Nashua Telegraph Features Ask Patty
Published Feb 22nd 2007, 11:07pm by Jody DeVere in Pressroom
Women taking the wheel on buying and selling cars
By ROBERT RODRIGUEZ, Fresno Bee
|
Caren Myers still surprises a few people when they find out she’s the
general manager of the Lexus dealership in Fresno, Calif. They
shouldn’t be.
Myers
has been in the automotive business 42 years, rising from receptionist
at a Ford store to owning her own Saturn dealership in Southern
California a few years ago.
“Yes, even in this day and age, some
people still think that the general manager is a man,” said Myers, who
took over management of Fresno Lexus in October 2005.
While
Myers still may raise a few eyebrows, perceptions are changing in the
automobile industry. An increasing number of women in the United States
are taking leadership roles in dealerships or owning their own stores.
Industry analysts say it’s a smart trend; women buy about half of all new cars and trucks sold in the United States.
Automakers
and their dealers are paying attention – making sure everything from
the look of the dealership to who’s running it appeals to women.
Web sites devoted to car buying by women have popped up, too: AskPatty.com and Edmunds.com/women.
“Women
today have a much larger influence in the market than ever before,”
said Marcella Rojas, spokeswoman for the California Motor Car Dealers
Association in Sacramento.
“And there are many good women auto
dealers that have broken through the glass ceiling and have earned the
trust and loyalty of their franchisers, employees and
customers.”dealerships are owned by women, and car makers are pushing
for bigger numbers with efforts such as General Motors’ Women’s Retail
Initiative, a program that recruits and trains women to become car
dealers.
Myers is somewhat of a pioneer.
She began her career answering phones, working her way up at a time when opportunities for women in the car business were few.
She spent nearly two decades on the accounting side.
“I
didn’t know I could sell cars until I was about 35 and someone told me
that I was wasting my talents. Everything changed after that.”
Myers’
skills were honed at GM’s women’s retail initiative program in 2001,
and she took over a Saturn dealership in San Juan Capistrano.
She
owned and operated the store for about two years before selling it in
2004. She was later recruited by the Romero family of Southern
California to run its new Lexus store in Fresno, where she says nearly
half the buyers are women.
“I like to be very visible in the community and in our showroom, and I think that makes a difference,” Myers said.
Automobile analysts agree that the female factor matters in the car business.
A
survey by CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., found that 39 percent
of women would rather deal with women in a showroom, compared with 10
percent of men who prefer to buy cars from other men.
“What we
have found is that women relate better with customers, and there is
also the trust factor,” said Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing.
“And
given that we have such a large percentage of women who are new-car
buyers, it makes sense to have more women on the sales floor and in the
organization. But you also have to create a career path for women.”
At
General Motors, still the world’s largest automaker, officials said
they are pleased with their progress in creating new opportunities for
female car dealers.
Of the 7,000 GM dealerships, 3.7 percent are
owned by women, up from 2.6 percent in 2001 when the company launched
its women’s retail initiative.
Joycyln Waters, director of the
initiative, said the training program attracts a wide variety of women
– those with business degrees to those with extensive experience in the
automotive industry.
“This has been a man’s world for a long time,” Waters said.
“And
what we are trying to do is change the environment so that we can make
it more attractive to women to become owners and operators.”
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