AUTOMOBILE NEWS
42
TCBusiness.com
Tierney’s husband and business partner
is Michael Wetzel, who is also vice president
of both dealerships.
The duo at one point considered expanding
outside Fort Pierce, and they put in an
eventually unsuccessful bid for a Honda
dealership in Estero, near Fort Myers.
Tierney wrote to Volkswagen, Toyota
and Honda to see if any of them were considering
a new franchise in the Fort Pierce
area. Only VW indicated the company was
considering it.
So, Tierney worked the phones to
Volkswagen of America. She had given up
a successful journalism career to work at
Sunrise Ford and was well-known among
Treasure Coast newsmakers for her inability
to take ‘no’ for an answer.
Once VW decided that there was
enough potential business for a new dealership
on the Treasure Coast, Tierney and
Wetzel intensified courting Volkswagen
executives. New “points” to the dealership
network are so sought after because the
new owners avoid high costs of purchasing
an existing dealership. VW narrowed
the field of 30 to three, and then in 2012
chose Sunrise Volkswagen of Fort Pierce.
Tierney and Wetzel expected the new
dealership to open in 2014, but a VW
dealer sued Volkswagen to nix the Fort
Pierce dealership. The suit was settled,
but only after Tierney agreed to delay the
opening until 2019.
That was perhaps a serendipitous event.
Every year the dealership was delayed,
costs rose, but the stall also meant Tierney
and Wetzel avoided the expense and mess
that would have been created by operating
a new VW store amid the company’s
diesel emissions scandal that began
in 2015 and has largely been worked
through by now.
Volkswagen in 2018 was one of the few
major automakers to register a gain in U.S.
sales, rising 4.2 percent.
As for Sunrise Ford, its sales of more
than 1,600 vehicles was down 0.5 percent
last year, better than Ford Motor Co.’s
domestic sales, which fell 3.5 percent.
DEBT FREE
The cost to open Sunrise Volkswagen
of Fort Pierce will end up being between
$7 million and $8 million, which is about
twice as much as the couple expected
when their quest began.
Tierney says she has many sleepless
nights wondering, “Will they come?” to the
new dealership. There is also the Trump
administration’s consideration of imposing
tariffs on imported vehicles and auto
parts. The president received a study from
the Commerce Department on its economic
effects in mid-February, just as Sunrise
Volkswagen of Fort Pierce was opened.
Volkswagen makes the Atlas and Passat in
Tennessee, but most models are imported.
On the other hand, debt is not a worry.
Tierney and Wetzel opened the new dealership
without debt.
“We’re not under the gun so much, and
it gives us some flexibility to give the best
deals to customers,” says Tierney. “We can
be very, very, very competitive because
our overhead is not as much as some
dealerships which could have a high mortgage.
That also gives us the room to spend
more for advertising.”
Volkswagen initially wanted to put a
new dealership in Vero Beach, Wetzel says.
The nearest VW dealers are Stuart to the
south and Melbourne to the north.
“We told them that Vero’s a tough car
town,” says Wetzel, who joined Sunrise Ford
in 1990 after working at several other area
dealerships. “The brands are here (in Fort
Pierce). The only brands that aren’t here
are Audi and Infiniti. They did the research,
called us back, and said, ‘You are right.’” >>
The sparkling new Sunrise Volkswagen
of Fort Pierce opened in February. The
dealership sells new VWs and used
vehicles of many makes. It has 13 bays
for servicing cars, trucks and SUVs.
/TCBusiness.com