American Off-Road

American Off-Road in Bakersfield, CA is family-owned and operated. Working beside owner Shay Sanders is his father, his wife, son, and nephew. “My love for all things off-road started while I was young” says Shay. He continues, “when my dad raced and built mud bogs and sand rails. Growing up I was right there in that world learning and building things out of the family garage. When he retired, I opened up the shop and he came here to work. He has fun doing what he loves because retirement is overrated. We’re a family-run business, and when a customer comes in, within five minutes, they’re a part of the family too. Our attitude is that without our customers we haven’t got a business, so we treat them right.”

All About Family

Along with the family atmosphere, American Off-Road adds something that’s rather unique: knowledge of off-roading and customer test involvement. “We use the products that we sell by installing them on our own vehicles. We use the vehicles for demoing and going out on the trails. If a customer is on the fence about the suspension, we’ll take them out on a trail to see what they’d be missing if they didn’t pull the trigger.

After they’ve had the upgrades, we actively take them out on the trails showing them how to go off-road properly. Then introduce them to local off-roading clubs. It gets them! And if they break stuff or want to upgrade even further, we are right there for them. We call one trial the ‘Ball and Chain’. That’s the one we teach about the tree-savers, how to winch properly, and how to operate their equipment.”

Why they chose Banks

Shay feels great about being a Banks dealer. “The Banks product that we put on our demo Jeep, ‘Gold Digger’… simply awesome! We sell the snot out of it all because you can’t dispute the difference that they make to the vehicle. In fact, when a customer is here for service, we ask them if they’d like to try the PedalMonster. It’s so easy to install and set up that we just do it for free, and the customer can feel the difference immediately… they’re sold right there and then! We’ll give them a ride in our Jeep, show them the iDash and let them experience the Derringer and the PedalMonster together. We’ll tell them if they buy them all at once we’ll throw in the three-hour install, and they’re sold.”

The local Jeep dealer is very familiar with Shay’s Gold Digger Diesel Jeep. “We do all of the lift kit installations for the local Jeep dealer in town, and we’ve taken the Gold Digger down there and let all of the sales team drive it to get them excited about what customers can do to their Jeeps, and how they can relate it to their customers. Here’s the kicker about the Banks products; it leaves no markers on the Jeep’s ECU! When it was down there I had them run scans on the vehicle to see if the product caused any kind of mayhem… and there was nothing. That makes me feel great about the product, and the dealer knows about it being there and them not being worried about it.”

American Off-Road
2505 K Street
Bakersfield, CA 93301
(661) 348-4750
Facebook: American Off Road