By Ted Ings, Executive Director

You may have seen Mike Vogel on the cover of Fixed Operations Magazine. Known affectionally as The Coach, his impressive career spans several decades.

Get to know Mike Vogel

Mike Vogel has spent his career motivating others. And once you get to know him, you’ll be inspired, too.

How The Coach got started

Like many industry veterans, a love of cars prompted Mike to enter the automotive retail business. He started as a Prep Manager at a local Honda dealership in the late 1970's. Shortly after, he moved on to one of the highest volume stores at the time – Paragon Honda in Queens, NY.

In 1986, Mike uprooted, moved to Los Angeles, CA, and landed a position as a Service Advisor. But he didn’t become an Advisor at just any dealership – he started at Universal City Nissan, the #1 Nissan dealership in the country at that time. He received expert guidance from industry insiders and eventually went on to become Service Manager.

For the next 30+ years, Mike helped guide numerous Nissan and Toyota dealerships to success. All of his hard work pushed him up the ladder to the position of Fixed Operations Director.

He also ended up running four franchises at the Cummings Auto Group, as well as 13 Dealerships for the DCH Auto Group.

A typical day as Mike Vogel

Mike likes to stay ahead of the game – that’s why he always began his workday at least 30 minutes before the opening of business.

When working at the dealership, he would start by reviewing MTD reports and responding to phone calls and emails. Shortly after, he held a quick meeting with his team to get everyone pumped up for the day.

Naturally, The Coach is a hands-on type of leader. Nearly every day, he spent at least a few hours helping out on the service drive. “I like to be in the thick of things keeping my finger on the pulse of the business,” says Mike.

The Coach never let any grass grow under his feet, either. When not manning the service drive, he was always working on improving his department through RO review, ongoing training and strategizing.

A lifetime of accomplishments

Even though Mike has held high-ranking positions – and made several dealerships a lot of money – what he’s most proud of is helping others. Staying true to his nickname, The Coach has helped many employees advance their career. He’s pushed porters to become service advisors, service advisors to become service managers, and so forth. And he feels great about it, too.

What is another of Mike’s greatest accomplishments? He started a brand-new Toyota store for Greg Penske in Orange County, CA. The Coach hired all the employees, set up everything from scratch and, for two years, managed to earn the second-highest CSI scores out of 76 dealerships in the Los Angeles Region.

Looking forward

Now, Mike holds the title of West Coast Vice President for a dealership retention, loyalty, rewards company called SmartTech Enterprises.

The industry-leading firm, which has been in business for over 17 years counts on The Coach to help dealerships take their business to the next level. Visit www.4loyalty.com for more details.

Going forward what Mike wants most is to share his passion for Fixed Ops with newcomers to the industry. He hopes that by sharing his lifetime’s worth of knowledge he’ll be able to inspire future leaders.