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

“There are a lot of wonderful auto dealers like CarMax, AutoNation, and Penske Automotive that are huge,” says Hodge. “We can’t outspend them when it comes to advertising, but we can out-service them.”

Navigating the Road Ahead
U.S. car sales reached a five-year high in 2012. Total sales for new vehicles reached 14.5 million units, a 13% increase over 2011. It was the industry’s best year since 2007. Toyota continues to shine as the No. 1 foreign brand in the U.S. with more than 2 million vehicles sold in 2012, up 27% from 2011. The U.S. market could reach record sales of a little more than 15 million units sold this year, according to industry reports.

“The challenge for auto dealers is to continue to do the things that they were doing as the 2008 slowdown occurred, like cutting expenses” says Hodge. “We are going to be fine.” Of course, “there are a lot fewer dealers today than there were prior to 2008. So sales per outlet have gone up.”

Lester says that the days of manufacturers having aggressive growth among several brands are nearly over. “New opportunities are not available now as before the recession. We’re seeing manufacturers with moderate growth plans largely because of a lack of capital.” March adds, “We are celebrating our 15-year anniversary. Over the years, you live and you learn. We have learned that more is not necessarily better. Having quality dealerships serve you is better than having a whole lot of bad dealerships. Our expansion and vision for the future is to be very selective in terms of what we add to our portfolio. If it is not a good deal then we just won’t do it.”

March Hodge is not afraid of alteration or making modifications. “One thing about the auto industry is that it changes almost every day. If you don’t change with it, you will get left behind,” adds Hodge.