As a teenage immigrant from Mexico in the '80s, Alex Flores said he taught himself English from television — "The Young and The Restless," "The Price is Right" — and U2's "Joshua Tree" album.
He was homeless for a time, he said, and took whatever work he could find. He washed dishes; he served in the Army. Eventually, he worked as a waiter, using his energy and enthusiasm to please customers — and maybe get them to buy an extra dessert.
In an extensive interview with Automotive News TV anchor and producer Jennifer Vuong, Flores, 47, explained that a favorite customer, dealer Dave Tamburro, told him his talents were being wasted: He should be selling cars. Flores was reluctant, in part because it was what his biological father did in Mexico. But he made the jump "and here we are 28 years later."
Now he's a successful salesman, a consultant and a franchise retailer. He's dealer principal at Seguin Chevrolet in exurban San Antonio, and he recently became minority partner in Bravo Chevrolet-Cadillac in Las Cruces, N.M., and a Cadillac store in El Paso, Texas. Until this month, he was general manager at Capitol Chevrolet in his hometown of Austin, Texas.
Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Q: How long did you work at Tamburro's Honda store?
A: I was there for about two years from '94-'96, and after that is when I went to Charles Maund Toyota, which is a store that I was at for 17 years. Dave was going to sell his store. So he kind of told me, "Hey, you might as well make a move." And he knew the family that I was going to — the other store that I was going to. And I was there for 17 years. And that's where I really learned almost everything in the car business, too, because I took everything that Dave taught me and I really applied it. Implementation — I believe it's everything. And then my career really took off.
At the Toyota store, did you move up to general manager?
Yes, I made it all the way to GSM, sales director. I was a used-car manager. I was a new-car manager. I did it all.
Mr. Maund brought in a partner and you hear in the car business all the time when a new partner comes in and he fires everybody? Actually Mr. Maund advised his new partner, Jim DiMeo, "Hey, get rid of everybody, but you want to keep Alex." And he did. And I'm glad he did, because I learned quite a bit about marketing, about advertising, about appointments, about, you know, pushing people to the next level.
It seems like God has always put the right people in my path, in my journey and my career. And even now, I have a new partner who I can already tell I'm going to be able to learn from. I am humble. I don't want to tell everybody I'm the best and that everybody knows who I am and that I know everything. I don't want to — I don't want to do that. I want to learn from anybody.
It's incredible how much you've kind of elevated yourself. What happened after that? How did you get into Capitol Chevy?
So one of the stores that recruited me once was Capitol Chevrolet, like in the late '90s. And I went over there and I was obviously the top salesperson there. And that was 20-plus years ago.
I met the owners and I really like the owners. Nancy Harper. She's a dealer there — dealer principal/owner — and she was so sweet. She was just a kind human being. And when I was leaving, she wouldn't — this is a funny story — she wouldn't let go of my file cabinet. I had a file cabinet with all my prospects. She was like, "No, Alex, you're not leaving. You're not leaving." And I just never forgot that.
I mean, I come from a broken home. I come from, you know, having to be on survival mode, not really having a father figure, not really having a mother figure, abusive home. So every event in my life where somebody shows me that they care, I'll never forget.
I kept in touch with the family. Her son called me, said, "Alex, our dealership's doing really bad. We've been underperforming for 14 years. Our RSI is really bad and Chevrolet really put the pressure on us. And I want you to come and run my store." And he said, "Please, we need your help." And so we met.
And it was hard, because I was at Charles Maund, I was doing amazing.
So what happened?
I started at Capitol Jan. 1st of 2016.
The experience at Capitol is how I became a dealer, because General Motors came to me and said, "Hey, we've never seen this before, this type of growth. We want to make you a dealer." They said, "We want to put you in the dealer development program. And we feel like you'll be an amazing dealer." And that's how I got Seguin [Chevrolet] with the people from Capitol as my partners.
So I was actually running Seguin and Capitol for about a year and four months. I was the general manager at Capitol and I was the dealer principal/operator at Seguin. And Seguin in Texas, we took that store — when I bought it, it was doing about 50 a month and within 15 months we sold 450 cars [in December].
So you got the Seguin Chevy store in October 2019?
It was a long process. It was about a year of interviews with General Motors. We finally felt like, OK, Seguin is the right place. It's close enough to Capitol where I can still run Capitol, because that was the goal initially that I would still do Capitol and Seguin, which I did, like I said, for over a year. And so we got Seguin and it was part of the San Antonio [local marketing association]. This is part of the San Antonio area, but it's 45 minutes outside of San Antonio.
But like I said, we're the No. 1 store in San Antonio. People will drive out there — because of the marketing, because of the approach, because of the connection, because of the way we handle leads. The experience the customer has when they come to our stores, it's just bar none. You can't compare it.
Honestly, I can only think of two people in this industry that do what I do. And one of them is Brian Benstock out of Paragon Honda. He's a good friend of mine. And then Josh Cummins of Paris, Ky., those are the two that I always think of.
Liza [Borches] is always really good too, [Carter Myers Automotive] out of Virginia. So there's a few that I can think of that I know have that forward thinking, have that mindset. Because there's a lot of great dealers out there, don't get me wrong, but not everybody's making sure that they're doing all the things that it really takes.
What is your goal, what are your expectations?
I really think I can do 10 rooftops at least, and I think there's going to be more partnerships. And hopefully I'll do most of them with Raymond [Palacios, my Bravo and New Mexico partner] because I really like him. The reason why is not because I want more money or because I want more power. I just feel like we're doing a good thing. And I think we can duplicate it and really shift the auto industry into something better. So this is not about, "Hey, I want to be this big dealer." It's just about, I think, helping others, about duplicating something that is really, really good for customers, for employees and for our industry.
What is your relationship with GM, and what are your thoughts on automaker-dealer relations in general?
It's funny you bring this up, Jennifer, because I always talk about this and I feel like dealers need to know that you can't swim against the current.
And I think a lot of dealers make that mistake. It doesn't matter what manufacturer it is because I've dealt with Toyota before or Honda — I think manufacturers truly care about their dealers. And I think if the dealers understood that and really looked at it from that perspective, I think we can do greater things in this industry. Together we do better. If we're against each other, then things don't go as well. So one thing I did when I came to Capitol, I truly partnered with General Motors. And I said, "Hey, tell me how you want me to do it. Tell me, teach me everything about General Motors. Teach me everything about Chevrolet: What your expectations are, how would you like me to do anything and everything. And I will make sure it happens."
And I really made that my goal to prove that it could be done. And in fact, I've actually helped them raise their expectations because in my opinion, some of the standards are kind of low on some things.
Like what?
A lot of things, I think CSI, the standards are not high enough because, for me, I don't want to have 10 customers and two leave unhappy and be OK with that. To me, that's too many.
