Digital Dealer - March 2018 - 38

C O V E R S TO RY

Continued from pg. 36

final year today. I've got to tell you,
that advertising is long gone. Amortizing over 10 years was pure lunacy.
NADA geared up and we got that
one handled. We've had issues like
that, which the general population is
not aware of, and we're fighting for
constantly. It has not always been
the smoothest road with autonomous vehicle legislation working its
way through Congress. That's been
time consuming for NADA, but it's
been worth it because our involvement has made the bills much better
for both dealers and our customers.

HOW CAN DEALERSHIPS
ADD MORE VALUE TO CONSUMERS?

There's not a dealer in the United
States in the last 20 years who hasn't
said this: If you had told me 20
years ago that I would be doing what
I'm doing today in auto retailing, I
would have said you were crazy. I
can't tell you how many times I've
said that. As an industry we have
learned to be good service people,
and we're going to continue to do
that. Technology will help us do that
even more. Anybody who's been a
dealer for any length of time will
smile when they read that, because
there's no way 20 years ago that I
would have ever told you I'd be doing this. But that's why the franchise
system is a great working system.
It's always evolving, which is why
it works: we change with time and
we'll continue to do that.

WHAT'S AHEAD FOR DEALERS IN THE NEXT FIVE TO
TEN YEARS?

The next few years are going
to be very good years for the auto
industry. I think autonomous
vehicles put a big question mark
out there. But I feel confident that
the retail system we have now is
going to exist for decades to come.
Maybe in a little bit different form.
If I had to predict, I would tell you
that we will have vehicle ownership
similar to what we have now, but
we'll also have ride sharing services
that a lot of people will take part in

38

MARCH 2018

as well. It's exciting to think about
ride sharing for elderly and disabled
people, to give them mobility that
the rest of us take for granted. As an
industry, we have a great future in
front of us. There are challenges and
we're going to have to be adaptive
and proactive. We must continue to
bring value to the consumer.

COULD YOU GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE AUTO
INDUSTRY CAN BE ADAPTIVE
OR PROACTIVE?

Sure. I get questions about why
people are getting rid of their
sedans. I've been asked if I think
people will return to sedans once
the price of gasoline goes back up.
I don't, because SUVs now get the
same or similar mileage. When we
had the oil crisis and people were
driving big SUVs, we didn't have
little SUVs back then. Now, if you
want a compact, you can get a compact car or a compact SUV. SUVs
and CUVs are here to stay. They're
so convenient and customers like
them, and the gas mileage is good.
I will tell you on a personal note,
I'm very excited about electrification. I know that it hasn't had great
public acceptance. Pure electric and
plug-in hybrids still account for only
1% of U.S. sales. But that's fascinating to me and I hope I'm still in the
car business when we get to convert
260 million internal-combustion
engines to electric, because that
would make me smile to think about
that. It's exciting new technology.
How many times in your life do
you get to witness something that's
so transformative? We got to see the
development of the internet. That's
like what Henry Ford was doing
with the production line, as part of
the Industrial Revolution. We've
been participants in the Information Revolution. Wouldn't it be fun
in our industry if we got another big
change, like, say moving to electrification? How lucky would we be
to see that? From 1920 to 1970 not
much happened in the car industry. But look at the technology that

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

we've had since, it's just phenomenal. We lived to see the internet, and
electrification is next.

FINAL QUESTION. LET'S SAY
YOU'RE PITCHING THE IDEA
OF OWNING A DEALERSHIP TO
SOMEONE AND THEY'RE NOT
SURE THEY WANT TO GET
INVOLVED. WHAT WOULD YOU
SAY TO CONVINCE THEM TO
COME ON-BOARD?

I've got a little secret for everyone that I'm willing to share.
The pundits and experts do not
understand the buying public and
the relationship those people have
with their vehicles. I hear about the
millennials who don't want to own
cars, but I don't think that's true.
Millennials are just taking longer
to reach the stage of life where they
genuinely want and need their own
car or truck. They say people in
general want to be driven around
and don't want to own cars. But
I don't think that's true either.
People who use ride sharing see it
as additive to their own vehicles,
but they don't see them completely
replacing their own vehicles. I see
this every day. I make it a point
when I'm in the dealership to meet
every customer who is in our store.
I meet every single customer I can
every day I'm in the dealership. I
shake their hand and thank them
for doing business with us. And I
have to tell you, they are excited
about buying a vehicle. It's not a
burden; they're excited about it. It
is fun to make people happy every
day. That's true of my customers
and my employees. We have a lot of
young people who have moved up
through our organization and with
very little turnover. If you're looking for a career and for providing a
great life for your family and it's going to be here in the future-I think
it's going to change but it's going
to be here-I would recommend
this industry to anyone. Because it
attracts tough people and talented
people and I like being part of that.
You will too. ■
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2018
