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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