Bob Tasca has been selling cars since 1943.

CRANSTON The Tasca family has been working with the Ford Motor Co. since the days of Henry Ford himself.

At least, family patriarch Bob Tasca Sr. has.

“I started working at a Ford dealership on May 5, 1943,” he said during an animated interview at the Tasca Auto Group’s headquarters at 1300 Pontiac Avenue that included his three sons, four grandsons and a granddaughter. “That’s 65 years ago.”

Actually, the Ford that Bob Sr. got very close to was Henry Ford’s grandson, Henry “Hank the Deuce” Ford II, who took over the company after WWII following the untimely death of his father, Edsel.

Indeed, Bob Sr., 81, said Ford II confided in him to such an extent that he offered him a senior position at Ford in the early 1960s. But he said that while he was happy to help Ford in any way he could, what he really wanted to do was build a family dealership.

And he has.

His three sons, Bob Jr., Carl and David, have been running the family business — with Bob Sr. close at hand — since the mid-1970s.

“It was a lot of responsibility,” said Bob Jr. who started working full-time along with Carl. David followed when he graduated from college.

“I was there, but I didn’t butt in,” said Bob Sr. “If they made a mistake, I would step in. But I let them run the business.”

“The only thing they ever wanted was to get involved with (their) Dad’s business,” said Bob III, who is currently making a name on the National Hot Rod Association racing circuit. “They loved going to the dealership since they were 5, 6, 7 years old.”

“We learned to drive around the parking lot,” said Carl, adding that they hung out with technicians — some of whom still work for the family — and the salesmen.

Bob Jr., 56, is now president; Carl, 55, is secretary and treasurer; and David, 49, is vice president. Bob Jr.’s son Bob III, 32, and Carl Jr., 25, are also both vice presidents while David Jr., 17, is still in school. Also making their way up the ranks are Bob Jr.’s younger son Michael, 23, general manager of Tasca Volvo, and daughter Jaime, 30, manager of customer relations. Altogether, there are 11 members of the Tasca family on the payroll.

Bob Sr. acquired his first dealership in Bristol in 1953 and attributes his success to two factors: knowing the cars and taking care of the customer.

“I spent seven years learning what makes a car work,” he said. He said all members of the family who join the company have to work their way through the service department. “All the generations came up through the service department,” he said. “They have to know the vehicles.”

“And they have to know how to handle the customer,” he added. “The day comes you don’t take care of the customer, you’re out.”

Bob Sr. said he sold 26 cars in the first two weeks of acquiring the dealership in Bristol, noting that it had been selling 30 cars a year. However, it was destroyed by Hurricane Carol the year after he acquired it and he subsequently moved his operations to East Providence. He moved to the current location in Seekonk in 1971, and the family acquired the Volvo dealership in Seekonk in 2001 and built the Cranston dealership in 2002. A couple of years ago, the family acquired an adjacent property that serves as its wholesale outlet, body shop and truck center.

Over the years, Bob Sr., who is renowned for his mechanical skills, developed a close relationship with Henry Ford II and was involved in training service staff, testing cars and “debugging them” by identifying problems. He said he continues to do this, recently identifying 31 problems in Mazda’s CX-7. He also initiated adding value to models by customizing them with details, and the family initiated lease financing back in 1982.

Bob Sr. said Ford suffered a setback following the death of his friend Henry Ford II in 1987 that lasted some five years and took 10 years to recover from. During that time, Ford — like its two Detroit counterparts Chrysler and General Motors — rode the profits from its successful F-Series trucks.

Now that the market has changed, Bob III said the company is in a strong position with its range of models and brands — including Volvo with its reputation for safety and Mazda with its range of smaller B-cars.

In addition to the Ford product line, the company sells the Lincoln Mercury brands, Ford-owned Volvos and also Mazdas, in which Ford has a 34-percent stake. Ford recently announced plans to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover divisions to Tata Motors of Mumbai, India.

Bob Jr. said the three dealerships sell around 4,500 vehicles a year.

The family is very bullish on the new leadership at Ford, likening the management style of chairman William “Bill” Clay Ford Jr. to Henry Ford II, who was his uncle and who surrounded himself with talented individuals, such as Robert McNamara, who were known as the “Whiz Kids.”

“Bill Ford has the same philosophy, he’s surrounding himself with talent,” said Bob Jr. “He’s brought in good people, Mulally from Boeing and Farley from Lexus.”

Alan Mulally is president and CEO and Jim Farley is vice president-marketing.

(At the same time, Bill Ford made a name for himself in 1999 by rushing to the scene of an accident at one of the company factories that killed several employees. On being advised that generals don’t go to the front lines, he famously replied: “Then bust me down to private.”)

Bob III said Mulally was bringing big changes to Ford, making it smaller and more responsive to consumer demand, closing plants and buying out thousands of workers. Both Bob Jr. and Bob III serve on advisory boards to the corporation and know Mulally and Farley personally. Indeed, Farley attended one of Bob III’s recent races — he is currently ranked 12th in the national Nitro Funny Car division of the NHRA — and e-mailed him congratulations for his run. Bob III’s car, which hits over 300 mph on the quarter mile, is sponsored by Ford and Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto.

(Bob Sr., who sponsored race cars decades ago on the principle that he sold what he raced under the maxim “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday,” has mixed feelings about his grandson’s involvement in racing. “I’m scared for him, it worries me,” he said, adding that from a business point of view it took him out of the office for 128 days a year.)

Despite the demands of the track, Bob III is fully engaged in the business.

“It’s a complete culture change, I’ve never been more thrilled,” he said. “(Mulally) is moving the company base to move things forward.”

He cited Mulally’s decision to work for Ford based solely on a handshake as an example of his commitment to changing the corporate climate.

“He put himself on the line,” he said, noting that Mullaly wanted complete freedom to run the company without the protection of a contract, so he can be fired at any time. “(Mulally) put a stake in the ground to make a profit in 2009.”

“It’s a transfer from a supply model to a demand model, to producing cars that people want to buy,” said Bob Sr., noting the company is “listening to the dealers.”

Certainly, Ford has had notable success with a number of models in very difficult economic times, with U.S. auto sales down across the board and some projecting overall sales this year at around 15 million vehicles. Ford, however, is upping production of its Focus line by 30 percent to meet demand, and its boxy Edge has been selling well and the Fusion is holding its own.

“You can’t control the economy,” said Bob Jr. He said sales this year were “about a push with last year,” with fewer truck sales, more sales of smaller vehicles and more sales of pre-owned vehicles.

Bob Jr. said he saw the U.S. auto market developing along European lines with smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles accounting for a larger share. “The U.S. will look more and more like Europe,” he said, noting that Americans had gotten used to driving trucks like cars. “Those days are over.”

Bob III cited Mulally’s philosophy as printed on a wallet-sized card distributed by Ford. “One team, one plan, one goal,” is printed on one side with directives while the other side spells out F-O-R-D with inspirational messages.

“We all carry it,” he said.

“We’re not perfect, we lose some customers,” said Bob Jr. “But our father established a reputation for impeccable service and we try to do the right thing.”

“The only thing that means anything is your reputation,” said Bob Sr., noting Tasca’s loyalty factor of 98.2 percent. “Ninety-eight-point-two percent of our customers come back.”

And while Bob Sr. has dedicated his life to creating a family business, he said it was always about more than just making money. “Health and happiness; forget money,” he said.

Bob Jr. agreed, noting his father always advised: “Find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

For more information, go to:

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