Cliff Banks
Cliff Banks has been involved with the automotive industry for nearly 20 years and has covered the industry for Ward's for nine years. He is an award-winning...more
A Minneapolis Business Journal Reporter called me the other day to tell me Twins catcher Joe Mauer had just bought the land on which Denny Hecker’s Southview Chevrolet (now closed) sits. Once his story printed, Mauer’s brother Bill called the reporter to say he had bought the land, not his brother Joe.
The source for the story was the Mauers’ grandfather who claimed Joe was setting Bill (who had been a sales manager at Southview) up with the dealership. Bill declined to say how he paid for the land.
Bill (or Joe) Mauer reportedly is trying to get the rights to the GM franchise, but the auto maker is blocking the plate, so to speak, in true Mauer fashion. For the record, Joe Mauer grew up in the Minneapolis region and is the best catcher in Major League Baseball today, and potentially will be the best catcher in the history of the game once he retires. In other words, he’s a Minneapolis icon.
A couple of years ago, this would have been a no-brainer for GM. But now, the world is much different. Unfortunately for Mauer, this is one hit he likely won’t get.
GM is in the process of eliminating about 1,300 dealerships (not counting Saturn, Saab and Hummer). Anyone getting a GM franchise today is going to have to have a proven track record of running a dealership.
For Bill, being a sales manager in the Southview dealership actually could be a strike against him. It was part of Denny Hecker’s empire which suffered a specatular collapse late last year. In fact, a grand jury right now is deliberating whether to bring charges against Hecker. He allegedly has defaulted on approximately more than a billion dollars in loans along with having a DUI in the last 12 months.
In other words, working for Hecker is not something to put on the resume when trying to get a dealership.
Another issue is that athletes in recent years have a had a poor track record owning dealerships. Several years ago, Mel Farr, a former Detroit Lion and Ford favorite, watched his automotive empire collapse. He targeted the subprime market, a tough one to succeed in.
In February, former Houston Oilers defensive lineman Ray Childress shut down his 40-acre auto mall in Texas while New Orleans Saints running back Deuce McAllister closed his Jackson, MS, Nissan dealership in March after filing bankruptcy.
Michael Jordan’s Lincoln Mercury store in North Carolina also closed earlier this year although, his Nissan dealership still is going strong.
One group of athletes that have done well in the auto business are race car drivers. Roger Penske has the second largest dealer group in the world while Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, owns more than 60 dealerships across the country. There are several others.
For now, it looks like Mauer will end up owning an expensive used-car lot.
William “Skipper” Beck died Friday, September 11, when his Cirrus SR22 crashed at the Rock Hill/York County Airport in North Carolina. Beck was the only one on board.
The plane apparently had engine trouble at takeoff, prompting Beck to return to the airport when the plane went down.
Beck, 49, was a longtime car dealer whose Beck Automotive Group appeared on the Ward’s Megadealer 100 ranking for several years as one of the top dealer groups in the country. Beck ran the group with his younger brother, Bobby, but in recent years had been selling the group’s stores.
Beck sold his Charlotte-based Mercedes store, Beck Imports, this spring to the Hendrick Automotive Group (Sonic Races to Avoid Bankruptcy.)
Last year, the Becks sold Prestige Ford in Garland, TX, one of the country’s top dealerships, to Randall Reed.
Beck held a 5% ownership in the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats and was instrumental in bringing the basketball team to Charlotte. Beck was known around Charlotte for his philanthropy, but was in the process of moving beyond a difficult legal situation arising from soliciting a prostitute involved in the high-priced Hush Hush call girl ring.
Cash for Clunkers is now over after generating nearly 707,000 direct sales, along with countless other sales for customers not eligible for the program.
Now what? Most analysts are afraid September sales will experience a downturn without the popular government financing.
Many of you have stories of crowded showrooms and of customers racing to the dealership in the hours before Cash for Clunkers ended in order to buy a car. The industry hasn’t seen that sort of excitement in years.
Wouldn’t it be nice to continue that momentum the next several months?
I recently saw the fictional movie The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard (you know, research for work) which details how a traveling sales team puts on a four day event to save a dealership from closing in Temecula, CA. (If you plan to see it, leave the kids at home). There’s one scene that struck me. The last day of the event, a hyped up concert at the dealership fails miserably and results in a riot.
TV news cameras captured the chaos. Unmitigated disaster, right?
Far from it. The scene’s star, Jeremy Piven (playing Don Ready, the movie’s hero) grabs a microphone, jumps in front of the news cameras and invites all of Temecula’s police department and anybody wearing anything resembling police gear to the dealership and promises a hefty incentive (I’m little shaky on the details – left my reporters’ notebook at the office) if they made it to the store by closing time.
Sure enough, it’s a Hollywood ending. The dealership is saved and Piven gets the girl.
In the midst of a wildy ridiculous story, I think there is a lesson to see. I couldn’t help but think Piven was capturing what being a dealer was all about with that stunt.
Instead of complaining how bad things were, he improvised and turned a bad situation into a winner.
Many of you did just that with Cash for clunkers. All sorts of problems and issues, yet you sold 707,000 vehicles.
Some of you want to keep that going. There is a group of 73 dealers who created their own stimulus plan (you can see the details at www.automotivestimulusplan.com) to compensate for some of the drawbacks of the government’s plan. Dealers participating in the program have raved about its success.
How about other areas?
A recent email from dealer marketing firm OneCommand, detailed the story of a California dealer who last year held a Labor Day picnic, bringing in more that 13,000 people. It was a weeklong celebration that generated more than $400,000 in service department work and more than 1,600 repair orders, and who knows how many customer contacts?
The point is, be creative, improvise and take control. If traffic slows, figure out a way to get them back.
Longtime Las Vegas dealer Daniel Towbin died on June 11 of a heart attack.
Towbin, who was 54, was chairman of Towbin Automotive Enterprises, which consists of Towbin Dodge, Towbin Infiniti, Prestige Infiniti, Towbin Motorcars (Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Vespa, Piaggio) and the Smart Center Las Vegas. The group sold 11,000 new vehicles in 2008 while employing 600 people.
He had been selling cars in Vegas since 1989, when he moved from New Jersey.
Towbin quickly became a Vegas institution. Although he was known for being behind the scenes, he became involved with numerous charities, including the Council for a Better Nevada, Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, the Three Square Food Bank, Easter Seals of Southern Nevada, Keep Memory Alive supporting the mission of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the Nevada Cancer Institute.
He was an honorary commander of the Nellis Air Force Base Support Team, member of the Andre Agassi Campaign Cabinet and past president of the TKO for Kids Foundation. The dealerships also sponsor events for Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas, the Ronald McDonald House, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children; the American Heart Association, the Safe Kids Coalition and the Klass Foundation.
Towbin also was an industry leader serving as chairman and president on several dealer councils and was a member of the National Automobile Dealers Assn. He was a General Motors Dealer of the Year and received the Jack Smith Leadership Award, and was nominated in 2007 by Time Magazine for its Dealer of the Year award.
Towbin’s wife, Carolynn will become chairman of the group. His son, Josh “Chop” Towbin is the co-owner of Towbin Dodge, known for the A&E television show, King of Cars,” while daughter Jesika (Towbin-Mansour) is the group’s director of operations.
Although times are tough for the auto industry and its dealers, OneCommand, a Cincinnati-based automated, multi-channel marketing firm is asking car dealers to help collect one million toys for needy children this holiday season.
Al Babbington, OneCommand’s CEO, says the firm is working with several nationally recognized organizations in the effort.
“The credit crisis and the Wall Street meltdown have shattered consumer confidence and devastated the savings of millions of Americans,” Babbington says. “Car Dealers throughout America are resourceful, determined and resilient entrepreneurs. They are the anchors of their communities and second to none for philanthropy and community spirit. This is a call to action that brings hope to the lives of the most desperate in our communities.”
The program can be a “win-win” for dealers. OneCommand plans to contact the more than 30 million unique households in the its database on behalf of its dealer customers and urge them to support the charity effort. In doing so, OneCommand hopes to drive a strong percentage of them into their local dealership showrooms and service drives with gifts and toys for the needy.
A few weeks ago, I flew to Atlanta and met with Jim Ellis to interview him for our annual Ward’s Dealer of the Year award. After spending most of the day with him, I am convinced he is one of the classiest and ethical people in the business. The Ellis group is one of the great organizations in automotive retail.
In 2001, Ward’s created the award to help shine a light on dealers who are sharp business people, great at selling cars and who are phenomenal people within the community.
It’s my favorite story of the year to write - that’s why I haven’t handed it off to others here to write. It’s an opportunity to spend time with great people in this industry. And there are many.
The toughest part is deciding who to name as the Ward’s Dealer of the Year. Past winners include Bert Boeckmann, Galpin Automotive; Jerry Reynolds, former owner of Prestige Automotive Group; Herb Chambers, Herb Chambers Automotive; Lloyd Chavez, Burt Automotive Group; Shau-wai Lam, DCH Automotive Group; Bob Pietroske, Pietroske Automotive Group; and Annette Sykora, South Plains Ford Lincoln Mercury and South Plains Ford Lincoln Mercury Dodge Jeep Chrysler.
Ward’s Dealer Business Editorial Director Cliff Banks shares his views on emerging trends and technologies that promise to help dealers sell more vehicles.
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