Digital Dealer - February 2019 - 20

C O V E R S TORY (Continued from pg. 19)

...WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED FOR EVERYTHING
AND ANYTHING, AND WE HAVE TO BE NIMBLE AND
AGILE, AND CERTAINLY CAPABLE ENOUGH, TO
HANDLE ANYTHING."
passion, and commitment that our
NADA team has for us. I think that
will inspire them to get involved. And
once they are involved, I want them to
challenge NADA. As I said, we're all in
this together, and I think this is how
we'll succeed.
We're also facing a critical shortage
of service technicians in the auto
retail industry, and we've got to
address that. Dealers are going to
need 76,000 more service technicians
every year between now and 2026.
That's an enormous number, but only
around 40,000 new technicians are
graduating each year from technical
schools, so there's an obvious
shortfall. Closing that gap will be a
major focus of NADA in the coming
years. And through NADA and the
NADA Foundation, we're launching
a workforce initiative to help recruit
and train the future technicians of our
industry.
Our workforce is our absolute best
asset as dealers. But if we want to
keep it that way, we have to figure
out a way recruit, train, and retain
the best people so we can continue
providing our customers with the best
experience possible.
DEALER MAGAZINE: Gilchrist
Automotive is family-owned and
operated. Please fill us in on your
background: how you got your start
and what positions you've held.
CHARLES: Well, I originally went
to college to become a lawyer, and
instead majored in accounting and
became a CPA. I worked for Coopers
and Lybrand, a Big Eight CPA firm
in Dallas, before I realized I really
didn't like accounting. In 1984, I
went to work for a dealer named
Kenneth Nichols and in 1986 moved
to Weatherford, Texas, to run his Ford

20

FEBRUARY 2019

dealership.
In 1986, I became general manager
of Southwest Ford and a partner with
Ken. In 1990, Ken bought Nichols
Ford and allowed me to run both
stores. In 1992, I negotiated the
buyout of Southwest Ford, and a
year later I negotiated the purchase
of the local Toyota-Jeep-Eagle
dealership. And in 1995, I purchased
the remaining shares from Ken and
became 100 percent owner in both
dealerships.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What do you
appreciate most about your career in
retail automotive?
CHARLES: Without a doubt the
people. The people I've met and
the relationships I've been able
to make over the years have been
wonderful. From my employees to
my customers to fellow dealers, our
manufacturer partners, senators and
representatives, other government
officials. What a career, that we get to
meet all of these wonderful people,
and each one of them has an impact
on us. In fact, many of them change
our lives. I've been blessed. My life as
a car dealer has been unbelievable.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What specific
challenges do you envision for dealers
in 2019 and how do you see NADA
helping them meet those challenges?
CHARLES: I mentioned the
technician shortage and what NADA
and the NADA Foundation is doing
to address that. We'll be talking much
more about our workforce initiative in
the months ahead.
We also still have a huge
affordability issue for new vehicles.
We need to make sure that new
vehicles, especially with all the
technology and safety features that
are being added to them, remain

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

affordable for all of our customers.
The affordability issue really
permeates everything we do. And
we also have to look at the way
our business model is changing,
particularly with the pressure being
put on our new-vehicle departments.
So, we have to be better and more
creative at running our stores, and
we have to work with each OEM and
figure out the best way to make our
new-vehicle departments viable and
sustainable over the long term.
DEALER MAGAZINE: The
millennial demographic is
increasingly important. How can
dealers attract more millennial
customers?
CHARLES: Well, according to
the numbers, dealers are attracting
plenty of millennial customers. In
fact, millennials are buying new cars
at a higher rate today than they did
a decade ago. If you look at Strategic
Vision data, in 2017 the percentage of
new-vehicle sales to consumers under
the age of 35 was 19.3 percent. In
2007 it was 16.6 percent. Millennials
are delaying a lot of these life events,
such as buying houses, having
children, and moving out of cities
- and buying cars - for a few more
years than we're used to. The Federal
Reserve Board recently verified
this, in November saying it "found
no evidence that millennials have
preferences for vehicle purchases
that are lower than those of earlier
generations."
But that doesn't mean we don't
have to change to accommodate
the changing needs and desires of
our customers. For example, if you
want to buy a vehicle from us, we
have the capability to let you do it
all online. We'll price it, we'll let you
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