and flexible in car buying choices then new franchise dealerships.

Unfortunately when you’re a franchise dealership, you have to take the good, the bad and the ugly,” Rubino said.

Weaver Auto and Truck Center, a state-of-the-art dealership, lost its

GMAC-bankrolled vehicles and was forced to shut down.

Buyers who need a car to replace a broken down vehicle are still around, but the impulse buyers are gone, Rubino said.

“Those people have by and large gone away,” he said.

Unlike a few years ago when everyone was trying to keep up with the Jones’s, the use of home equity lines of credit to buy a vehicle is almost a thing of the past. Now finding financing to buy a car has become a challenge.

A higher percentage of people are seeking out clean, dependable cars for under $10,000, said Gene Roghair, a salesman for McMillen’s Gold Country Motors.

“It’s a very different market than it was,” Roghair said.

“We’re seeing a shift in value conscience. People still need automobiles. They can’t get by without them,” Rubino said.

Unit sales are down by about 10 percent from last year at McMillen’s. Last year, the dealership’s sales averaged 24 cars per month, compared with an average of 22 this year, said owner John Isaeff.

But the prices of the cars he sells has dropped. He now stocks economy cars priced between $8,000 and $20,000, with a goal to stock more cars priced at $13,000.

“We’ve reduced my average selling price considerably,” he said.

Repossessed vehicles have flooded the market during the economic downturn, giving dealerships plenty of quality cars to choose from.

“There’s almost more available now then there was a year ago because of repossessions,” he said.

Rubino predicts the auto industry will have to weather flat sales next year, with a slow rebound. If the government doesn’t get involved with a careful well-structured bail out plan, the economic impacts will be “catastrophic,” affecting everything from the trucking and the rail industry to aerospace, he said.

To contact Staff Writer Laura Brown, e-mail lbrown@theunion.com or call 477-4231.