Buddy Jones says he didn't force his daughter and son into the automobile business, but they are playing a part in helping his dealerships succeed.
Buddy Jones and Becky Jones own the Ford-Lincoln-Mercury and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealerships on U.S. 82.
They acquired a Ford dealership in 1982, bought a Lincoln-Mercury one a year later, and added Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep in 1993.
The two dealerships have a total of 46 employees.
Jones and his son, Jayson, also co-own Heber Springs Ford in Heber Springs, Ark., where Jayson is general manager. Buddy Jones' daughter, Robyn, works in the Greenwood office.
Jones said his son and daughter grew up around cars. However, he made it clear to Jayson and Robyn that they should do whatever kind of work made them happy, even if it didn't involve car sales.
"I think they always knew the door was open, but it was their decision," he said.
Buddy Jones learned the auto business largely on the job. At the University of Central Arkansas, he majored in speech pathology and minored in special education.
However, he got a sense while he was there that teaching might not be for him, so he added a minor in business.
In the early 1970s, he said, he could have worked in speech pathology almost anywhere, but he found that he didn't have the right temperament for it.
"I felt sorry for them, and they don't need somebody to feel sorry for them," he said. "They need somebody to help them."
After graduation, he took a job with Ford Motor Credit in Little Rock. He said this work helped him understand how finance companies work, because sometimes dealers aren't clear on what these companies can and can't do.
"I think the background that I had working on the finance end of it made me a lot better dealer," he said.
But he shifted to the retail side, and after learning more about car sales there, eventually bought a dealership in Stuttgart, Ark.
He sold that business and became general manager at a dealership in Monticello, Ark., but over time he grew frustrated with the state's interest rates and usury laws. So he told people at Ford that he was interested in doing business somewhere else.
They talked about a number of stores before he settled on the Greenwood one, which had been owned by Buford Tubbs.
Jayson Jones went to the University of Southern Mississippi for a year before transferring to Northwood University, a school based in Michigan that offers a business management marketing degree focusing on auto sales.
He ended up earning a degree from the school's campus in Cedar Hill, Texas.
His father said this enabled him to come home more often - plus that campus offered other benefits, such as equipment provided by auto vendors that students can use in hands-on training.
Although both father and son have a stake in the Heber Springs business, Buddy Jones said, "I consider it his now."
The two of them talk regularly, and he helps his son when he can. But, he said, "if he can't reach me about something, and it's a pretty tough decision, he just has to make it."
Robyn Jones, 26, has been working for her father for a little over a year.
She handles customer inquiries made through the Web site and sees that they are passed on to a sales representative at the appropriate time. She also answers phones and does a little of everything around the office -"whatever he needs me to do," she said.
She said she enjoys dealing with the customers and "creating new friendships." She stays busy with this job while also doing freelance photography and graphic design work.
"I've learned so much," she said. "I have no complaints."
Buddy Jones said the site has been worth the investment, although people seldom use it to close deals without looking at a vehicle.
Typically, he said, they use the site to look for a certain color, model or price and then come into the store to look at the vehicle and discuss the financing.
He said one customer from Atlanta who was planning to visit the area looked at the Buddy Jones vehicles on the Internet and found one in the color she wanted. She and the dealer exchanged e-mails, and eventually they worked out a deal.
"She made the point to write us a letter and tell us that she felt like that, had we not had our inventory on the Internet, she never would have bought that car from us," he said.
He also said search engines enable him and his son to "tie our inventories together where he can work out of mine and I can work out of his."
Buddy Jones said vehicle manufacturers have stepped up to help dealers as the nation's economy has struggled.
With rebates available, as well as some packages offering 0 percent financing for 60 or 72 months, he said, "it's probably the best time to buy a car that I've ever seen since I've been in the business."
Jones works hard to improve the business environment for dealers as well, serving as chairman of the state Dealer Election Action Committee of the Mississippi Automobile Dealers Association.
He makes one or two trips to Washington a year and also spends time in Jackson lobbying before the Legislature. Important issues on the list include tax exemptions and the laws governing title for salvage vehicles.
Dealers have pushed for a uniform federal salvage title bill, so that they and customers know whether a vehicle has been totaled out and rebuilt. Many states have such provisions, but they vary widely - and Mississippi doesn't have one at all.
Here at home, Jones' dealerships have undergone some renovations in recent years, and they are regularly spruced up for the yearly inspections they must pass for Ford, Chrysler, and Lincoln-Mercury.
They also have had additional property near the Chrysler dealership since 1995, so they have room to grow. But there are no plans for expansion any time soon, Jones said.
A former president of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce, Jones said Greenwood has been a good place to live and raise his family.
"Greenwood's been good to me, and the people in Greenwood have been good to me, and Greenwood is considered my home," he said.
