Pub. 1 2013 Issue 3

10 San Diego Dealer What’s the most rewarding part of your career? It’s different at different times in my life. Right now it’s having my daughters come into the business. And it’s great to have so many family members involved. My brother Bill and I are the dealers, his son is in the business, as well as my son-in-law and my sister-in-law. A lot of dealers get into the business by chance or by default. Did you always aspire to be part of the automotive industry? I’m a third generation dealer so it was kind of by genetic defect. When I was a kid, I always thought naturally I would, but when my father sold his dealership in Memphis, I started pursuing another career. I attended university as an English and art history major, but then my father bought another dealership, and I was happy to continue the family business. What do you see as the dominant trends for the industry in the next 5-10 years? There’s going to be a dramatic change inmiles per gallon. I think within five years diesels are going to be factor, like they are in Europe now. I also think that there will be fewer family run dealerships. After experiencing and surviving the industry’s most challenging economic period in its history a few years ago, what lessons did you learn? I think we’ve always tried to run a fairly tight ship, but it’s the first time that I can remember that we’ve had to reduce the size of our staff. A few years ago, we had a corporate chaplain for our employees, not necessarily for religion, but for anything like marriage or economic counseling. We eliminated the program, but soon discovered that was a bad idea and later brought the chaplain back. It was one of the best decisions we made, by way of reducing employee stress and improvingmorale and productivity. What do you think makes the San Diego County automotive market different than other markets around the state? When we first moved out here we were astonished at the quantity of imports. Now it’s not only the imports, but it’s the diversity. There are so many different incomes at both extremes. In our market we have some of the lowest income in the county, and also some of the highest. That’s different than any other market that I know, and certainly different than L.A. or Orange County. An Interview with San Diego's Time Dealer of the Year Winner, R OBERT (BOB) HOEHNWAS NOMINATED FOR THE 2013 TIME DEALER OF THE YEAR AWARD IN OCTOBER 2012, FOR HIS COMMUNITY SERVICE AND INDUSTRY ACCOMPLISHMENTS. BOB IS DEALER PRINCIPAL OF HOEHN MOTORS, INC., AN ACURA, AUDI, BUICK, CADILLAC, GMC, HONDA, INFINITI, JAGUAR, LAND ROVER, MERCEDES-BENZ AND PORSCHE DEALER IN CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA. Bob Hoehn By Shauna Guerrero