Women auto dealers: female owners sparkle like new cars

Ebony, April, 1997 by Muriel L. Whetstone Sims

The single mother of a daughter, Jennifer, 16, Grimes is originally from Lima, Ohio. Female auto dealers, she says, should be able to wear all the hats in their establishments. "Once your employees know that you understand the business and that you could do their jobs, it makes it a lot easier."

There's no such thing as a typical day in the working life of Pamela Rodgers (left), of Rodgers Chevrolet Inc. in Woodhaven, Mich. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she received her MBA from Duke University. Rodgers bought her first dealership in 1990. She opened her first General Motors franchise, Flat Rock Chevrolet, in 1993. Last November she opened a larger facility, Rodgers Chevrolet. Flat Rock Chevrolet's 1996 sales totaled $19.8 million. Rodgers, who is single, has been featured in General Motors' TV and print ads.

"Each day is different," she says. "Each day has its new challenges. Every time you think you've seen it all, something else comes up. It's a real people business and with people, there are no two days that are the same."

Three years ago, Gladys Humes (left) was working as a college recruiter for the Caterpillar, Inc. in Peoria, Ill., with about three years to go before retirement. She and her husband, Richard, who owns a fast food franchise in St. Louis, have two adult children, Richard II and Nicole.

After attending an automobile auction, Humes realized almost immediately that there was a place for her in the automobile industry. In January 1995 she left Caterpillar and joined the General Motors' dealer development training program. In January she received permission to purchase the Northridge Cadillac-Oldsmobile dealership where she worked as a trainee.

"Its not often," says Humes, "that you get a chance to purchase the dealership where you have been working side by side with the people, you know, the customers. So this opportunity is really a blessing."

Discussing sales strategy with her staff, Shirley L. Gross-Moore (right) of Barrington Dodge goes through the paces of a normal working day. As a Black female, she, like the other women who operate their own dealerships, has had to carve a place for herself in a traditionally male, predominantly White industry.

"This was not an accident that I'm here," says Gross-Moore. "It was divine intervention."