JIM SLEMONS Q & A : A Born Salesman Spots a Trend: Bigger and Better Autos

You won’t find Jim Slemons talking about his dog Spot. He is not even close to being the best-known car dealer in Southern California.

But what Slemons lacks in name recognition, he makes up in sales. His flagship dealership, Jim Slemons Imports in Newport Beach, sold 1,870 new and used Mercedes-Benz cars in 1987. That, Slemons says, ranks him among the “top three or four” Mercedes dealers in the United States.

And that’s only the beginning. Slemons, 55, has five other car dealerships: Jim Slemons Honda in San Juan Capistrano, Jim Slemons Acura in Newport Beach and three more in Hawaii. He owns the commuter airline Trans World Express in Costa Mesa, a wholesale auto parts company, a limousine distributorship, a company that builds sailboats, another that sells Italian luxury yachts, a point-of-sale advertising firm and SL magazine in Newport Beach.

Those operations have Slemons, a Newport Beach native and one-time Las Vegas blackjack dealer, working 10-plus hours a day and overseeing a staff of more than 500.

It’s a long way from Slemons’ beginnings as the son of a grapefruit grower and alfalfa farmer.

A self-proclaimed “born salesman,” Slemons started in sales as a youngster, ringing doorbells and peddling oranges from a wagon. After college and a stint in the Navy, he began selling Ford Edsels in the late 1950s, eventually becoming the No. 2 Edsel salesman in the nation.

His climb has been steady ever since, with one notable exception: an ill-fated effort to get elected to the state Legislature in 1976. Slemons’ campaign was plagued by scandal, and his private life became a topic of public debate.

In a recent interview with Times staff writer Mary Ann Galante, Slemons talked about his career, Orange County’s car industry and his thoughts on where the automobile industry is headed.

Q: What makes a good salesman?

A: You have to like people. The primary thing is you have to like communicating with people. The next thing is you have to like what you’re selling. You have to believe in what you’re selling, or you can’t sell it.

Q: Did you like the Edsel?

A: I believed in the car. It had a bad rap because the car was funny looking. But the car was actually very well-made.

Q: Give us an idea of your dealerships’ volume?

A: The volume of my Mercedes company--give or take a couple thousand dollars for last year--would be $98 million. . . . We sell more than 100 Mercedes (cars) a month. . . . Between all the companies, we had about $250 million in sales last year. . . . In 1988, I’m looking for a modest increase of probably about 5%.

Q: Has the business become much more competitive since you first started?

A: Very. At one time I was the only Mercedes dealer in Orange County. (Today) there are four of us splitting up the market. Of course, the county has grown and become much more affluent than it was before, but there’s a lot of competition.

The dealerships are closer together. There are more franchises that people never heard of 10 years ago. And you’ve got cars like the Sterling and Mitsubishi and Yugo that weren’t here when I started.

Q: What makes Orange County and Newport Beach such a great place to sell the Mercedes?

A: The Newport Beach people are affluent. . . . And a lot of large companies like to locate here in the Irvine-Newport commercial complex because it’s right next to the airport.

Q: What’s the income range of your customers?

A: We don’t have any precise studies. But I would say most of my buyers are people who earn $100,000 and up a year.

My target (Mercedes) customer would be a business executive in his early- to mid-40s, well educated and in business. More likely a man who’s a yuppie. . . . In the last few years, we’re also getting a lot of female executives in the same age bracket who are coming in and buying cars.

Q: Is there an art in spotting the really serious buyer, as opposed to the lookers?

A: It’s hard to say by looking at a person who is a good buyer. (But) car agencies today are much more sophisticated than years ago. . . . We can plug into a computer and find out if the person’s really a buyer or not or if his credit’s good.

It’s not like the old days when a customer would come in . . . and we’d write up a long credit application and call somebody at the bank, then (check on) that credit application. Today, we know immediately whether we can finance a person, and we send the person out with the car.

Q: How do you spot a good salesman?

A: The way they present themselves. They way they look, the way they dress, the way they carry themselves, the way they shake hands. They look you in the eye. It takes self-confidence and liking people.

You can’t go to school to learn to be in sales. A good salesperson is born a salesperson.

Q: Is it tough to get salespeople these days?

A: Yes. Salespeople as a general rule like to take the easiest way out. . . . They get lazy after a while. They like to sit there and let everybody just walk in, and say, ‘Here I am. And I’ll hand you the money, and I want to buy a car.’ We have to do a lot of screening.

Q: Are more women going into car sales?

A: Yes. Women salespeople are very good with the customers because they’re very good at follow-up. They follow up better than a male does, calling up and calling again and staying after the customer. . . . I know there are at least two in every one of the stores that I have.

Q: At the same time, do some men resist buying a car from a woman? Or do men trust women more, figuring they’re less likely to give them a hard sell?

A: Well, my top salesperson here last year is a very distinguished older person. . . . Surprisingly, his daughter is the No. 1 salesperson in my Honda store.

I think a lot of it is hereditary. . . . People always said my father probably could sell iceboxes to Eskimos.

Q: How is the car business changing?

A: Nationally, I see the pendulum moving toward domestic cars because of the decline of the dollar against the German mark and the Japanese yen. I see more people moving toward American-built cars only because of the price. But they still have not caught up with the Japanese and the Germans as far as quality, and the general public knows that. That’s why they’re selling so many Japanese cars today--despite the high prices.

Q: Have you seen an impact in sales because of the devaluation of the dollar overseas?

A: Nationally, we’ve seen an effect. But we have not seen an effect here in Orange County.

Orange County is very unique. What affects the other parts of the country usually doesn’t affect Orange County. . . . People are still making good money, and they’re still buying . . . although the cost of living hasn’t gone up as much.

Q: How did the stock market crash in October affect your car sales--both Honda and Mercedes?

A: There’s no effect. Not in Southern California and very little in Orange County. . . . I think it was just a short jolt. People got affected for a few days, but they went right along. I don’t think people are affected by the ups and downs of the stock market.

Q: In terms of legal restrictions on car dealers, does California in general make it easy or tough?

A: California is considered to be the toughest state by the rest of the nation as far restrictions and pollution controls. . . . But consumer protection has been very good for California because we have so many automobiles.

Q: What’s unique about the car business?

A: The second-largest purchase that you will ever make is an automobile. So you’re selling something that somebody needs for transportation. But you’re also selling something that has styling and that the public wants. And because people love their cars, there’s a love affair with automobiles.

Q: Is it an emotional purchase?

A: Some of it is emotional and some of it is practical. You might throw some status in there too. People want to keep up with the Joneses.

Success breeds success. If you’re out looking at a piece of property and a Realtor picks you up in a 10-year-old Plymouth, what’s going through your mind? Immediately you think, ‘This person is driving this old clunker of a car. He must not be very successful.’

Q: What’s the most difficult thing these days about in the car business?

A: I think it’s the rapid changes. There are rapid changes in marketing trends. There are changes that the factory hands down. And financing has become very complex today. The business has become much more complex. Twenty years ago, your only contact outside of the car agency was your banker and somebody from the factory.

Q: Your dealerships have a very high profile in Orange County. Are you ever recognized in public?

A: Yes. Sometimes you have too much name notoriety. . . . You might be out with your wife at a nice, candlelit dinner to get away from the business. And the waiter comes up to you and wants to start talking about what kind of car to buy. Or somebody across the next table tells you that he’s got a squeak in his car. ‘Can I bring it in tomorrow?’

Q: Are people buying more smaller models these days?

A: Here in Newport Beach my sales are on the larger models--where maybe in other parts of the country (more sales) would be smaller cars.

Q: Yet there’s been a lot said about the supposed trend toward smaller cars. Is that really the trend?

A: No, the trend is toward larger engines and bigger cars. The Japanese cars are getting a little bigger all the time. And I see the trend continuing toward larger cars because gasoline prices are going down.

Nationally, the trend is getting back to American cars. But Southern California is a unique place, and in Orange County we’re even more unique. . . . Especially in Southern California, people would rather buy a less expensive car that was quality than a large piece of tin that was junk.

American cars still do not have the quality that imported cars have. . . . So I don’t see the trend toward American cars happening here in Southern California--especially in Orange County--because people are so accustomed to high quality.

Probably the No. 1 thing is that people are demanding safer automobiles. People are very safety conscious because of the campaign to buckle up.

Q: Where do you see the car industry going?

A: I see a very good future for the car industry. People are going to want resale value because cars are so expensive. . . . Years ago, if a car looked great and it was low on the ground or had a lot of mufflers on it and it went fast, people didn’t really care what it was worth when they finished with it. But today, it’s very important that people have some value with the resale.

I also think there’s always going to be a market for the European cars because Europeans are known for styling.

I think . . . the Japanese will be very dominant in the next 10 years because Japanese styling is different from European styling. And they have performance. Japanese cars are very viable. And I think you’ll see a lot better American cars coming out in the next 10 years.

You’re going to see more high-tech things like television computers in cars. . . . You’re going to see more people with telephones in their cars. You’re going to see better sound systems in cars. There’ll be a lot more because people spend a lot of their time living in the car.

Q: What do you see going out of favor?

A: I think the (popularity of) smaller engines is going to fade. I think you’ve gone about as far as you’re going to go with aerodynamic design. I feel you’re going to start seeing more of a square-shaped car coming back in.

Q: How tough is competition from the new subcompacts such as Hyundai and Daihatsu?

A: I don’t see them lasting very long. . . . I don’t think the companies have enough staying power. I think we’re going away from small, inexpensive cars.

Hyundai got in and made a lot of money quick. . . . (But) it’s already tapering off right now, because there is a Mitsubishi for the same price. Chevrolet and Honda (also) have one for about the same price. . . . So I don’t see them doing that well.

You’re going to see a lot of turnover . . . going in and out of business. There’s a car coming in from Romania. There’s a car coming in from Malaysia. The Yugo’s from Yugoslavia. There has been even some talk about bringing in a Russian car.

Q: By the same token, the major manufacturers are all getting into the upper market with bigger cars. Where do you see competition for the Mercedes?

A: The Japanese are going to be very, very competitive. Honda’s Acura is a very good car, although it hasn’t hurt my business. What’s really hurting is the Audi. . . . But it’s hurting BMW sales more than it is Mercedes’.

At the end of this year, Nissan and Toyota will be coming in with the Lexis and Infinity--two new cars that will be about the same price range as the Acura.

Q: What new dealerships are you planning?

A: I’m now undertaking a project to build a Jeep/Eagle facility in San Juan Capistrano, which I hope will open sometime in the fall.

And we’re forming another airline, which (eventually) will be called Orange Coast Air. It will be flying to Mexico from Orange County. Hopefully, we’ll start flying within the next 30 days.

Q: Some years ago, you surprised everyone by running in politics and having some success. You went on to be a fairly controversial candidate. Has that cured you of politics?

A: Yes. The newspapers came out with statements that were very false. None of it had any validity to it.

And I had some wrong advice by people that ran my campaign, to not speak out on my own behalf. . . . Since then, I just stayed out of politics.

Q: What do you see for Jim Slemons in the future?

A: I have a lovely wife who wants me to work less. My big thing right now is to work less and spend more time with her. . . . I might slow down a little bit, but I don’t want to retire.