Words by Justin Hunter | Images by Al Blanton

One could say puppy love is how Jasper Auto Sales owner Jim Woods got into the automotive business, and the fruit of that covenant has kept him coming to work for decades. 

A native of Oakman, Alabama, Jim met the love of his life, Debbie Walton, in the seventh grade, a year that shifted the course of his life. Her father, Roy Walton, used to clean up cars for a former Jasper car dealer, Boyd Taylor. Jim spent years hitchhiking to the Walton residence to visit Debbie, and to clean up used cars with Mr. Walton. That experience got Jim interested in the car business. 

Debbie and Jim tied the knot right after they graduated from Oakman High School. Like many young men of his generation, Jim went to work in the coal mines. After putting in a 12-hour shift at Gorgas #7, he would head above ground and start detailing cars.

Jim, then 22, had a contingency plan if the mines shut down: he would either become a grocer or a car dealer. The mines did shut down around 1983 and Jim put his plan into action, selling a car here and there from his home in Oakman. 

“I could either make ten cents on a can of tomatoes, or I could make a couple of hundred dollars on a car,” Jim says. 

Jim also cleaned up cars for Bert Crump, and the relationship provided a perfect segue into the Birmingham market. “Mr. Crump took me to Birmingham one morning to pick up cars,” Jim says. “He introduced me to all used car managers. It worked out really, really good and got me going. When I came back, they sold me cars at good prices.” 

“The whole Crump family was always super nice to me, and I have a great respect for them,” Jim adds. “They sold me cars and helped me any way that they could.” 

When Jim started Jasper Auto Sales, he had a grand total of five cars, a couple of $1,500 vehicles, and one expensive car priced at $3,500. Over 30 years later, he vividly remembers the first car he ever sold off the gravel lot in Jasper. 

“It was a blue 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme,” Jim says. “We had just moved into our location on Viking Drive. The man drove the car up to the Baptist church up on the hill and it ran out of gas. I thought he wouldn’t buy the car because he came walking up to the lot. I grabbed the gas can from the lawnmower, bought some gas at the store, and put gas in the Cutlass. The man bought it off me right then.”

“It must’ve been too cheap,” he adds, laughing. 

Jasper Auto Sales now boasts three separate car lots in Jasper with over 250 vehicles in inventory. The dealership has a wide selection of used cars, trucks, and SUVs for every budget. They offer limited warranties and a wide variety of financing options to help customers drive off the lot in a vehicle. 

With two of Jim’s four sons, Matt and Winston, also helping in the business, the future of Jasper Auto Sales is in great hands. 

“Nowadays, I do more sitting than selling,” he says, “because of the boys.”

For Jim Woods, each day on the lot at Jasper Auto Sales is like a hunting or fishing trip with his boys. “You join your hunting club, and you plant your field,” Jim explains. “You’ve got your bait on the end of the line. Then you head out to your shooting house and you sit around all day. You might not see anything, or maybe you see just one little spike. You might see a nice six—or you might get that giant buck. But the potential is here every single day.” 78