High Velocity: Black Enterprise’s African American Auto Dealer of the Year

Customer satisfaction is another foundation March Hodge was built upon. “Our service retention is off the charts,” boasts co-CEO Hodge. Indeed, March Hodge’s Lexus store in Northborough, Massachusetts, was the No. 1 dealership in the nation for customer satisfaction two years in a row for new and certified pre-owned car sales, as surveyed by the manufacturer.

Due to its management prowess, quality customer service, talented group of dealership co-owners, and level of sales success, Black Enterprise has named March Hodge Automotive Group the 2013 BE Auto Dealer of the Year.

Merger of Two Great Minds and Talents
This is the second time black enterprise has honored March Hodge as the be Auto Dealer of the Year. In 1999, the company was recognized shortly after the holding company was formed. But March and Hodge have been comrades for close to three decades. The two became good friends after meeting at the General Motors Academy in 1984, where they were exposed to every single aspect of the car business. Though they came from very different paths, the two managed to merge their talents and experiences.

A native of Daytona Beach, Florida, March knew at an early age he wanted to be an engineer because of how he excelled at math. After earning a degree in electrical engineering from Howard University, he worked in the Fisher Body Division of General Motors from 1971 to 1984 and obtained patents for three electrical devices–one a pull-down unit for automatically closing car trunks and two motor control units for car seats. After graduating from the GM Academy in 1985, he opened a Buick dealership in Hartford, Connecticut, and expanded it to include GMC and Saturn dealerships in 1990 and 1993. He added Mazda and Mitsubishi franchises in 1998.

Hodge, a 1975 graduate of Norfolk State University, went to work in sales at Colonial Chevrolet in Norfolk, Virginia. He quickly became salesman of the year and caught the eye of company owner Josh Darden, who became his mentor. After rising from salesman to general manager, Hodge applied for the General Motors Academy with sponsorship from Darden. After completing the GM Academy in 1985, Hodge became a part-owner of Colonial Cadillac in Virginia Beach, along with Darden and another partner. By 1991, he was ready to fly solo and opened a Cadillac dealership just outside of Atlanta. Within four years, he added two Volkswagen dealerships to his holdings.

Hodge takes pride in those early years. “I was a sales guy all my life starting with my first job,” he says, recalling how he sold 26 cars his first full month at the Chevrolet dealership. “I was salesperson of the year in my first year.”

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