SH
African Americans, is frequently singled-out for
its abysmal m in o rity dealership record,
of the 174 Lexus dealerships are owned
norities. “ We completely agree w ith
ing said,” says M ike Michels, a
man. He adds that Lexus
who eventually sold his
Benz had one African American and a Hispanic
dealer who also sold their franchises.
N A M A D has done yeoman w ork in the past
to increase the numbers o f m in o rity-o w n e d
dealerships. Vaden-W illiams vows 199~ won’t
be any different.
Carl Dukes, the owner o f Joliet Dodge in
Joliet, III. has no doubt of that.
I th in k they need to have tim e to react and
develop a long-term plan to combat changes in
the marketplace," Dukes says, a rare, black sec
ond-generation dealer whose father, R.L. Dukes,
had a Chicago O ldsm obile dealership. “ I f they
do what they’ve done in the past, they’ll pro
vide the leadership that we need. ’
O rganization:
National Association of Minority
Automobile Dealers.
Headquarters:
Washington, D C.
Founded:
1990
Members:
425 African-American. Hispanic.
Asian and Native American
dealers in the U.S.
Dealer p ro file o f largest
o Said
s a M an’s
W orld’
By Tedra Butler-D udley
Pamela Rodgers s n t a household a name. But anyone browsing the
pages o f most African-American magazines w ould know her face. She is
General M otors cover girl , pitching the w orlds largest automaker as a
company supportive o f women and m in o rity auto dealers.
Rodgers is one o f a handful o f African-Am erican women ow ning auto
mobile dealerships in the industry. The Michigan-based Rodger’s Chevrolet
is a $19.8 m illio n success that is growing. A n d Rodgers reaffirms that a
woman's place is where she chooses. Indeed, Rodgers asks in G M ’s ad:
“ W ho said it ’s a man’s world?”
Rodgers attributes her own success to w orking harder to prove your
self. W hen Rodgers decided to leave Ford as a financial analyst in 1986 to
pursue a dream of becoming an autom obile dealer, “ there were few women
in the autom otive business, she says. It took persistence to convince the
m in o rity dealers training programs that I was serious. I had to reapply for
the program and was finally accepted in January 1988.”
Rodgers is a product of Ford s dealer training program, but speaks highly
o f G M and Chrysler. “A ll the programs are good but they don’t teach you
one th in g — about how to deal w ith people.”
In fact, Rodgers says she learned how to deal w ith people “ by selling cars
at m y mentors G M dealership before I entered the training program.”
In addition, Rodgers draws no distinction between African-American
auto dealers and other auto dealers. “ M any African-Am erican dealerships
are not in African-American neighborhoods so you must know how to
earn your business, and that’s by concentrating on quality, not numbers.”
The best w ay to introduce new
auto com panies:
Company
African-American
Dealers
General Motors
Ford
97
'Total
Dealers
8.346
240
5,120
Chrysler
75
4,615
Toyota
12
1.364
Honda
4
1.285
Nissan
12
1,233
Mazda
11
898
•As of 1996
'GM. Ford and Chrysler all have established pro
grams to recruit and train minority candidates
BMW Honda. Toyota. Nissan and Mitsubishi
have recently established such programs. Jag
uar. which plans to add new dealer franchises,
M
said it will seek minorities Mazda has no such
program in place, which is the case with other
Plymouth Neon
import manufacturers.
Pamela Rodgers
I-t
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