Martin Hern started his family’s connection with car sales when he opened Courtesy Chevrolet in Seattle. More than 25 years later, his son and grandson walked through the doors of the brand new Courtesy Chevrolet in Poulsbo.

The anticipation of cake started it all.

The latest addition to the Courtesy Auto Group is the fourth in Poulsbo and the eighth in total for the son John Hern and his son, J. Rick Hern who started their business in 1982. It was just a few years before then, while John Hern was traveling on the peninsula that his sweet tooth desires hit. Remembering someone telling him about Poulsbo Bakery, he stopped and satisfied the hunger.

In his short stay and in subsequent visits another urge grew. The A.C. Ford dealership had recently folded in town. The lot lay empty. When John Hern figured out the conditions of the time — 18-percent interest rates, a gas crunch and high inflation — were likely temporary, he brought his son in on what he considered the deal of a lifetime. Locally adding to the woe, the Hood Canal Bridge was closed due to it having sunk below the waterline. Still they opened up shop.

“We started this place with six used cars,” said Rick Hern, sitting behind a U-shaped desk, Ford paraphernalia in strong evidence. “Me and my father, we drove them personally on the ferry. That [used cars] is all we sold for the first six months.”

Clearly, the Herns’ swim against the prevailing tide of opinion paid off.

The latest store is not an expansion but an update of their Chevrolet dealership that had been further down the road. They acquired the Poulsbo Chevrolet franchise five years ago. The sales floor there was old-fashioned, a 60s-era ambience with none of the current technological amenities, both Herns say.

It also wasn’t nearly big enough.

To work through lease responsibilities, permits and construction took about 13 months. Tim Ryan Construction, another local, multi-generation family business, built the facility, based on the Courtesy Ford building next door, itself remodeled in 1999.

“If you’re not moving forward and going ahead, you’re moving backwards,” Rick Hern said. It’s a phrase he’s gone to school on. “It’s a great time to expand. I’m certainly concerned with the state of the economy and the media blitz surrounding it. But I also believe if you believe all the doom and gloom you’ll never get ahead.”

When father and son say the new dealership “was built for the community,” here’s what they mean.

John Hern has seen Poulsbo change for the better. Along Viking Avenue Northwest, there’s a row of Courtesy dealerships: Ford, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Chevrolet. When he turns onto the road now, he often sees how it used to be — a two-lane road with not much to offer.

As part of the ad-hoc Poulsbo Group, he had a say in steering the housing development and the road systems of the city. The family recognizes that government and Poulsbo residents — “affluent thinkers” as John Hern describes them — have powered the company and allowed it to do grow along with the city.

That’s what they really mean.

“There’s a lot of pride too,” said John’s wife, Terri, urging him to get out of the office for their grandson’s soccer game. “There’s a lot here now to be proud of.”

All this doesn’t mean the Herns discount the importance of, and the ability to, make money.

“From an entrepreneurial point of view, if there’s a market out there you want to fill it,” the younger Hern said.

The Courtesy Auto Group now has eight locations, with Gig Harbor Courtesy Ford the previous last site to open in January 2001. The others are in Sequim, Port Townsend and Silverdale. Together about 350 employees work for the company.

Is eight enough? It doesn’t appear to be.

“Two more franchises in the next five years is the plan and two more in the next five after that,” John Hern said.

Opening up a new franchise requires a trust, Rick Hern said.

“With customers wanting to spend a lot of money, they should expect to be treated well,” he said. “It’s not always price, they’re also looking for value for money. Value comes in many forms. They are looking to be treated with respect and dignity. They are also looking for a square deal and not to have their time wasted.”

Makes the decisions
   Rick Hern, 39, said he had not considered that, like the Ford Company, Courtesy Auto Group is in its third generation of leadership.

John Hern works 10 to 12 hours a day. He said both he and his son probably work too-long hours but it’s been worth it, so far. He doesn’t see that changing anytime.

“I’ll work until I die,” he said. “I love the people; going out on the floor talking to people. The auto dealerships are my second home.”

You might see him on a Courtesy visit. He’ll be the one with the “fancy” nametag; the one that reads, “Courtesy Auto Group. John.”

Rick Hern sits just down the hall from his father, upstairs in the Poulsbo Courtesy Ford location. Every day he can hear the voice and see the person who drove him toward success in the career he wanted. At age 13 he washed cars and picked up cigarette butts from his grandfather’s lot as an introduction to the car sales business.

“My father has been a mentor of mine, a guide and a partner,” he said. “He has a passion for the industry and I’ve learned much from him, and continue to learn.”

John Hern, 59, said his son is the company’s greatest asset.

“Back then he wasn’t and I didn’t know he would be,” he said. “But I know people and I knew he could work in the business. It’s not easy to spot talent. I look for talent every minute of the day. He makes the decisions now.”

For the younger Hern, chief among those decisions is how to meet expectations.

“Our first name stands for everything,” he said. “When you have the first name, Courtesy, you have to live up to that.”

“I’ve always said our business runs on wheels but its base is our customers,” John Hern said. “We don’t make them. We don’t design them and we’re not the engineers. We just have to keep them running.”

They’re both Model A personalities. They think a lot alike.

(Editor’s Note: Temple A. Stark is a free-lance writer living in Port Orchard. Reach him at writer@harbornet.com)