This article was originally published in 2021-2022 Issue 3.
Jason Kirkland has been in the retail automotive industry for 30 years, and he has worked at Jenkins Honda of Leesburg for 26 of those years. Jason has been a general manager there for seven years and currently serves as a director on the CFADA board. We recently talked with Jason about his life, his work and the industry in general.
Where are you from, and what’s your background? What interested you as a child and young man?
I was born in Clearwater, Florida, and raised in the Fort Lauderdale area of South Florida. I went to private Catholic school, grade school through high school, and played many sports while growing up, but my favorites were baseball and tennis. However, now I play golf because I injured my knees when I was younger and had to have two ACL replacements.
Tell us about your education.
I had one year of college at the University of Tampa. After turning 22 and getting into the car business, I made too much money and had too much fun to think about going back to school. I don’t have to go to work; I get to go to work.
When did you become interested in the dealership industry?
I knew a kid when I was growing up whose father was in the car business. His house was impressive. I asked him, “What does your dad do for a living?” He said his dad was in the car business.
I thought that was pretty cool, but I didn’t think about it for myself until I met Mr. Jenkins when I was 18 years old and working at the Harbor Island Athletic Club in Tampa, Florida. He was a member there and would always talk. Mr. Jenkins persuaded me to work for him five years after the conversation with my friend. I was 22.
How did you become the general manager at Jenkins Honda of Leesburg?
When I first started working for him, Mr. Jenkins was the general manager at Courtesy Pontiac GMC. He started me out in sales, and after a year, I went into finance. I’ve worked for him all but four years since then, and I’ve been a general manager for him for 13 years. I’ve worked as the general manager at Jenkins Honda of Leesburg for the last seven years.
When I wasn’t working for Mr. Jenkins, I was helping my dad out with some little private lots he had. But Mr. Jenkins and I always communicated with each other even when I wasn’t working for him.
Why did you join CFADA, and how have you been involved in it since then?
Glenn Ritchey is a general manager in Daytona and the Vice-Chair at CFADA. He called me because he was looking for a Honda dealer to join the association.
What are the benefits? Why is membership in CFADA important?
Belonging to different groups is important because it gets your name out there and creates more business. Associations like CFADA put great minds in the same field together, and the relationships that members make with other members give them an advantage over everybody else.
In addition to CFADA, I’m also a board member for the Chamber of Commerce in Leesburg, Lake County.
What is your biggest career accomplishment so far?
I don’t know that I’ve done it yet. I’m 52. I hope my biggest accomplishment is still ahead.
What are the three most valuable career suggestions you would tell someone you wanted to mentor?
- Learn from other people’s mistakes.
- Stay in one place. Don’t jump from place to place.
- You’ve got to balance your work-to-home-life ratio because you’ll lose personal relationships that are important to you if you don’t. I’ve been there and done that.
Supply chain issues have been a huge challenge for everyone. How are you solving them at your dealerships?
New car volume is down, grosses are up, and we’ve switched our focus to CPOs (Certified Pre-Owned) and used cars. I think the problems will get worse by the end of the year. Last year, we had supplies on the ground; this year, we don’t have what we had last year. However, the supply chain should start ramping up by the middle of 2023, going into 2024.
What is the biggest challenge facing dealerships in the next three to five years? How can dealers successfully deal with it?
We’re making record gross profits, and some managers think they created all their success. But it’s not always them creating it; it’s the market.
Dealerships need to be training the sales staff. Dealers who don’t will have a hard time continuing to succeed when things get back to normal because their sales staff will have forgotten how to sell cars.
We train our staff the same way we did two to three years ago.
What do you enjoy doing when you aren’t working?
I work six days a week, so I don’t have much free time, but I play golf and spend time with the family. There’s a huge lake in Florida where we like to go, and we just got back from visiting my wife’s family in Pennsylvania.
Tell us about your family.
My mother is living with her husband in South Carolina. She is a retired nurse in her 80s and is doing well. My dad was living near me, but he is 83, has Alzheimer’s and has been in the hospital. I have two siblings. My half-brother lives in Australia, and my half-sister lives in Texas.
My wife is Amy, and she is awesome. She’s very creative. It’s hard to buy her gifts because she prefers gifts from the heart. She sells Pampered Chef and loves it. We’re going to need a bigger kitchen because we’ve bought so many of their products for ourselves.
We have five children combined, ages 13-28. One daughter is about to turn 16, and I also have three older boys.
Do you think any of your children will follow in your footsteps?
None of the older ones have asked about it, but I wouldn’t oppose it. The way things are now, you can’t be in this industry if you aren’t a good operator.
Do you have any last words for those reading your article?
What a wonderful time this is to be in the car business!
