About Us - Carter Automotive

Orvil W. Carter Automotive
Providing Southeast Kansas with Sales and Service for over 85 years.

History Orvil W. Carter began our company as a repair shop in March, 1921 at his home at 1015 W. Eighth Street in Coffeyville. He seviced cars and tractors; specializing in Generator, Magneto and Carburetor rebuilding. He began carrying repair parts to avoid the delays of ordering from the manufacturer. Because he carried inventory, other mechanics began buying their parts from him.

In the late twenties, Orvil added a mechanic and an outside salesman and began selling parts in Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma. The operation moved to 809 Union in downtown Coffeyville and added more people and inventory. Orvil put three trucks out making daily calls on garages, car dealerships, and service stations. He began distributing his own line of re-manufactured starters and generators, added air cooled engine parts, and functioned as an automotive electric parts specialist.

In 1948, the operation was destroyed by fire. The employees elected to restart the company at its present location and retain the name of the founder. With the growth of redistribution in the fifties, the company began selling to parts stores as well as dealers. In the late seventies, the decision was made to move into warehousing parts to auto parts retailers as the main function.

In June of 2012, Carters was one of only 6 finalists for the Kansas Govenor's Award of Excellence, the highest award given to a business by the State of Kansas.

Parts Sales We continue to operate our retail counter and our service department and believe our close contact with service and the walk-in trade gives us an understanding of how to give a good level of service. The lines we stock are nationally recognized as the leading quality brand names in our industry, and we pursue a very competitive price strategy.

Today we employ thirty good people in a facility just over 20,000 square feet in occupancy. We call on auto parts stores in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. We market quality lines and offer a full range of services which allows us to be competitive in an increasingly saturated market. We are committed to serving our customer's needs to insure each one's growth and success.

Repair Service Our company operates a modern automotive and air-cooled engine repair shop at 108 W. 12th Street.

Automotive repair is rapidly growing in complexity and our repair shop has the latest in diagnostic capabilities of any shop in the area. Our equipment has on-board computers capable of linking with any vehicle computer and giving the technician a printed or visual screen diagnosis indicating malfunctioning components and the needed repair.

Our technicians spend several days annually at regional training schools to keep abreast of the many changes in automotive technology and are trained on both domestic and import vehicle repair.

The air-cooled engine and lawnmower repair facility is a factory authorized repair station recognized by Briggs-Stratton, Kohler, Tecumseh, Snapper and Homelite as an approved factory warranty station. Our technician attends factory schools for each manufacturer annually.