Pub. 4 Issue 3

17 Issue 3 2018 27. That dealership was built on a lot that housed a defunct Burger Chef restaurant in Canoga Park. It was small at the time because BMW had not yet become well- known; only 14,000 BMWs were sold in the U.S. that year. Tim’s dealership ini- tially lost money. He was worried enough to call his dad about it, but Bob told him not to worry. He said, “BMW will be a great franchise someday.” He was right. The business has been selling BMWs now for about 44 years, and Tim has been able to bring his daughters into the family business as well. Catherine Andrews is the General Manager of the BMW deal- ership. Anne Boland is the owner of the MINI dealership. Bob’s girls spent their summer vacations, starting in middle school, working at the dealership doing office work. Anne de- veloped her skills in accounting, which led to a college degree, and just before her senior year at Notre Dame she interned at Deloitte. After graduation, she worked at Princeton BMW in New Jersey, before moving home and joining the family busi- ness. Catherine discovered a passion for sales and marketing when she started col- lege. Today, Catherine and her team have been awarded Center of Excellence for the dealership two years in a row and Anne is the go-to for financial and legal advice. The family business made some important shifts in the 1990s. Tim Smith moved the BMW dealership to Calabasas because it hadoutgrown the original site.Mike Smith, surroundedbydeterioratingneighborhoods in Hollywood, also decided it was time to move, and to replaceVolkswagenwithToy- ota.He alsobrought onhis son, Pete, tohelp the dealership. Pete and his wife Christine were living on the east coast, and returned home. The dealership had 40 employees in 1995. It now has 85. Bob died when he was 87, in November 2001. Pete bought the Toyota store from his dad in 2011, and to this day, Mike still has his office on the show room floor at the Toyota store. Pete’s three children, fol- lowing in their family legacy, work in the Toyota store during the summers. It’s been more than 111 years since that San Francisco earthquake, but R.A. Smith was right. Cars are a lot better for getting around in than horses were, and selling them has been a fine way for him to provide work for himself and at least four generations of family and many loyal employees that have made the Smith fam- ily dealerships their career.  DANI GORDEN Advertising Sales 855.747. 4003 Dani@thenewsl inkgroup. com WORDS.