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6 questions for Nancy Ariano, first chairwoman of car dealers group

By Russ Rizzo, Special to the Rocky

Published July 28, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.

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Nancy Ariano

Nancy Ariano

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Nancy Ariano admits she can't sell or fix a car, but in 28 years running the business side of dealerships she has earned respect in the male-dominated profession.

The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association this month elected her its first chairwoman in the group's 75-year history, making her the official mouthpiece of the state's 300 car dealers.

An interest-rate spike and trade embargo that hit just after she and her first husband bought their first dealership in 1980 taught Ariano many lessons that dealers are having to learn today, she said. Back then, just as now, Ariano found that high gas prices made fuel-efficient imports more desirable.

In the 1980s, it was the Datsun. Today, it's the Toyota Prius.

Here are excerpts from a Rocky interview with Ariano.

1. How are gas prices affecting sales?

It is affecting us, but it isn't getting us down. It's making us be better business people. We're tightening our belts and stocking what people want . . . I can't sit here and tell you we can affect the price of gasoline, but we can educate people on how to save on gas mileage and make sure the vehicle we get people in is the one that they need.

In my 28 years in the auto center I've never seen a so-called crisis that we have failed to address.

2. Do you feel hamstrung by what the car manufacturers are producing?

I think they've done an excellent job with their technology. . . . The issues are more mismanagement and money matters.

The technology is there. I have every bit of confidence that they will work through it to produce the vehicles that they have the technology for to improve gas mileage. It's very difficult in that huge of a manufacturing system to turn on a dime.

3. The car industry is notoriously male-dominated. Do you feel you've broken through a glass ceiling of sorts?

I feel honored to be the first one and receive that designation.

I've been involved with the industry for so long that it's sort of a benign point to me.

4. How much sexism have you experienced on the way to where you are?

For the most part I've been treated very well. It's been as awkward for me as anyone - people being cautious about the jokes they would tell, and that sort of thing. . . . I didn't experience sexism where people were against me. It was more a change of behavior.

5. How does being a woman influence your work?

Having raised a family helps me run a business. I think I have a tendency to take people under my wing and be more motherly. . . . A lot of people say don't mix the business and the personal. (But) your employees spend more of their waking hours in the dealership than they do in their own homes, so it has to be personal.

6. What do you drive?

Right now parked in my garage is my 2000 Ford Thunderbird. It's the first Thunderbird we got in the dealership. Everyone says, 'Don't you want to trade that in?' But I'm attached. It's the only car I ever got attached to.