World of Differences at Auto Dealerships

Asked what he likes about the auto dealership world, Lee McFee, who entered it mid-career, cites a wide variety of people, both customers and employees.

“It is very dynamic, with a lot of moving parts and different personalities,” says McFee, controller at Wes Finch Auto Plaza in Grinnell, IA.

The customer side ranges from ecstatic buyers who just got the car of their dreams to irate people in the service department who beef about a repair bill.

The employee side is similarly dissimilar, ranging from the extroverted salesperson who has never met a stranger to the detail-oriented auto technician who keeps to himself.

“I find it interesting that at a relatively small dealership like ours there are about 30 people who often aren’t much alike, and yet you need those differences to make the place work,” McFee says. “That’s what I like about it.”

Part of his job is trying to prevent personality clashes.

For example, the precise title clerk, in processing flawed paperwork, may say, “Why can’t the sales department get it right?”

McFee will reply, “Well, they got a lot going on. Let’s talk to them and get this fixed.”

McFee is a certified public accountant. Early on, he managed university residence halls. That work introduced him to student-development studies on how humans learn and process information. The studies’ takeaway points have stayed with him.

“You understand that just because they are not outgoing and talking to everyone, there is nothing wrong with those quiet, introverted technicians who pay a lot of attention to details,” he says. “That’s OK.”

Wes Finch Auto Plaza represents seven franchises including General Motors (except Cadillac), Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands.

The store is in central Iowa, about an hour away from about 80% of the state’s population that’s mostly concentrated in Des Moines (population 215,000), Cedar Rapids (131,000) and Iowa City (74,000).

McFee says he understands automakers’ vested interest in new-car sales, but his dealership sells twice as many used cars as new, primarily because of market demographics.

“In rural Iowa, there are only so many people who are going to buy a $60,000 new GMC Sierra pickup truck,” he says. “There are a lot more people interested in a 6-year-old Sierra pickup.”

Accordingly, the dealership regularly acquires vehicles at wholesale auctions in different states to replenish its used-car inventory.

“You can’t do it on trade-ins alone,” McFee says. “Because of online auctions, we have drivers going to places such as Michigan, Kansas City and Indianapolis to get purchased vehicles.”

The dealership is the namesake of Wes Finch. He died of liver cancer in November. His son, Jeff, is the current dealer principal. McFee’s job is akin to that of a chief operating officer.

“A controller at a small dealership is sort of like a COO opposed to bigger organizations where a controller strictly takes care of financials,” he says.

“Bigger organizations escalate issues up the ranks. At a dealership like ours, there’s not a lot of escalation. There’s the dealer principal and the rest of us.”

McFee joined the dealership in 2002. Before that, he was a budget analyst for MCI WorldCom, a telecommunications giant that went bankrupt. When that happened, “I and 40,000 other people had to find something else to do.”

A recruiter friend contacted him about an opening at the Finch dealership. “He said the owner’s wife, who was the office manager, was looking to retire and a new generation was coming in. He asked if I was interested. I always loved cars, and said, ‘Sure.’”

McFee speaks to WardsAuto at an Atlanta conference for dealership controllers put on by Dealertrack, a dealership-management system provider. McFee himself is outgoing and laughs a lot during the interview. But he gets serious when asked what bothers him most about the dealership business.

“What don’t I like about it? We are headed for a real technician-shortage crisis in the next five years if we don’t figure out a solution.”

He says part of the problem is that many high schools dissuade smart students from considering a career as a modern auto mechanic.

“I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but a lot of school counselors think being an auto technician is for the kids who can’t pass any of their courses.

“That’s crazy. At our local schools, our dealership principal and I have been in their offices saying, ‘This is not what you should be telling these kids.’”

Because today’s vehicles are so technologically advanced and complicated, they require highly skilled technicians to work on them, he notes. “We need solid A and B students with good classroom skills who also like to work with their hands. Today’s auto techs are more like computer scientists who happen to have wrenches in their hands.”

The shortage of qualified dealership auto technicians has been a long-standing national problem. McFee worries it could get worse before getting better.

“If we don’t find some solution, we are going to be in a world of hurt. You may be able to buy a car made in Japan, but you are not going to send it there to be fixed. You can’t outsource that.”

[email protected]