Digital Dealer - January 2018 - 32

DDW & CATA | Feb. 13-14, 2018 | Chicago

Cover Story (Continued from pg. 31)
Board in 2006, I was asked to work
with another dealer, Colin Wickstrom, to ﬁnd a charity that our
dealer body could get behind and
help. The board chose the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.
Kids with diabetes have a very
tough road ahead of them. If you
have diabetes, it is very diﬃcult to
control. You can suﬀer from blindness, heart conditions and many
long-term complications.
JDRF does a great job not only
raising money to ﬁnd a cure but
also educating people on long-term
control. The FDAF was able to sign
up Ford dealers to sponsor JDRF
family teams in their annual walk.
Over 80 dealers each year help raise
over $2,500 per team that goes
directly to JDRF. Our FDAF alone
has raised well over $500,000!
That money will help ﬁnd a cure
during our lifetime.
Our FDAF also donates a live
auction item each year to the JDRF
Gala in December. Those items
have raised over $15,000 each
year! My family has attended these
events each year. They are just as
moved as I am by the outpouring of
love given by the families that are
helped.
Being part of the CATA has also
helped me help JDRF. By being
a board member, I was able to
include JDRF in our "First Look
for Charity" event. Eighteen local
charities are able to participate in
the money raised during this onenight event. Last year we raised
over three million dollars for the
charities. JDRF has participated
in this event the last ﬁve years. If I
wasn't a car dealer, I would never
have been able to help JDRF like I
can today. Thank you FDAF, CATA
and my fellow dealers!

WITH 30 YEARS OF
EXPERIENCE IN THE
INDUSTRY, WHAT ADVICE
WOULD YOU SHARE WITH
SOMEONE CONSIDERING
AUTO RETAILING AS A

32

JANUARY 2018

CAREER?

It is a great career, a fun career,
especially if you love people. You
have to be a people-person to be
in this industry. The hours are not
conducive to getting a lot of nights
oﬀ or even a Saturday oﬀ. You
have to understand you're dealing
with consumers and the consumer
always comes ﬁrst. If you look at
it in the right way, we're providing
people with transportation, helping
them with their lives. Without us,
whether it is the service end of it or
the sales end of it, people are stuck.
They need a car to get to work or
get their kids to school, doctor's
appointments, baseball games or
whatever it is. We can be there to
help them. You can make as much
money as you want in our industry. No one will cap you on the
number of cars you can sell. As my
father once told me, "If you want a
raise, sell another car!" Not many
businesses allow you the freedom
to make whatever you want.

CRYSTAL BALL TIME.
WHAT'S AHEAD FOR
DEALERSHIPS?

Great question. You know,
there's a whole new business trying
to come into America. I was over in
Shanghai, China, for the Shanghai
Auto Show. There has got to be 100
Chinese auto makers over there,
and they produce anywhere from
two cars to a full line of vehicles.
Some of them are going to try their
hand in the United States and a lot
of them have wonderful products.
How they want to market to the
public might be a little diﬀerent.
A lot of these manufacturers from
China are going to try direct selling
and that's something we're going
to have to face down the road. We
have franchise laws, and they are in
place to protect not only the dealers
but consumers as well. What if a
company direct sells to the consumer, abandons the market after a
year or two and doesn't have a dealer network to service their vehicle?

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

The consumer is left in the cold.
Think how many brands have come
and gone. It is a serious decision
that needs to be addressed.
Ride sharing? That's going to be
another thing. I don't know how it's
going to play out. Manufacturers
may get involved in that market,
where they have their own ﬂeet of
ride share vehicles. So, you may
have an app on your phone and if
you don't have a car you can deliver
yourself a Ford Explorer. The car
will pick you up and drop you back
oﬀ again. Is that going to be the be
all-end all and dealers will be left
out? I don't think so. There's too
much we provide to our customers
and our communities and I don't
think we're going anywhere.
Autonomous vehicles? Probably
in the next four to ﬁve years, you're
going to see them. You see them
now. I was down in Pittsburgh
visiting my son and saw a ﬂeet of
Volvo cars; they were Volvo Ubers.
They were autonomous Ubers driving around picking up customers. I
think autonomous is good and will
help the safety of each passenger.
If you fall asleep at the wheel, the
car can take over. However, I think
it will become an option, like an
auto-pilot. I think it will turn out to
be another enhancement to the way
we sell cars. It's going to be diﬀerent. I know a lot of people who love
driving, including myself. I like to
be in control of the car and to feel
its performance. Maybe on a long
cross-country drive it might be nice
to hit the "auto - pilot" button and
enjoy the ride! It will also protect
us from distracted driving or other
dangers of driving.
No matter how you slice it
change is coming. We've already
had a lot of change in the last ﬁve
years in our industry, and I think
it's all been good for the industry.
I look forward to the opportunities
it brings to our industry. One thing
will never change: America's love
aﬀair with the automobile! ■
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - January 2018
