Brad Mugg, the managing partner at Honda of Downtown Los Angeles, recently sat down with GLANCDA to discuss his life, career, auto industry, and family.

Brad grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, and lived there until he was 37. From there, he moved to Chicago for three years, California for 15 years and then Oregon for two years. Afterward, he returned to California, where he’s been ever since.

Although there were no other automotive dealers in his family, his dad had a body shop with a used car lot out front, kind of a miniature version of a dealership. And, since he’d always liked cars and wanted to be a part of the automotive business since he was four or five years old, a dealership was a good fit for him.

After studying supervision technology in the 1980s at the Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana, campus, he learned a lot about management skills, including time management. After college, he worked at Bob Rohrman Honda for 10 years in Indiana and three years in Chicago. “Bob could be a tough guy to work for,” Brad told us, “but if you performed, he rewarded you well and made it fun to work.”

He went from the Honda store in Chicago to run the Norm Reeves Honda Superstore in Southern California for nine years. The store sold 1,000 cars per month, and Brad was given a chance to be a partner. He also bought a Honda Volkswagen store in Irvine, California, and ran it for five years.

Next, he partnered with Jeff Swickard at Swickard Honda in Gladstone, Oregon. According to Brad, “He was a great partner, and he is a great human being. But I couldn’t handle going from everyday sunshine to eight or nine months of rain a year.” So he headed back to California in April 2021.

Brad explained that he and Brandon Steven are now partners at Honda of Downtown Los Angeles and the Hyundai of Downtown Los Angeles that just opened. Brandon is the majority partner at both dealerships. Of their partnership, Brad said, “[It’s] the most amazing one I’ve ever had because Brandon does everything right. He is trusting and fun and has an amazing work ethic. It is a wonderful time to be in the car business.”

We next asked Brad to tell us about his mentors. He told us, “My grandfather was a big mentor, and I learned a lot from him at a young age. Bob (Rohrman) was another mentor. He was pretty spectacular. [He] owned about 30 dealerships himself without a management company, which is unbelievable. He was a wonderful human being and did a lot of giving back. I worked for [him] for 13 years; he passed about two years ago.”

Since mentors played a great role in defining Brad’s career, we asked him to define three things he would pass along to someone he had an opportunity to mentor. “One,” he said, “always have a positive attitude. Two, always care for every employee and customer. And three,” he concluded, “have fun every day.”

We asked him to explain his take on the biggest issues facing California dealers in the next five to 10 years. He said, “We must always have our voices heard in any political decisions affecting the business. It is always a concern when manufacturers go around our businesses. We want to ensure the dealer body continues to sell and deliver vehicles so that dealerships stay dealerships.” He also talked about electric vehicles and where that part of the industry is headed. “Electrification laws will put some challenges in our industry and change how we service or sell cars, too,” he stated. “Electrification will be a challenge in two ways: manufacturing the cars, and installing the infrastructure the cars need. Installing enough charging stations will be a big project. It will be interesting to see how everything comes to the finish line.” And finally, on this subject, he said, “I think a lot of people will want to keep their gas vehicles.”

He drives one himself: a Honda Ridgeline.

We wanted to know how he would recommend dealing with those issues. He told us, “The dealer body must have a good relationship with all manufacturers. Get on the dealer council and ensure our voice is heard with all manufacturers.”

“Tesla is having growing pains,” he went on. “The company is successful and makes a great vehicle, but their work is cut out for them, too. Over time, Tesla will have to satisfy their customer base by having more brick-and-mortar stores to support parts and service. There are different challenges when you don’t have a dealer body.”

Switching gears a little bit, we asked him to paint a picture of the “best day in the business” and how it looked for him. He said, “Saturday is our biggest day for sales and service, so I get pretty fired up about that day. We often sell 40 cars and service 150 cars. We have our highest energy that morning and day because it is just a busy day all the way around. Being part of that is an absolute rush, and we have sunshine to top it off. I love sunshine so much.”

When we asked him if he’d ever experienced an “aha” moment in his career and how it mattered in his life and work, he told us, “I started my first general manager job in 1992 at a Honda store that had never done well. I focused on teamwork. We pulled together and did whatever it took to win. Toyota had always beat that store in the market, but we outsold Toyota for 42 months in a row. It was thrilling. That is when everything started for me.”

He continued, “The biggest thing I learned from that experience was the importance of caring for everyone on your team. ‘Care’ is the one word that takes a business and turns it into a family. If you genuinely care about your people, they care back. People can’t wait to get to work and don’t want to leave.”

Next, we asked Brad how he came to be involved with GLANCDA. He told us that when he first arrived in California, a friend introduced him to Daryl Holter, a board member. “I told him I wanted to get involved, he recommended the organization, and I joined immediately.” He told us it has been a pretty amazing experience. “GLANCDA lets our voices be heard in all the places where it needs to be heard to protect us against laws that are not dealer friendly or advantageous.” Further, he explained, “When you join, you are giving back to the business that has been so good to you. It is great to be a part of helping the dealer body have dealer support.”

We then wondered how his membership in GLANCDA has benefited him and the business and what he would say to someone thinking of joining. He said, “This organization has the best interests of the dealer body in mind. When you join, your membership shows you truly care about the industry and making the dealer business as good as possible.”

Community service is an important part of any dealership, so we asked Brad to tell us about the experiences he and his dealerships have had in this effort. “We always look for good things to help the community every month and quarter,” he told us. “We just adopted the highway around the dealership and donated an entire workout gym for the fire station down the street. We always have something going on.”

We then asked him to share with the GLANCDA readers and us what he does for fun, if he has any hobbies, and to tell us about his family. He told us he enjoys racing cars, although he doesn’t currently own a race car. “I want to get back to that,” he said. Also, he told us his family “tries to get on the boat at least once a weekend. We all love boating.”

“I met my wife Jill in Indiana because our parents are friends,” he continued. “We lived on a lake four houses away from each other and went out for a date on a boat. That was it. We’ve been married now for 33 years.” He and Jill have three children: daughter Kylie (32), son Quincy (30) and another son, Cooper (26). “My two boys work with me. One is a general sales manager, and the other is our sales and e-commerce director. My daughter works for the Mullen agency for Acura, so they are all in the business.” He and Jill also have three grandchildren. “We spend a lot of time together,” he said, smiling.

We asked for a final summary of our interview and how he wanted to end the article. His response was simple. “You have one life, one time and one try. Every day matters and is a blessing. Enjoy it to the fullest.”

Good advice, indeed.