Pub. 4 Issue 3

16 brothers, but he has pursued his own successful career path in the automobile business, outside of the family business, and is currently working as the Internet Sales Manager at Volkswagen Alhambra. The four sons who got involved in the car business learned about it from the bottom up, washing and detailing cars. The big- gest lesson they learned was the impor- tance of being positive, and they couldn’t have learned it from anyone better, be- cause Bob was the eternal optimist. At the time, Dodge was selling cars that may have left a lot to be desired design wise, but his son Mike says Bob convinced his sons that they were beautiful. Mike says he also taught his sons not to over-sticker their cars by adding equipment, even though it was a way for dealers to sell a car worth $1,200 for $1,500. Taking care of customers, and fostering long-term business relationships, was better than a short-term profit. It was better to sell cars the way customers wanted them. In 1962 Bob founded Sierra Leasing in Glendale because he recognized that leasing was a promising business oppor- tunity because only two companies were in the independent leasing business at that time in Los Angeles, and the traditional retail financing sources did not have any leasing programs. When Rob graduated from UCLA, he joined Sierra Leasing. For decades, Sierra Leasing had approxi- mately 3,500 leased cars and trucks in its lease portfolio at any given time. Bob had a knack for sensing a good op- portunity. He also had knack for manag- ing risk, and he was big on having cash on hand to accomplish both. Business was good until it slumped in the mid-1970s. Bob gave instructions to his employees to buy Porsches in good colors and filled a warehouse with them. The strategy worked because that warehouse full of Porches gave their dealership an edge. Pete Smith has said that the Porsche deal- ership sold more Porsches in California during 1974 than anyone else because no other dealership had them and they had a warehouse full. The youngest of the four older brothers, Tim, was the one who ran Bob Smith BMW starting in 1973, when Tim was  CENTURY MARK — continued from page 15