Minority-owned auto dealerships few and far between in Las Vegas, U.S.

Friday, Feb. 2, 2001 | 11:11 a.m.

As car dealers from all over the country gather in Las Vegas for one of the industry's most important conventions, a much smaller group got a head start and has been discussing a different agenda.

The General Motors Minority Dealers Association wrapped up four days of meetings today at the Aladdin hotel-casino. Most of the 500 members of the association will stay in Las Vegas for the kickoff of the National Automobile Dealers Association convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center Saturday through Tuesday.

Another organization of minority car dealers, the Ford Lincoln Mercury Minority Dealers Association -- founded by Las Vegas auto dealer Bill Shack -- meets here Feb. 21-24.

While the plight of Oldsmobile and Chrysler dealerships is as important to the minority owners as it is to their Caucasian counterparts, members of the smaller organization have two other major concerns: how to get more people of color in ownership roles and how to get those dealerships financed.

Nowhere is the issue more relevant than in Las Vegas where Shack, who partnered with Cliff Findlay to open Shack Findlay Honda in 1999, is the only minority to own a new-car dealership.

Shack remains an emeritus member of the Ford Lincoln Mercury Minority Dealers Association as a founder, even though he has divested himself from Ford dealerships as a condition of a lawsuit settlement he is forbidden from discussing publicly.

Shack said the settlement money helped him form what is now the state's largest Honda dealership with Findlay, a former UNLV basketball player who Shack applauds as a champion of human values.

But Shack knows most minority entrepreneurs don't have the cash necessary to get a car dealership off the ground without help from the manufacturers. That's why the minority associations plan extra one-on-one time around the NADA show.

Robert Romero, director of field operations for minority dealer development for General Motors, said the organization serves blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Indians.

There are 350 GM dealerships nationwide owned and operated by minorities and those dealerships had 225,000 unit sales worth $10.5 billion last year. Those dealerships employ more than 16,000 people.

The 350 dealerships -- 130 under Hispanic management, 120 owned by blacks and 50 each by Asians and Indians -- represent only 4.5 percent of all GM properties.

Romero concurred that financing dealerships is the biggest problem minority operators face. Having a separate meeting for minority owners gives GM the opportunity to offer special training in what are called "PEP sessions" -- profit-enhancement programs.

In break-out sessions of about 20 people each, GM executives reviewed operating results and statements and provided advice and training on different aspects of operating the business.

The sessions included discussions on parts and service department operations, marketing the business and using the Internet to enhance sales. There also were "best ideas" sessions at which dealers shared something they do that works well and passed it along to others.

GM's top executives then attended a special dinner with the minority group and scholarship money was presented to the United Negro College Fund and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Similar events are planned at the Ford event later this month. In addition to dealer meetings, receptions and scholarship fund presentations, the Ford group, which also will meet at the Aladdin, presents a series of awards, including this year's Jesse L. Jackson Award to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.

Las Vegas' Shack, a vice chairman of Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH Coalition for 10 years, acknowledges that the last few weeks have been rocky for the civil rights leader, who admitted fathering a child out of wedlock with a coalition worker.

But Shack stands behind Jackson, stating that political activism is important in efforts to put more people of color in dealership management roles. Last year, Shack testified before a U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittee in support of a bill opposing mandatory binding arbitration clauses in automobile sales and service agreements.

In his testimony, he related how a dispute resolved by an arbitrator prevented him and his partner, Timothy Woods, from acquiring a Saturn dealership in California. The Senate legislation is still pending.

"Sometimes you have to be a political activist to get things done," Shack said. "But sometimes that results in political exile, like my situation with Ford.

"I'm proud to be the first minority dealer in Las Vegas," he said. "But I'm saddened that it took until the year 2000 before that happened."