The Tiffany Ford dealership on San Benito Street is housed in a
shiny new building, but don’t let that fool you: Even in the
impressive, modern showroom, you can find old signs, newspaper
clippings and other indications of the company’s long history.
The Tiffany Ford dealership on San Benito Street is housed in a shiny new building, but don’t let that fool you: Even in the impressive, modern showroom, you can find old signs, newspaper clippings and other indications of the company’s long history.
In fact, Tiffany Ford is the oldest Ford dealership in California, and the seventh oldest in the United States.
Bob Tiffany, who co-owns the business with his mother, Velma, and oversees its day-to-day operations, said he belongs to the fourth generation of Tiffany men to run the company.
He acknowledged that Hollister, especially the rural community of the early 20th century, doesn’t seem like the best place to sell cars. After all, automobiles were a brand-new technology at the time.
“You’re wondering, ‘How in the heck is it in Hollister of all places?'” Bob Tiffany said.
However, he said many of the other old dealerships started in similarly small communities.
“I guess that’s just how the early history worked out,” Bob Tiffany said.
The dealership was founded by his great-grandfather, E.W. Tiffany, in 1910. He had come to Hollister several years earlier and after purchasing a Model T from the Ford dealership in San Francisco, Tiffany made a deal to sell cars in Hollister.
Initially, it was just a side project to complement his “real job” in the real estate business, but soon the dealership was the main source of E.W. Tiffany’s income, and he started to focus on automobiles exclusively.
Bob Tiffany said car dealerships have evolved considerably since his great-grandfather’s time. The dealership sold cars from the very beginning, he said, but its bread-and-butter was repairs.
And even after sales became the focus, the auto industry was much different than what it is today.
“When Dad first got into the business just after World War II, there’d be the new Ford model – there’d just be one – and that’s what everyone would get,” Tiffany said.
Although the new dealership continues repair and maintenance to Ford vehicles, its three-acre lot is full of new cars and trucks. Tiffany said the dealership’s current inventory is around 100 vehicles, although that can get as high as 175. Sales range from 35 to 80 vehicles a month.
Trucks from Ford’s F-series have become the dealership’s top sellers, Bob Tiffany said. However, changing trends and rising gas prices have meant that their popularity has dropped off.
Of course, there’s far more than one model for sale, including hybrid vehicles and the Edge, a cross between a car, a minivan and a sports utility vehicle.
In recent years, the Internet has also changed the way cars are sold, Bob Tiffany said. While it’s unusual for people to actually buy a car off the Internet – it’s a big purchase to make sight unseen – more and more customers are doing research ahead of time. That’s a good thing for the industry as a whole, he said, although it can be a challenge to deal with customers who are as knowledgeable as the sales staff.
“Our salespeople have to be on their toes,” Bob Tiffany said.
Despite the dealership’s long history, Bob Tiffany said that when he was growing up, it was not clear that he’d end up running the business. He noted that his brother Bill Tiffany, a Hollister attorney, managed to have a professional life that had nothing to do with the dealership.
“He was the smart one,” Bob Tiffany said.
And Bob Tiffany himself didn’t jump into the dealership right away. After going to college, he spent 15 years working in marketing on the East Coast.
“When I went off to college, I never figured I would come back ,” he said.
Nonetheless, as he started his professional career, Tiffany knew that taking over the dealership remained a possibility, and that’s exactly what his father Charles asked him to do in 1987. There were some long discussions, Bob Tiffany said, and eventually he decided to come back.
“It was not an easy decision,” he said.
However, as he completes his 20th year at the dealership, Bob Tiffany said he made the right choice. It’s a very different culture from corporate work on the East Coast – some of the dealership’s top employees have been with the Tiffany family for 30 years or more, and Tiffany said he’s happy to be selling cars and trucks to people he grew up with.
Hollister resident Dave Brigantino said he’s been buying vehicles from Tiffany Ford for around 30 years – or, as he puts it, “ever since I could afford to buy a new car.”
Brigantino said he’s always been treated professionally and that all of his problems get fixed. He also has a personal connection with the dealership, since he’s known the Tiffany family since childhood.
“(Bob Tiffany) will treat you right,” Brigantino said.
Since coming on-board, Bob Tiffany has supervised the dealership’s move in 1999 from its old location at South and San Benito streets, where the business had been located for more than 60 years, to its present site on San Felipe Road.
“I think we waited long enough,” he said.
Bob Tiffany added that he was particularly proud to work with his father on the project. Charles Tiffany had always seen the dealership as more than a job, and that was apparent every day as he left for work.
“When he’d go to work, he’d say, ‘I’m going to the garage,'” Bob Tiffany said. “Not work or the business, but the garage.”
When asked about the chances of a fifth generation of Tiffanys running the dealership, Bob Tiffany said that it’s a possibility, but he’s not going to pressure anyone.
“I want (my sons) to do what they want to do with their lives,” he said. “Besides, first we have to see whether I’m going to hang in there that long.”
