Selling Cars Often a Family Affair

New car and truck dealers across North Carolina are giving new meaning to the phrase “it's a family affair.” Chrysler confers the “breakthrough dealership” designation on those businesses it considers the most forward-thinking and innovative. There are 65 breakthrough dealerships nationwide; Morgan Dodge Jeep in Durham is the only one in North Carolina. Three generations of Morgans have worked and played off each others' strengths to make it happen.

It was Joe Morgan Sr. who began the family enterprise in 1940 as Morgan Motors, a heavy machinery dealership selling International Harvester farm equipment and trucks. In 1970, after graduating from Duke University, where he studied political science, and a stint in the Navy, Joe Jr. returned to the dealership where he'd worked while growing up. His stay was supposed to be temporary, but soon he was hooked.

“It was – and still is – a challenge every day,” explains Morgan, now the president of Morgan Dodge Jeep. His first task was strengthening the franchise. One way of accomplishing that was to raise the recognition of new-vehicle dealers as “professionals . . . very concerned with developing outstanding relationships with customers and nurturing relationships within the community,” Morgan says.

As the dealership's community relations specialist, it is the job of Kay Morgan, Joe. Jr.'s wife, to meet needs by saying “yes,” whenever feasible, to requests for help. The company's long list of charities it supports includes the symphony, the YMCA and the Salvation Army. In addition, the business is a staunch supporter of the public schools, and gives money as well as time to the Durham Public Education Network, the N.C. Forum for Public Education, and a number of individual schools.

The employee roster has 82 names. Among those are Rick and David Morgan, Joe Jr.'s cousin and son, respectively. Both men work in sales; David also serves as the company's webmaster. It was a trained and effective sales force, a comprehensive system for customer follow-up and troubleshooting, good communications, and a high customer satisfaction index that earned Morgan Dodge Jeep Chrysler's prestigious Five Star rating.

It's not always easy separating business from personal lives. However, the Morgans agree that the best thing about working the way they do is the sense of accomplishment gained from pulling together as a family to achieve professional goals.

A few more samplings of dealer family trees:

u Bruce Murray, as did his father and his father's father, owns French Broad Chevrolet in downtown Marshall. Business is very good and expansion plans call for a relocation to Mars Hill.

u Earl Tindol's father was a technician for a Ford dealership in Savannah, Ga. Today, Tindol, treasurer of NCADA, is president of a Ford dealership in Gastonia that bears his name. His daughter, Natalie, serves as its general manager and his son Chris as a department head.

u Tim Michael followed his father and brother into the car business. He started selling automobiles part-time after graduating from high school. While on breaks from studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he continued to work at the family's dealership, Parkway Ford, in Winston-Salem. Today, at 39, he's president and CEO of Capital Ford in Raleigh and employs 325 people.

u Ben Mynatt is a partner with his children in two Concord dealerships. Cyndie is president of Ben Mynatt Pontiac Buick GMC Truck and Richard is general manager of Ben Mynatt Chevrolet Oldsmobile Cadillac.

u In 1998, John Alexander Jr., head of Cardinal International Trucks in Raleigh, was selected National Truck Dealer of the Year, an award now jointly sponsored by Heavy Duty Trucking and NADA's American Truck Dealers division. Thirty years earlier, his father, then head of the company known as Raleigh Tractor and Truck, was the first to receive the award.

Alexander's first job in his father's dealership was counting parts at age 12. From there, the North Carolina State University economics major worked his way through virtually every department until becoming president and general manager in 1981. The senior Alexander, who at 85 still pays regular visits to the business, imparted some winning lessons: taking good care of your employees and your community pays big dividends.

John Jr., recognized as a tireless fund-raiser for charitable organizations and public schools in Raleigh, is proud of the fact that others have felt good enough about the dealership to follow family members there. Five father-son teams work at Cardinal. The sales manager has two sons at the store, and both the son and son-in-law of a mechanic starting his forty-second year of employment work there as well.

u Norwood Bryan's father began a new-car dealership in Fayetteville in 1945. After graduating from UNC-CH, serving in the Navy, and then completing studies at Yale Law School, Bryan returned home to help his ailing father run the business. It was, he soon discovered, “an interesting thing to do.”

The former four-term member of the General Assembly is still interested, and still earning accolades. He's the president of Bryan Pontiac Cadillac; his brother, David, an equal partner, is vice president. This year, out of nearly 22,000 automotive dealers in the nation, Norwood was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the eight best.

The judging of the Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award is rigorous. Bryan's entry form was 13 pages long. It took that much just to outline his undeniably impressive list of civic, political and professional accomplishments. Not surprisingly, Bryan, NCADA's vice president, sees his and his brother's business as another way to serve the public.

“If you take a serious look at the investments dealerships make in their businesses and their communities, you'll see some right serious money and time. I'm talking about everything from providing a commercial tax base and employment to driver training and camping experiences for children. And we're happy to do it,” states Bryan, who adds, “When it comes down to who keeps America rolling, it's the dealers.”

—Lisa H. Towle