Jim Pattison celebrates 50 years in car business

ONE DEALERSHIP in 1961 has grown into 18 in 2011.

Before he opened his first car dealership in Vancouver close to 50 years ago, Jim Pattison was already turning a profit buying and selling cars.
“When I was at John Oliver high school, there were 1,800 kids and only two cars were driven by kids,” he recalled during an interview with Black Press.
“I was one of them, driving a ’37 Austin two-seater convertible. My dad helped me get it. It was financed through the Consolidated Finance Company, and my dad co-signed for it. I sold it after I graduated from school, and made a slight profit on it.
“That’s how I paid my way through university,” Pattison said, “buying and selling cars.”
Pattison’s first dealership opened in 1961 at the corner of 18th Avenue and Cambie Street
in Vancouver – a General Motors franchise that not only was the start of the Jim Pattison Auto Group, but the beginning of the huge Jim Pattison Group of Companies that today employs more than 33,000 people and has $7.2 billion in sales annually.
“Everything we have started with that business at 18th and Cambie,” Pattison said. “We
bought a three-pump Home Oil gas station, with a small showroom, with a $40,000 loan from the Royal Bank. We sold 25 cars in the first month.” Roughly a decade later, General Motors offered the Pattison group a second franchise.
“There was a problem with a dealer in Coquitlam, and they asked us to help out. We acquired a Chevrolet franchise, and opened on Kingsway in Burnaby,” he said.
“Then 1979, maybe 1980, Toyota came to us and offered us three dealerships in the North Shore, New Westminster and Surrey.”
Today, the Jim Pattison Auto Group has grown to include 18 locations in Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, including Jim Pattison Hyundai in Nanaimo. New Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai, Volvo, Scion, Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles are sold
under the Pattison name, as are used cars through the company’s Cars Unlimited brand.
“It gives you more opportunities,” Pattison said, explaining why the auto giant sells numerous different brands. “Each manufacturer has certain advantages to suit different customers.” Pattison sees no reason why the company can’t continue to grow.
“As cities get crowded, there will be more people using transit, and they will be using their cars less,” he said. “But people will still want their own transportation,
to go their different ways.”