Passion for cars, people steers family-run Costa Mesa Ford dealership into 100th year
Theodore Robins was working in a small auto repair shop on the Balboa Peninsula in 1923, when two men walked in and pitched him on a job opportunity.
Ford Motor Co. which had begun producing Model T vehicles for the American market some 15 years earlier, was seeking to expand by offering franchise agreements. The two entrepreneurs were looking to open a dealership and needed a mechanic.
Robins, who’d served as a pilot during World War I, flew planes as a fire spotter up north and later transferred his skills with a wrench to the still-nascent automobile, seemed like a perfect candidate.
But he himself envisioned a different future.
“He packed up his shop, drove to L.A. and came back with the Ford franchise,” grandson Dave recalled in a recent interview.
“Those gentlemen came back around and said, ‘Hey, we understand you already got the franchise.’ Grandpa’s response was, ‘If it was going to be a good deal for you, it’s going to be a better deal for me.’”
Truer words had never been spoken. The franchise agreement was signed Feb. 7, 1923, and one week later, Robins sold his first Model T for $637.10 — it would be the first deal brokered in a century of sales that would follow.
From that transaction Theodore Robins Ford grew by leaps and bounds, keeping pace with a national fascination with automobiles and the opportunities for expansion and adventure they afforded.
Robins moved the business in 1928 to a larger building in Newport Beach, across from what is today the Crab Cooker, then upgraded to a larger property on Coast Highway in 1955.
In 1966, the family purchased a 10-acre parcel in Costa Mesa surrounded by bean fields. The area was largely vacant, aside from another dealership down the road, but quickly filled in as more commercial businesses cropped up on Harbor Boulevard.
By then, Theo was working alongside his son Theodore Jr., who went by “Bob” to eliminate confusion. The younger Robins worked on weekends and during summer breaks from school, ferrying parts and eventually working in the lube shop, parts department, body shop, then in sales.
When Bob was a teenager in the 1940s and looking for a set of wheels, he talked his dad into selling him a 1914 Model T. He drove it to class at Newport Harbor High School and, as promised, sold it back to his father at cost when he was done. Bob ran the dealership right up until his passing in 2016.
Today, the vintage vehicle — lovingly restored to its original condition by his own sons, Jim and Dave, just in time for the dealership’s 75th anniversary in 1998 — still stands on display inside the showroom.
“So the story goes, Grandpa sold it to him for what we were in it for, so he bought it and it’s been here ever since,” Jim said in a recent tour of the Costa Mesa dealership, which played host to a 100th anniversary celebration on Feb. 7.
More than 200 people turned out for the centennial celebration, including corporate officers from Ford Motor Co. who made the trip from Dearborn, Mich. Attendees enjoyed a display of family and Ford artifacts laid out for the occasion.
The party was organized by elder brother Jim, 62, who serves as president of the dealership and 60-year-old Dave, vice president. Like their father, the brothers began doing odd jobs at the company as children and moved up from valets washing cars, through every department, on the way to administration.
In addition to a strong work ethic, Dave and Jim acknowledge their forebears taught them the importance of treating customers and employees with respect and volunteering locally.
“One thing they’ve instilled in me is just being part of the community,” Dave said. “The other thing is giving back.”
Collectively, members of the Robins family have been involved in Hoag Hospitals’ 552 Club support group, the Newport Harbor and Costa Mesa chambers of commerce, the American Legion, the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club, the Exchange Club of Newport Harbor, the Orange County Auto Dealers Assn. and numerous other organizations.
“We’d decided a year ago, when we started planning this, that we wanted to give back to the community,” Jim said. “So, we decided for every car we sold we would put $100 in a pot, in the hopes we’d be able to put together $100,000 by our 100th anniversary — we blew right past that and had $125,000 that were able to give 10 charities.”
The recent milestone was also recognized Tuesday by Costa Mesa City Council members, who offered a proclamation and shared a brief history of the family-owned business, which predates the city’s incorporation in 1953.
“It’s wonderful to have a business that lasts 100 years. It’s another thing to have a family business that lasts 100 years,” said Mayor John Stephens. “You stand on the shoulders of family who, I’m sure, are very proud at this moment and looking down on you with great pride at the legacy they’ve created.”
That legacy may continue through a fourth generation. Dave’s daughter, Ashley Farrell, works as a compliance manager for the company, while oldest daughter Nicole Boukather, who sold cars before having kids, has expressed a desire to return to the showroom.
Today, the Robins brothers are steering the dealership as the industry evolves. California has vowed to sell only 100% emission free vehicles by 2035, which could signal the end of the combustion engine’s long reign in the industry.
To an extent, the brothers embrace change (Dave drives an electric Ford F-150). But some things, they say, will never change, like their father and grandfather’s belief that if you take care of your customers and employees, they’ll take care of your business.
“I can’t think of anything I’d do differently,” Jim said.
“If it’s been successful all these years,” Dave agreed. “Don’t fix something that’s not broken.”
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