Proud to Have a Ford in my Driveway

by : Tim Deese

Our industry has always been a very interesting business since we are the mavericks and the last place that the customer can still actually be the boss. No matter how beat up they get at work, when they come to buy an automobile they know they can negotiate and have a say-so in the way they are going to spend their money. It’s interesting to watch all the changes that have taken place in our industry, especially with all the personalities.

In 2004, I decided that it was time to quit impressing myself with myself, and I traded my S500 for a brand new F150, 4WD Lariat, that I ordered equipped exactly the way I wanted it. The last time I had to get the John Deere tractor out to pull my Mercedes from a muddy field, I figured it was time to go ahead and forget about what I looked like and to be in something that could actually take care of what I was trying to accomplish. That was a Ford truck. I’ve been proud of that Ford truck since it came off the carrier because I ordered it just the way I wanted it.

In watching the ins and outs and the ups and downs of our industry with GM, Chrysler, and Ford, I can’t tell you how proud I am to see Ford stand on its own two feet and say, “We’ll work this out.” I also commend the men and women in the Ford dealerships who are on the blacktop, as salespeople, for hanging in there and staying during this last year when our market and the news has been absolutely terrible.

I remember vividly as a 29-year-old Dodge dealer in Auburn, Alabama when Iacocca had to apply for the loan guarantee and the salespeople that stayed with me through that whole time with the rash of hearing “you won’t make it.” Then Iacocca pays the money back; America applauds Chrysler, the minivan and the K car came out and those salespeople who hung in there had product that everyone in this country wanted. Their commissions went through the ceiling. We had Toyota and Honda salespeople applying for jobs. I was able to get out of both franchises without taking a hit or having to go bankrupt. It was a wonderful transition of going from worst to first almost overnight. At that time I started Progressive Basics.

This weekend my wife and I took the motor home to a beachfront campground in the very rural Atlantic coast of Florida, an unknown campground on the ocean where your motor home and the ocean’s high tide are less than 20 feet apart. I was with four or five guys who had been pulling fifth wheels (which I never understood when you could have a very comfortable motor home with slide outs); however, they still pull them. One gentlemen from St. Louis, who had retired from a chemical company, asked those of us in the group standing around drinking beers (except for me, I quit), “What are you guys pulling those trailers with?”

“Well I’m pulling mine with a Chevrolet,” “I’m pulling mine with a Nissan,” and so on, depending on the size of the trailer or the fifth wheel they were pulling, and when it got back to the St. Louis gentleman he said, “I pull mine with a Ford and I can tell you that I am damn glad to have a Ford in my driveway.” It all came together at that point because I chimed in with him and said, “I’m with you my friend,” and I think anybody right now that needs or wants a vehicle should stand up for Ford Motor Company. It doesn’t matter if it has a few problems; we’re not having to pay them to build cars. They’re standing on their own feet and getting it done.

You know and I know that it all starts from the sales floor up. It doesn’t start from the president of one of these manufacturers down; look at General Motors; they got all that money from the government and poured it all into the factory, that didn’t help them retail one more vehicle. They should have poured it into GMAC and allowed the dealers to put their sold out of trust units on notes or freed up that money to finance these 600 and up beacons, which are not that bad to begin with, and let the blacktop start the ball rolling again. That is where it’s all done.

And from an old Chrysler dealer in the Carter era, Ford Motor Company, I commend you with all my heart and soul, especially those men and women on the blacktop. I say this as proudly as I can, being a disabled Vietnam veteran, I am proud to have a Ford in my driveway.

Tim Deese is the CEO and founder of Progressive Basics, Inc. He is a former franchise car dealer who has designed and implemented used car training and marketing for 15 manufacturers in 28 countries. Progressive Basics has trained over 50,000 dealers and managers. He has been a speaker at numerous NADA conventions, and was one of the top rated speakers in 2001 and 2008 at the Australian Automobile Dealers Associations Convention. He spoke at FADA conventions in Quebec and Hong Kong, along with Ford and BMW of the Middle East. Tim Deese is also one of the key speakers at Fenabrave in Brazil 2009.