Creating a Career in Automotive with Used Car Manager Chris Logothetti

Teammates throughout our company have shared their career stories and how unlikely paths led them to work in the automotive industry. While they didn’t necessarily have their sights on an automotive career, they've become passionate about the industry and have met people who have changed their lives. Chris Logothetti, Used Car Manager at Mercedes-Benz of Walnut Creek, is one of those teammates.

Chris Logothetti worked as a special education teacher after graduating with a psychology degree from San José State. In an effort to generate more income for his family, he became a photographer at a dealership in the area, Stevens Creek BMW, a Sonic Automotive dealership. Soon after, the general manager at the time, Jason Viscarra, asked if Chris wanted to join his team full-time. Chris initially declined Jason's offer.

Chris Joins Sonic Automotive

In 2010, the economy was still recovering from the 2008 recession, and Chris recalls applying to a plethora of full-time jobs. Receiving no response to his applications, he decided to give Jason a call to accept his offer of joining Stevens Creek BMW. Chris was hired as an assistant used car manager. Eventually, when Jason moved into a different role with the company, Chris stepped up into the used car manager role. He was hesitant to take this next step in his career but was met with support from a fellow teammate to help run the department.

After spending a few years at Stevens Creek BMW, Chris and his wife decided to move to the East Bay area in California. By coincidence, Jason had just become the general manager of Mercedes-Benz of Walnut Creek in Walnut Creek, California. Once again, Jason invited Chris to join him at his dealership, and the pair was back together and ready to take on new challenges.

Focusing on Culture

Chris recalls hearing about Mercedes-Benz of Walnut Creek and how the dealership needed assistance improving its customer satisfaction index (CSI) scores. As the general manager, Jason was dedicated to helping the dealership improve their reputation from the inside out. So, as a team, Jason and Chris fostered a culture of growth by investing in the professional development of their teammates. Loyalty and dedication among teammates began to thrive. “Focusing on the culture here was the biggest thing we did,” Chris shares. “We set up a culture of being able to promote from within and make things fun while also expecting teammates to do the best job."

As the team culture grew stronger, Chris took a personal interest in ensuring his teammates were fulfilled in their roles. He taught the basics of the company playbooks and found that once his team understood the foundations of Sonic Automotive's guidance, they could thrive. Instead of being behind a desk all day, Chris was on the ground with his team, making sure that he was accessible to answer questions and provide advice. "You're not going to have a high-performing dealership without a good culture," shares Chris. He describes his team as having each other's backs and partaking in a unified belief of their mission to sell more cars and provide an excellent guest experience.

Learnings and Advice

Throughout his time at Mercedes-Benz of Walnut Creek, Chris and his team have applied new tactics to better support the dealership's needs, even through the challenges of the pandemic. "There's always something to learn when you encounter and stay on top of challenges. By not making excuses and pushing forward, you learn a lot about how to be successful."

Chris values his time at Sonic Automotive and has learned a lot from his leader Jason. He shares that some of the best advice he received is to spend your budget like it is your own money. Chris has applied that wisdom to help him make smarter business decisions. One of the best ways he has put this into practice is by allocating funds to recognize his top performers each month with incentives during their monthly kick-off meetings.

Although this was an unlikely path for Chris, he’s happy with the destination, leading a team of innovators at a high-performing dealership. Chris's advice to the next generation of automotive professionals is to "Be fully invested in your job. You must be all in to get what you want out of it. Be open-minded because most people don't find their dream job right away, but you can create it." Sometimes, as is the case for Chris, our outcomes are better than the plans we had in mind.

To learn more about career opportunities at Sonic Automotive, visit jobs.sonicautomotive.com.