As part of our “Top 100 Used Car Dealers: Independent Edition" issue of Auto Remarketing, we asked some of the nation’s leading independent stores about the challenges they face in the pre-owned market and the strategies they use to overcome those hurdles, as well as how these dealers excel in the used-car business.

Below is what three of the Top Independent Dealers had to say.

Out West, Southwest Motors Inc., located in Pueblo, Colo., says the past three years have been the best in the dealership’s history, due in part to the store “adapting” to the shifting winds of the auto retail market.

“We have adapted to today’s automotive landscape. We have embraced the digital age, but have stayed true to our core principles. They have guided us through the past 20 years,” owners Mike and Randi Zavislan told Auto Remarketing.

The owner team also explained to succeed in the auto industry, one has to cater to their customers, yes — but they also need to stay true to their employees.

“We have the right people. The average employee has been with us for over 11 years. We put them first, and they believe in our philosophy, said Mike and Randi Zavislan.

Enterprise Car Sales, which made the Top 100 National Rankings for its Orlando, Fla., and Kansas City, Mo., stores, works to provide a large used inventory selection for its customers with a no-pressure approach when it comes to negotiation.

Mike Bystrom, corporate vice president at Enterprise Car Sales, said, “When customers visit Enterprise Car Sales, they appreciate our great selection of late-model, certified vehicles, competitive used-car prices and no-pressure sales approach. In fact, Enterprise pioneered 'no haggle' used-car pricing, and every vehicle we sell includes a 12-month/12,000-mile limited powertrain warranty.”

Moving over to highlight a Southwest dealerships, used success for Autoflex Leasing in Richardson, Texas didn’t come until the recession, when many in the industry were hurting for inventory and customers.

David Blassingame, managing partner at Autoflex Leasing, told Auto Remarketing his store only offered leases up until 2007, when the leasing market dropped off, as well as credit. In an effort to ramp up profit, the store started selling used cars and “were able to fain the lenders needed to service customers ranging from deep subprime to super prime.”

The dealership also worked to figure out where business is coming from since its primary audience had changed and advertised on a variety of radio stations in the area.

Lastly, Blassingame said the stores customer relationship management program is key.

“This has allowed us to eliminate all of our third-party lead providers except for one,” he said. “Everything else we are picking up from referrals or our radio advertising. All four of those stations we are on for a certain reason, because of the segment of business that they provide us.”

Editor's Note on Data: The Top 100 sales rankings in this report are courtesy of Cross-Sell Reports, a division of Dominion Dealer Solutions. The rankings are based on retail used-vehicle unit sales from full-year 2014. Please note that while the Cross-Sell data includes a substantial portion of the U.S., it is not meant to be representative of all 50 states.

Cross-Sell gathers the sales data via state DMV title registrations. Some stores within a multi-point group may title used-vehicle retail sales with their respective state DMV as a group, versus titling individually. It is up to the individual state to decipher such collective filings

Staff Writers Josh Hyatt, and Nick Zulovich, and editor Joe Overby contributed to this report.