Many dealerships you see along auto rows or on highway and billboard signs have individual names on them. They are usually names of people you don’t know but people you assume own the dealership: Mike White Ford, Dave Smith Maserati, George Gee Kia, Findlay Dodge. Many of these dealerships are old and established and have been serving their local communities for years. It can be reassuring to know that a local family is behind the business, running things in the background. But is that really the case?
You may not realize it, but many of the “local” dealerships you see are not local at all but are just one dealership that belongs to an extensive automotive dealership group that may own tens or even hundreds of dealerships nationwide. The corporate headquarters could be many miles away from your hometown.
Even if the business started small and local in your city 25 or 50 years ago, some have gotten very large, moving outward and snapping up smaller dealerships along the way. Or maybe a local dealership that has been in your town for decades was gobbled up by a large dealership group in recent years. You would never know it: most of the time, you won’t see any external signs of the change. The employees are the same, and the buildings look the same. These big businesses usually prefer to keep the dealership’s name unchanged, knowing that customer loyalty is a critical and valuable asset.
Over the last few years, in a trend that is accelerating, large corporate concerns are consolidating car dealerships more and more. Here’s an interesting fact: the top 10 dealership groups in the United States own almost 9% of all dealerships in the U.S. The top 150 dealership groups own over 23% of all vehicle dealerships in the U.S. When you stop to consider that there are over 18,000 new-vehicle dealerships (as opposed to used-car dealerships) in the U.S., you begin to get a fair idea of what kinds of numbers we are talking about: the top 10 own over 1,600 dealerships across the country. So you might begin to wonder: is your local car dealer really “local”?
If you are talking about Mike White Ford, the answer is a resounding: Yes!
Mike White: Invested in the Coeur d’Alene Community
When Mike White and his family moved to the Coeur d’Alene area about 30 years ago, he diligently got to work to support his family: he got a job at Parker Toyota as a salesman. Over time, he worked his way up through various positions in the dealership until he became General Manager. In 2016, Mike White and Jim Parker partnered to purchase Lake City Ford, and in 2018, Mike bought out the dealership and went out on his own. Since then, Mike has added the Sandpoint Ford dealership location, and now he and his children run the business along with the many employees who have continued to work at this location both before and since Mike bought it.
It is a real family business: both Mike’s son and daughter work at the dealership, and you will find Mike and his children on-site more often than not, managing the daily functioning of this busy workplace. They have gotten to know many of their customers personally, not just through the dealership but through the many local organizations and activities they participate in, like 4-H, KTEC, and Car d’Alene.
Mike sees his dealership as a real asset to the community, helping the local economy and helping to provide products and services to northern Idaho. Mike knows that his business does well when everyone in the community does well, and it is that caring that you may not always see from big corporate-owned dealerships.
To find out more about Mike White Ford, or to meet Mike or other family members and check out a new car, contact Mike White Ford today in Coeur d’Alene or Sandpoint. You won’t be disappointed!