Pohanka a pioneer in multifrancise dealerships

Jack Pohanka sparked a trend when he added a Fiat franchise to his Oldsmobile store in 1956 — just one innovative milestone in his career.

Pohanka, a pioneer in dual franchising who was president of the National Automobile Dealers Association in 1976, died May 17. He was 92.

He was chairman of Pohanka Automotive Group, primarily serving the Washington, D.C., area. The family business, founded in 1919, is one of the nation's oldest dealership groups. Pohanka became its dealer principal in 1958 after the death of his father, Frank.

Today, the group employs about 1,600 people across 17 new-vehicle stores and one nonfranchised store in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Texas.

"He loved the car business, loved the car dealers," said Pohanka's son Geoffrey, president of the group. "He was happy to give back to the industry that he cared so much about."

Pohanka, who was named an Automotive News Visionary Dealer in 2009, said he was the first U.S. auto dealer to sell both foreign and domestic vehicles and coined the term "megadealer."

"In those days, you were either a foreign or domestic dealer. I dualed Fiat with [Oldsmobile]. I didn't realize what I was doing. I always wanted a better franchise," he told Automotive News in 2006.

"I started courting Honda before they came east, and became one of the first Honda dealers. Then Acura came along. And then Lexus — I knew that was the right thing to do. I got with that trend early on," he explained. "A dealer has to hedge his bets."

Pohanka was a founder and chairman of the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, or ASE, which tests and certifies auto technicians in the U.S. He also was the founder and first chairman of the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation, which in 2018 merged with Automotive Youth Educational Systems to become the ASE Education Foundation.

One of Pohanka's innovations was the creation of Capital Automotive REIT, a real estate investment trust that buys franchised dealerships and leases them back to dealers. When it was founded in 1997, it was the only publicly held REIT for dealerships.

"Jack was an incredibly innovative and respected dealer and businessman," said NADA CEO Peter Welch. "The entire dealer body benefited greatly from his leadership."