Auto dealer sees opportunity in crisis

Sean Drakes / AJC Special
Darryl Ford, owner and general manager of Stone Mountain Chrysler Jeep Dodge, says it’s important to shore up his business model now to ensure he’s in business when the economy recovers
UP CLOSE / DARRYL FORD, owner of Stone Mountain Chrysler Jeep Dodge

By MICHAEL E. KANELL

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, December 21, 2008

It is not the best of times in the automotive industry. But good times or bad, it has been a seven-day-a-week job for Darryl Ford.

And as an entrepreneur, Ford sees opportunity in crisis.
For four years the owner and general manager of Stone Mountain Chrysler Jeep Dodge, Ford had grown sales to $50 million last year. But that was before the recession, the credit crisis and the parade of Detroit executives arriving in Washington to plead for government assistance.

Events have changed his business and his cost structure, but not, he says, his work ethic or his philosophy.

Q: As an auto dealer, I’d expect you to have an opinion on the bailout of the auto companies. What do you think?

A: I see government intervention as something that has been going on for some time. It’s nothing new. You’ve got Georgia and Kentucky and Tennessee — incentives and tax breaks to get the companies to move in. Government has been involved in the auto business.

And a healthy auto sector is a vital part of the community, of the market. There are 3, 4, 5 million people that could be affected. If Congress could get away from the notion of the CEOs and think about what is important to all of us.
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