Do not go to work for Lucas Chevrolet - Cadillac! You will be left with nothing but broken promises and mental distress! I interviewed with Tom Lucas, and eagerly accepted the management position that was offered to me. I was promised a partial ownership within the dealership, and was told that I was expected to step in and run the day to day operations. Unfortunately, after relocating, out of state, to Columbia, TN I discovered what a psychopath Mr. Lucas was. After my first day with the company, I realized that I had interviewed with Dr. Jekyl, but was working for Mr. Hyde!!!
I soon learned that the average time-span of a manager at this store was 90 days or less. However, there were two other managers (Wade & Lisa, whom are INCREDIBLE people) that had been at the dealership for many, many years. Keeping this in mind, I thought that the reason for the short-time managers was self-inflicted due to lack of knowledge, lack of work ethic or some other obvious reason. Boy, was I WRONG!!!
My daily duties included sitting through two separate hour-long drilling sessions with Mr. Lucas every day. During these "meetings" Mr. Lucas would try continuously to ask questions about a prospect or deal, in hopes that I could not answer correctly or heaven forbid, didn't know anything about. Fortunately, I was able to thoroughly answer each question because I kept in depth notes on each prospect, including follow-up actions.
During the few months of my employment, Tom changed our "Desking methods" NUMEROUS times, and had the sales staff totally confused about how to work a deal. The only consistent method at this store, is the "inconsistency" of the owner! Instead of pumping up the sales force every morning, he would come in and tell people how stupid and incompetent they are, and threaten to fire people if they didn't "step-it-up". And, he did actually fire NUMEROUS people during my short-time there.
Now, I know what you are probably thinking... The guy writing this is some unhappy ex-employee, who is simply trying to blast this dealership because he got fired! This is not close to the case. Fortunately, I was able to find another dealership to go to work for, and left on my own free-will. I have been in the car business for over 20 years, and had only worked for three other dealerships before my move to Lucas Chevrolet. To-date, I have NEVER worked for anyone like Tom Lucas, and never will again!!! I now look back and laugh at how out of touch with reality Mr. Lucas actually is, and it is very sad that his employees have to withstand the type of mental and verbal abuse that he instills on them daily.
Since my departure with the dealership, I have heard numerous horror stories from different people that have worked for Lucas in the past. Tom Lucas has destroyed many people and their families, and it is all just a mind-game with him. He is a bitter, unhappy man that tries to bring everyone surrounding him down!
PLEASE heed my warnings!!! Do not go to work for this organization! Learn from my mistakes and the hundreds of other people that made the wrong decision by going to work for this guy! If you choose to ignore this warning, then do yourself a favor and pre-plan a visit with a good shrink... You're gonna need it before you leave there!
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