Dick’s Auto Group: Car Trouble
Automotive
Written by John Zorabedian   
Sunday, 01 June 2008
Dick’s Auto Group: Car Trouble - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Dick Inukai hopes Detroit catches up in fuel economy and explains why he won’t stop giving to the Inukai Family Boys & Girls Club.
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Dick Inukai’s unlikely story began at the height of World War II, when he was born in a Japanese-American internment camp in California. But Inukai doesn’t speak with bitterness about his family’s tribulations during that period. He recalls the words of his grandmother, who told him as a boy that holding onto the experience for the rest of his life would destroy him.

Inukai’s story is also typically American. As a teenager in the 1960s, he fell in love with cars and went to work selling new and used Oldsmobiles. He went on to build a lucrative dealership, Dick’s Auto Group, in Hillsboro, Ore., selling Fords, Chryslers, Jeeps, and Dodges through more than one economic road bump, energy crisis, and recession. These days, Inukai said, he looks at the economic picture and worries about how his customers are hurting.

Dick’s Auto Group: Car Trouble - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Dick Inukai, founder
“The people who could afford to buy a car six months ago can’t buy a car today because of the tightening of credit,” Inukai said. He also remembers the oil embargo of 1973, when people were trading in American cars for smaller, more economical Japanese cars. The same thing is happening today, but Inukai knows the market has changed in many ways to disadvantage American automakers. “Back then, all three of the US manufacturers were financially stable. They had profits, and they had marketshare,” he said.

Last year, the Big Three lost billions as Honda and Toyota established the market for hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles. As Chrysler’s private investors work to turn the company around, Inukai has agreed to build a new dealership location in Hillsboro to replace his current Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge dealership. It’s not good timing for such a major investment, Inukai said, but he is glad he can build a better place for providing his customers with the kind of service he feels they deserve.

The car business has changed dramatically in the past 30 years, and Inukai is working to keep up. The new facility will house the company’s six Internet salespeople. As more sales are driven by Internet advertising, Inukai is working to improve traffic to the auto group’s Web sites. “It’s probably the most inexpensive way in terms of advertising format, but it’s a process to learn the Internet and how to drive traffic to it,” Inukai said.  

Inukai is more than a survivor—he knows he’ll be able to keep the business going. He is still trying to do more for his customers and his community. Inukai has received awards from the automakers for his strong sales record, but his community investment as a chairman of the Metropolitan Portland Boys & Girls Club makes him much more than a businessman and entrepreneur.

Father figure
Inukai’s own daughter, Shannon, is a business partner and a spokesperson in all of the auto group’s commercial spots, and she is also involved in a variety of projects supporting the community. Inukai has spent four years as chairman of the Metropolitan Boys & Girls Club. In 2006, the Inukai family made a substantial donation to fund construction of a new club in Hillsboro, which is now completed.

The new club’s representatives asked former Secretary of State Colin Powell to attend the groundbreaking ceremony in 2006, and as a member of the national board of the Boys & Girls Clubs, Powell accepted on the condition the event be free from media. “He sat with myself and our two CEOs, and he came out and spoke to our young people during the groundbreaking,” Inukai said.

Disadvantaged children are a great concern for Inukai, whose own childhood was so uprooted by his family’s internment experience. He works with the Portland Citizens’ Crime Commission and has passion for the cause of foster children. His legacy, of course, will be the Inukai Family Boys & Girls Club he helped build in Hillsboro, which serves children from low-income neighborhoods. “Right now, the neat part is we’re enabling 300 kids a day to come to the club and play and learn in a safe and stimulating environment,” he said. “Almost all the children come from low-income housing, and we can keep those kids safe within our club.”

Inukai’s approach to his business is similarly generous. As a life-long car lover and salesman, he enjoys spending time meeting customers on the showroom floor. The new facility offers that opportunity, he said. “All three car manufacturers are trying to downsize the number of dealers they have nationwide,” Inukai said. “The advantage is, when your rooftops have more volume, you can have nicer facilities, have people to meet and greet, and do things in the community on a regular basis.”

Recently, Inukai and other Ford dealers from all over the country went to Las Vegas to meet with representatives from Ford Motor Co. Ford is now starting to come out with its best products in years to compete with Honda and Toyota, including a new Fusion Hybrid due out next year. Ford’s new advertising is hitting just the right note at a time of record-high gas prices, Inukai said.

But Inukai said Chrysler is still catching up to the curve, which he attributes to the past ownership of the company by Daimler-Mercedes. “The relationship with Mercedes and the dealers was not really great,” Inukai said. Last April, as Inukai’s new facility was beginning construction, Chrysler called him up to tell him he could cut back on the size of the project because other dealers were finding the facilities too big for their markets. But it was too late; construction was underway.

Regardless, Inukai said he is committed to what the new location will do for his business. “Our current facility is old, and it’s lacking the technology, equipment, and space our customers and employees deserve. And being able to provide excellent service to our customers is the biggest reason we’re doing it,” Inukai said. 
 
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