Book Description

This book takes you on my journey of becoming a car dealer. It offers a bird's-eye view of the automobile industry. It evaluates the conditions under which I and many other Black car dealers operate in order to determine why so many of us failed. In 2005 there were 751 new car franchise-rooftops1 owned by African Americans. As of December 2017, that number declined drastically to 270, out of a total of 19,284 American new car franchise-rooftops. In 2005, black car dealers accumulated billions of dollars in wealth; unfortunately, they lost most of it when the recession ended in 2009. Yet African Americans continue to purchase new cars in record numbers. African Americans purchased 1,105,931 new cars in 2015, with gross revenue of $35,357,792,000, most of which went to white car dealers. With an annual growth rate of 9.4%, it's estimated that African Americans will purchase over 1.5 Million New Cars in 2020, with gross reveue surpassing $50 Billion!With African Americans owning only 1.4% of car dealerships nationwide, can we afford to give $50 Billion dollars of our hard-earned income every freaking year to folks who don't look like us? $50 Billion dollars circulating within the African American community can go a long way and will do wonders for African Americans! It will create jobs with fair incomes and will allow Blacks to purchase houses that appreciate in value instead of simply buying cars that depreciate. Ultimately, it will allow Blacks to build wealth. After all, it's our damn money! In September of 1992, at the age of 36, after a 10-year career as a Business Consultant for Ford Motor Company and a Ford Dealer Trainee, I joined the ranks of the Black car dealers in America and became the proud owner of a Lincoln Mercury franchise in St. Louis, Missouri. Five years later, like the majority of Black car dealers, I lost my franchise.Dealing chronicles the emotional highs and lows I experienced both before and after becoming a Black car dealer.