Lodi’s Sanborn Chevrolet overcomes hardships to flourish
As the oldest car dealership in Lodi, Sanborn Chevrolet is celebrating its 47 years of service, the efforts that it has made to remain up-to-date with the latest practices, and the Sanborn family at the center of it all.
When it first opened in 1971, Sanborn Chevrolet was located on 9 W. Locust St. inside a historical site that was once a carriage shop from the early 1900s. The dealership soon moved out to what is now their current location at 1210 S. Cherokee Lane in 1973, selling new and used cars, trucks, and Open Roads motorhomes and trailers. Richard Sanborn, the dealership’s current chairman and CEO, went on to be recognized for a “General Motors Service Supremacy Award” in 1975, making him the only one of two dealers in Northern California to be honored as such.
Since the dealership opened its doors, Sanborn has become a fixture the Lodi community, and its services have expanded. Steadily over the decades, the business has added more space to its service center, built a Quick Lube & Car Wash Center, and most recently constructed a detail center earlier this year.
“It takes a lot of people to make these stores work, and I’ve been very fortunate that I have good people in here,” Sanborn said. “It’s just very gratifying to look back and see that I’ve been successful and the fact that it seems like every time we turn around we’re building something new.”
With as much success as Sanborn Chevrolet is experiencing in 2018, the future of the business was very much in question a decade ago, as the recession of 2008 led General Motors to file for bankruptcy and explore the thought of closing the Lodi dealership. Sanborn said that this was a very difficult time for him, his family, and the employees that he had developed relationships with over his 37 years with them.
“During the recession when GM filed for bankruptcy, they told me that they were going to cut a lot of their dealers and I’d be one of them,” Sanborn said. “I got down to just one new truck sitting out on the lot, but I fought them, the community helped me, and finally they relented and gave me back the place.”
At the age of 84, Sanborn is still involved with the dealership on a daily basis, and he said that he wakes up every morning at 7 a.m. with the question on his mind of what he and his employees can do to enhance the store and the customers’ experiences. At the dealership’s toast to its 47th anniversary, Sanborn told his employees that the glass of apple cider in their hands is really “go juice,” and he encouraged them to keep going in their efforts to serve customers.
“The thing that I’ve always loved about selling cars is just getting to know people and getting them to know and like me,” Sanborn said. “The most important thing in our business is to make sure people get what they’re looking for and feel satisfied in the end, because you can buy a car anywhere, but we think that we like to add a little something special.”
As of March of this year, Richard’s youngest daughter, Kini Sanborn, has joined her father’s business and taken up his former role as president of the dealership. Kini said even after cleaning parts bins as a little kid, and serving as a cashier in the back, or doing a little work up front during the summers, she never really expected to find herself in the car business. As someone who spent 25 years as a sales and marketing executive in the luxury segment of the hotel industry, Kini said she is prepared to utilize her experience to help the family business continue to thrive, and she also sees the additional time with her dad as a gift each day.
“Late last year we started talking, and I realized that my dad was ready to step back more and enjoy life, as he should, and I saw the opportunity for the skills and assets that I had learned to be applied to this,” Kini said. “My number one thing is that I get to spend every day with my father, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
Joining the business that her father has built into an established site in Lodi, Kini said that she looks forward to continuing to build upon her father’s legacy within the community of both quality cars and a trustworthy experience.
“Because of what he’s built, I feel a real sense of responsibility here to carry on what he has established,” Kini said. “We’re trying to really apply what’s going on in the marketing world today to our dealership so we can keep it growing well into the future and serve Lodi.”
Sanborn Chevrolet has been serving the people of Lodi longer than any other car dealership, and the fatherdaughter duo at its helm plan to continue its 47-year legacy.