Keith Bishop is a man with a mission: to dramatically simplify and improve the way his clients buy and sell cars. His goal is to provide a positive and stress-free car-buying experience across a wide range of products. His company, Clarity Automotive, will do almost anything: sell clients’ cars for them, help them find find a pre-owned car, handle the process of buying a new car from a dealership, and even manage a fleet of company vehicles. Think of him as equal parts real estate agent, personal shopper, and high-end concierge.
Keith grew up in Billings and got his degree in Mechanical Engineering from MSU Bozeman. After graduating, he spent a year in California working in Automotive and Aerospace Engineering. He then came back to Billings in 2005 and worked in a number of engineering and motor vehicle jobs, most notably spending ten years in service and sales at the Caterpillar Dealership. In 2020, Keith decided to put his two decades of training and experience to use and started his own company in the automotive space.
Clarity Automotive provides three basic categories of services: brokering pre-owned vehicles, facilitating new car purchases, managing fleets of company vehicles. Like a real estate agent, Bishop will gladly list a car or help the client find the used car they want. Unlike a real estate agent, his fees do not scale with the price of the vehicle: his base fee is $200, while his full-service package is $550. For the discriminating collector, Clarity Automotive saves valuable time: they sort through the thousands of online listings and bring their clients only the best. Keith has sold a range of vehicles, with some of the most interesting including a 1986 Mercedes 500 SL Convertible and a Land Rover Defender from the UK, complete with right-hand drive.
For the lower-budget used car buyer, Clarity Automotive arguably provides an even more important function: doing the due diligence to weed out bad deals, saving their clients huge amounts of avoidable maintenance and repairs. While both low and high dollar buyers are probably strapped for time, those with lower budgets may not have the margin to absorb the blow of buying a lemon. Asking someone to spend an extra $200-$500 when buying a $3,000 car sounds steep, until they realize that using Clarity Automotive might save them thousands of dollars in unforeseen maintenance.
What if the client wants a new car from a dealership? We’ve all been there: hours and hours with pushy salespeople, and hours more to actually close the deal. Keith has devised an innovative way to spare clients the headaches of dealing with OEM dealerships: he does it for them. For those unsure of exactly what they want, Bishop can provide, well, Clarity. Perhaps a client wants an SUV but isn’t particular about brand; Keith will find them a list of options in their price range, custom-tailored to their sensibilities. But, the fun doesn’t end once clients have a short list. When his clients are ready for test drives, Bishop schedules it for them, and they can rest assured that the words “What will it take to get a deal done today?” will never pass anyone’s lips. Keith makes sure the sales reps know that they will be dealing with him and not the clients, guaranteeing a harassment-free and enjoyable experience from start to finish.
Last but not least, Clarity Automotive has a few corporate clients that employ them to manage their fleets of company vehicles. Many companies rotate their fleets fairly frequently, and Bishop’s expertise saves the owners time and scores them more money on the trade-ins and discounts on new purchases.
In an era of commerce defined by omnipresent advertising and truly oppressive amounts of data to sort through, fee-based personal services that weed out the noise are a growing and certainly welcome field. When I buy my next car, I will set foot in our fine local dealerships exactly one time: for my carefully curated test drives. Everything else, from the time we decide what to look for to the time he delivers it to my door, will be done by Keith Bishop at Clarity Automotive.
