“If I had a dollar for every time an employee or customer has asked me when we’d be opening I’d be a billionaire now,” said a smiling, excited Victor Fernandez, owner of the Marysville Ford dealership’s new Smokey Point sales and service headquarters.
The excitement comes from the reality that he’ll be moving his business with its rapidly growing sales from a much smaller building several miles to the south into a state-of-the-art facility off I-5 at Exit 206. His new dealership is expected to open sometime in April.
Sales growth is driving the new lot, Fernandez said.
“When I bought Marysville Ford 10 years ago, it was only selling about 15 cars a month,” he said. “Today we’re selling 200 cars a month.”
The new facility outclasses the present location at 3520 136th St. NE in every way, offering 27 service bays instead of 13 and a Quick Lane service for oil changes without waiting, a drive-through car wash for customers and delivery of new cars to customers inside, out of the rain, as well as dropping cars off inside for service appointments.
“We’ll have a comfortable, enlarged lounge for our customers, including a barista service and pastries,” Fernandez said, “plus a kids’ room with video games while parents are waiting for auto service.”
The new dealership also is designed to minimize environmental impact, providing energy efficient lighting throughout the building and a recycled water system in the car wash.
When the new dealership opens, Fernandez said he plans to add 10 to 15 new employees to his present staff of 75. The site also has room to upgrade as it continues to grow.
His vehicle inventory of new and used cars will increase dramatically at the new site. The older facility at 136th Street NE will continue to operate, re-branded as the Marysville Auto Center, selling only used cars.
Fernandez’s success comes after humble beginnings. He grew up in Colombia and moved to the United States at the age of 18 after graduating from high school. He only had $200 in his wallet.
“I believed what I heard in Colombia, that if I came to America and worked hard I could accomplish anything,” he said.
After arriving, he lived in Florida, New York, California and then Oregon, where he studied business at Salem’s Chemeketa Community College and found a job building cabinets.
One day he was visiting a car dealership and noticed the sales people were ignoring a Hispanic customer who spoke no English but wanted to buy a car.
Fernandez stepped in as a translator for the man, then offered to go with him for a test drive in one of the dealer’s vehicles and ended up making the sale, prompting the dealership to hire him for its sales staff.
For seven years in a row he ranked as the dealership’s top salesman, then moved into management positions with a Chrysler Dodge Mazda dealership for seven years and a Ford Nissan dealership for two years.
He bough Marysville Ford in 2004, becoming the first Washington state auto dealership owned by a first-generation Hispanic.
Fernandez and his wife, Sarah, who provides accounting services have two boys, Anthony and Ethan.
Fernandez also has two daughters from his first marriage, Abigayl and Kylee.
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