There was a world before 2020 – a pre-pandemic world – where life at various dealerships was different than it is today, in 2022. Back in 2019, CFADA had a brief discussion with board member Randy Parks, and he was happy to share with us his insight on the industry, his dealership and being a board member of CFADA. This article was originally published in 2019-2020 Issue 2. To begin, describe your education background. What did you study? I have a BBA from the University of Miami, School of Business, and an MBA from Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. So how did you become a car dealer? Did you always aspire to be part of the automotive industry? I always had a liking for the auto industry. I was raised around it. I did pretty much anything and everything in the business growing up. My dad, Jack Parks, was a dealer, and while I loved my dad very much, I never really wanted to work for him. I worked as a property and casualty agent for a while – had my own agency – and worked with a lot of dealers. I enjoyed it, but I was still intrigued by the auto industry. But I felt very strongly that if I entered the auto industry, I wanted to do it on my own. In the fall of 1979, with some friends and partners, I purchased Longwood Lincoln Mercury. That was more than 40 years and 11 locations ago. And I can’t imagine a better career. Do you have family members in the auto industry? My brother, Ron, works in the family dealership. My dad passed in 2012. (In 2019, when the interview with Randy was conducted, his son was working with him and to that point, had worked with him for about five years.) Did any specific individuals have a major impact on your career? My dad, Jack Parks. I learned a lot from him. What are some professional moments that make you the proudest? I would say that I am still here. I had a bit of an unusual start. In 1979, when I bought my first dealership, the economy headed straight south. INTERVIEW WITH CFADA BOARD MEMBER RANDY PARKS from 2019 The prime rate was 23%, and inflation was at 15%. Trying to make it as a new dealer was beyond tough – in fact, words like “tough” and “hard” don’t do the years between 1979 and 1982 justice. It was brutal. There were many days when I didn’t know if there was going to be a tomorrow. But what I did know was that failure wasn’t an option. We took each day as it came – and every day was pretty much an eight-alarm fire drill. I look back at those years, and there was little fun or enjoyment. Calling those years the worst economic times in memory seems pretty trite and trivial to many of us who ran dealerships and came out the other side. In the mid-1980s, “Reaganomics” kicked in, and when interest rates finally fell below 15%, we all felt we could breathe easier. If you could describe your best day in this business, what would it look like? Anything that doesn’t resemble the years between 1979 and 1982! Based on your experience and all you’ve been through in this industry, what do you think will be some of the dominant trends within the auto industry in the next five to ten years? There are a lot of industry disruptors right now. There’s a lot of discussions as to what it all means and the place 14 Pub Yr 2 | Issue 4
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