In the early days of the pandemic, the technicians at John Hiester’s four North Carolina dealerships had only enough work to last till about lunch.
As business slowed the techs became increasingly worried about layoffs or furloughs. Hiester called a meeting to soothe concerns but admits he might have just added to the discomfort.
“I told them we’re gonna do everything we can to get as much work in here as possible and we’ll just have to play it by ear,” recalled Hiester, who owns two Chevrolet dealerships and two Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram stores scattered south of the Research Triangle. “I knew that was a bad answer. I went home and thought about it.
“I said, ‘We gotta come up with something.’ ”
His first thought was of a past love — tinkering on classic cars. He wondered if his techs, when things got slow in the afternoon, would want to pass the time turning wrenches on old cars. He bounced the idea off his managers, who loved it. Soon, it snowballed into a team competition and then into having the winning car auctioned for charity.
In between, Ally Financial Inc. — which provides auto financing at Hiester’s dealerships — connected the teams with celebrity car customizer Danny Koker, who offered his ongoing advice. And a YouTube series was created to track each team’s efforts.
These new developments meant Hiester, instead of buying a few old cars to keep his techs busy, purchased 19. Eventually, 14 were used for the competition with service department personnel at his four stores split into teams.
Koker, who hosts The History Channel’s “Counting Cars,” liked the mix of “wicked muscle cars” and “offbeat cars and trucks” and embraced the idea behind the competition.
“I love to see positive stuff happening during this crazy time,” he said. “While everyone is just holding on for dear life, John just went crazy and bought himself a bunch of classic cars as a creative way to take care of his team.”
LeRoy Soule, shop foreman at Hiester’s Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership in Sanford, N.C., said the competition helped the employees bond. He has worked with his colleagues on a Dodge Dart, a Jeep and a Plymouth Road Runner.
“Sometimes we get so busy we don’t have time to communicate and enjoy each other,” Soule said. “This gave us opportunity to learn, to gel and have some fun doing it.”
Tech Anthony Pompey worked on the 1978 Jeep J10 Golden Eagle team at Hiester’s Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store in Lillington, N.C. He appreciated the steady work and that the project helped “keep my mind off the news and the pandemic.”
“I worried less about losing family or getting sick myself,” he said.
Hiester said the first couple of months of the pandemic were tough on his business. Service traffic slowed to a trickle, a few employees tested positive for COVID-19 and several were living with relatives with compromised immune systems and fearful of bringing the virus home.
Through the stress, Hiester tried to keep his staffs together.
“We kind of held true that we wanted to try and keep everybody,” he said. “If they wanted to be here, we wanted them to be here. We didn’t want to lay anybody off.”
Hiester said the competition was great for morale and staff camaraderie. The experienced techs were paired with the “young superstars” who are experts with computers and the latest technologies, he said.
As late winter gave way to spring, service business at Hiester’s dealerships blossomed again. The techs no longer had afternoons free to tinker on classic cars. However, Hiester and his crew felt obligated to finish the competition knowing that Ally, Koker and Koker’s audience wanted to see the finished products.
“There was a good sense of loyalty from our mechanics,” Hiester said. “It was several nights where they were working until midnight, just trying to find time to get them done right.”
All of the cars have been completed and fan voting will begin soon on the Jalopnik website. The winning car will be auctioned Feb. 27 with the proceeds going to a charity selected by the winning team. The other 13 cars will be sold at Hiester’s dealerships.
In addition, Ally donated $25,000 to the North Carolina Auto Dealers Association Charitable Foundation for tech recruiting and training to honor Hiester’s ingenuity and support of his employees.
Hiester said the friendly competition drove home the point that he is not just thinking about the bottom line “but thinking about the goodwill” of his workers.
“And it let them know that I love them and care about them,” he said, “and that they matter.”