John Tosch: CEO Buchanan Automotive Group

John Tosch

CEO Buchanan Automotive Group

Sarasota businessman Vern Buchanan left his day job earlier this year to focus on his run for U.S. Congress. He handed over the reins at the national car dealer chain that bears his name to John Tosch, who is now chief executive officer of Buchanan Automotive Group, the 27th largest car dealership in the country.

A Detroit native, Tosch is well versed in the car industry. Here's a glimpse at his career, his current job and his thoughts about the auto industry:

PERSONAL

Age: 61

Family: Married, with three sons. One is a doctor living in Detroit; another works in finance in Los Angeles and a third works in the finance industry in West Palm Beach.

Hometown: Detroit

Education: University of Detroit; Detroit College of Law.

First car: An MG convertible. "It was all I could afford when I was going to college. Then when I got out of college and when to law school, my first car was a 1966 Chevy Impala convertible."

Radio stations you listen to in the car: 94.1 (WSJT) during the week and 93.3 (WFLZ) on weekends. "So I'll go from the rock to the soft jazz. It depends on the mood and the time of the day. Sometimes you want to just chill out and the next time you want to just get all drilled up and excited about something."

On not having a computer in your office: "I've got a very capable assistant, who is my right arm extension and is able to take a lot of the other responsibilities away from me. I can specify what I want in an e-mail, know it's done and get away from it. I am still the final say on documents that the lawyers draft for us, but I don't need to do it on-line. There are too many things going on [in other areas] and I don't need to have a computer in front of me. Some other people do e-mails, but that's what I rely on them for."

What you're reading: The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Automotive News and other auto-industry trade journals.

Hobbies: Running, jogging and working out at the YMCA (four or five days a week).

Hours worked per week: About 55-60, plus some night and weekend phone calls.

First job: After law school, Tosch worked with Chrysler Corp., in the automotive finance unit, for about 10 years.

POSITION

First job with Buchanan Automotive Group: In 1989, as a lawyer. He was responsible for about five departments at American Speedy, as Buchanan grew the company into a nationwide brand. "I worked for Vern in Detroit for six or seven years and have been with him in Florida since 1996, right after he acquired the three stores in Ocala and Sarasota Ford."

On delegating as a new CEO: "The focus is on getting the job done, but I will hand off responsibilities. I don't have any problem handing off responsibility to people. I am doing things to grow the business, rather than some of the other transactions."

What is in the future for the Buchanan Automotive Group? "Our company is going to change. We are going to move into our 14th year of growth, but we are going to concentrate more on building our profits and customer satisfaction. We're going to focus not so much on growth through acquisitions, but growth through internal sales, growth through increased efficiency in all departments of our stores. We are going to do selective growth with certain strategic acquisitions. With the economic times, the potential increase in interest rates and some of the other pressures, it will be good for us to just concentrate on profitability and customer satisfaction."

How has the Internet impacted sales at Buchanan Automotive Group? "We have strong Internet departments in every store; That has been something new that has come about over the last four or five years.

The Internet has made some customers more sophisticated. The Internet does account for a significant portion of our sales, new and used. Each of our stores has their own Web site. It has caused us to accommodate the Web site purchaser. Some customers will agree to negotiate; others are just shopping for a price."

What is the best part about working in the auto industry? "The auto industry is an exciting industry. Having been born and raised in Detroit, you kind of associate with cars and the glamour of the sheet metal and the sounds of the engines and all of that. And having gone to the auto shows in Detroit, probably one of the best auto shows anywhere, just sets a sense of excitement. When you stop to look at it, the automobile is probably the second largest purchase we all make and make consistently, so it's very important. More and more households are becoming multiple car households. It is becoming a very important commodity."

INDUSTRY

How have the widespread problems with Ford and GM impacted the Buchanan car dealerships? "Early on, our vision was to have a cross hatch and not be heavily concentrated in any one franchise. Early on, we always felt strong about the foreign, the Japanese and the Korean; the Hyundais, the Toyotas, the Lexuses and the Hondas and we felt it was good business sense, that when one manufacturer is having a good day, someone else might be having a so-so or a bad day and let's not be heavily weighted in any one franchise. So we purposely lean toward more of the foreign manufacturers and away from the domestic.

While we are real bullish on domestics, we are also very cautious on having a concentration in any one brand, just because there could be economic issues and political issues. I have lived through some of those: A lot of the foreign manufacturing plants came about only because of the concern that the [United States] government would put a tariff on imports. Learning from that, that there could be pressures from outside that we can't control, we took that as a way to say let's have a smart distribution of franchises. Let's have a smart representation of luxury, middle market and lower brands that could appeal to everybody."

What can GM or Ford do to compete and catch up with Toyota and Honda? I think they are already taking a strong position on improving the product line, improving their quality. They have taken a stronger initiative of that. They are eliminating some of their excess product lines and they are putting more money into new development and with that, it will put them in a stronger position going forward. I don't think any of us can predict what will happen to the domestic manufacturers because of the costs that they have in domestic manufacturing, as well as the health care and the medical costs that to some degree the other foreign manufactures don't have.

Certainly, overseas production costs are a fraction of what we have. Also, the legacy costs have to be dealt with. How they deal with that in the long run will be an interesting result. I don't think anybody can predict what it is. I don't think any of us want to predict that.

Will GM file for bankruptcy, as some auto industry observers have predicted? I don't see that happening. Personally, I was with Chrysler, early on, when Lee Iacocca first started and a lot of people were talking about the bankruptcy of the Chrysler Corp. But I believe that every manufacturer that we are concerned about has a niche in the marketplace that needs to be filled by that manufacturer and will not necessarily be filled by one of the foreign manufacturers. I don't believe that the government can permit a reorganization and then the fall off of the jobs and the legacy costs and the pension costs. There may be some combination in the future with the foreign manufacturers, but I believe Ford and Chrysler and General Motors will be here to stay in some fashion.

How about SUVs and big pick-up trucks? With high gas prices, how does a slowdown in that market impact your business? In Detroit during the first Gulf War, SUVs and large gas-guzzlers just fell off the market and people were not traveling. With all of that, I think we've come to learn that in order to be successful we need to have a complete dealership focus, from good customer retention to strong parts and service as well as new and used sales. We have to be a complete dealership."