Digital Dealer - March 2018 - 35

model across our whole industry over
the last 40 years. I can remember
Y2K in '99. The world was going to
end. We all got ramped up for it and
it was the biggest non-event ever,
right up there next to Geraldo's Al
Capone vault.
Then in 2001, when I came on as
I.T. chairman, my dealership was
very progressive digitally. In the late
90s and early 2000, we were told to
prepare for the demise of the franchise system. The internet was going
to put dealers out of business.
IInstead, we sat down and sifted
through all that information and, at
the end of the day, we harnessed the
power of the internet to be productive for us. We embraced it. We said:
Look, there's some great things here
that can help us serve our customers
better. And we got better at serving
our customers because of that technology. We have a similar opportunity today. We just have to figure out
how that's going to happen.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAREN MUSE

NADA CELEBRATED ITS
100TH ANNIVERSARY LAST
YEAR. FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
TO DEALERS AND TO CONSUMERS? IN OTHER WORDS, WHAT
IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
REACHING THIS MILESTONE?

Car ownership or vehicle
ownership is very misunderstood. I
think people outside of the industry,
people who don't have regular
contact with consumers every day
like we do as retailers, don't get it. We
are the touch point for consumers on
sales, on service, on everything. They
often underestimate the passion that
people have for their vehicles.
It's always amazing to me they
think nobody wants to own a car.
People who come in and buy vehicles
from us every day are genuinely
excited it. Sure, there are some people
who only see cars as a commodity-
and I get that. But the vast majority of
my customers are thrilled and excited
and energetic about it. They want to
buy a particular vehicle. They love
the new features. They're interested

in the design changes. It's a process
that is an extension of themselves.
It's a reflection of their personality.
It's deeper than getting into a
commodity and going someplace.

COULD YOU FILL US IN ON A
BIT OF PERSONAL HISTORY?
FOR EXAMPLE, WERE YOU
BORN AND RAISED IN
MICHIGAN?

Yes. I grew up in Michigan, in
Jackson, and went to school at the
University of Michigan. Graduated
from there and started law school.
I dropped out of law school, one of
the many law school dropouts, and
talked my father into going into the
car business with me. I started in
the car business at the age of 22 and
I've been a car dealer for 41 years,
always with Chrysler, and that's
been a great ride. I've owned other
franchises, including Hyundai and
Chevrolet.
I've always had the philosophy
that in this industry you have to either get big or get good - very good.
I decided to focus on one store that
was really exceptional rather than
expand. I understand and appreciate both business models.
Over the years, we've been very
innovative. Extreme Dodge was
the first dealership in the country
that had internet access on every
desktop and in every service bay.
We provided internet to our technicians in 1996. We had the first
T-1 line installed in a dealership in
the country. We were using pretty
good bandwidth back in the 90s,
which was unheard of. We have
a very unique selling process, in
that all of the information goes to
the desktops and we don't have a
management staff, it's unilateral.
It's an employee-friendly structure
and they get all of the information
at their fingertips. I enjoy the new
technologies and I enjoy innovation,
and that's why it's going to be so
much fun to be chairman this year.
Because there are great projects on
the horizon in the auto industry,
and I want to be part of figuring that

out for the dealers.

WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO
THE RETAIL-AUTO BUSINESS
INITIALLY AND WHY DID YOU
CHOOSE TO MAKE IT YOUR
CAREER?

I'm afraid this is a very shallow
answer. The truth is, I dated the
daughter of a Chevrolet dealer when
I was in high school. I just loved the
industry because of that. He was a
Chevy dealer, so they had new Camaros. I know I'm supposed to tell you
some deep, passionate story about
wanting to save the environment,
but the truth is, I really liked the
lifestyle the Chevy dealer had. From
my perspective, it was a pretty good
life that he had created for his family.
I just thought it was a great industry. Back in the sixties and seventies
when I was growing up, when every
car would change every year, I loved
seeing that new product. It was exciting to see the new product.
There's a lot of sizzle with our
industry and I like that. It moves
fast. You make decisions. You do
something different every day. You
negotiate constantly. I love negotiating deals. It's just fun to me. I
can't imagine sitting at a desk doing
the same thing every day. When
you're in the auto business, you've
got five businesses you're running.
You've got new cars, used cars, parts,
service and body shop. It's like five
huge businesses and you've got them
all going at the same time. Many
dealers, if not most dealers, have
multi-franchises. You have the interaction with different manufacturers,
different OEMs; it's just fascinating.
You go a hundred miles an hour,
from the minute you step into your
store until the time you go home.
If you're the kind of person like I
am who likes that, then it's a great
industry.
I don't understand why we don't
attract more college-educated sales
people or technicians. We have
well-paying jobs in our industry. The
average dealership employee salary

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

Continued on pg. 36
MARCH 2018

http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2018