Family is the future at Dodge of Burnsville
John Adamich is still president of Dodge of Burnsville, but his son-in-law, Mark Saba, is general manager, and his son, Greg, is service manager. Photo by John Gessner
by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers
Family is the future for John Adamich’s Dodge of Burnsville dealership.
Plans are in place to gradually transfer ownership of the 27-year-old business from John and his wife, Betty, to their son-in-law, Mark Saba, son, Greg, and their families.
In the meantime, Adamich, 76, can still be found upstairs in his bird’s-eye office or working with a few longtime clients.
“My dream is to pass it on to my children,” said Adamich, who lives in Apple Valley. “I could have retired from here five, six, seven years ago and never had to work again. But I don’t want to do that. I love what I do too much.”
Adamich is still the boss, the Dodge dealer of record, but daily operations are overseen by Saba, the general manager, with a giant assist from Greg Adamich, the service manager.
“Not to tell them what to do,” Adamich said of his role, “but to lead – and it’s working well.”
Having started on the ground floor of the auto business, it’s no wonder Adamich wants to preserve and pass on what he’s built.
Born and raised on the Iron Range, Adamich trained to be a mechanic at what is now the Dunwoody College of Technology, graduating in the early 1950s.
He started in the business as a mechanic with Northside Mercury in Minneapolis. In the 1960s he became a Northside salesman. From there he went to Prestige Lincoln-Mercury in St. Louis Park, where he became general manager.
In 1983 Adamich signed onto a Chrysler loan program to buy a bankrupt and shuttered Chrysler dealership at 12101 Interstate-35W in north Burnsville. Nine years later, the payments were completed and the business was his.
Saba, straight from college with a degree in computer technology, joined Dodge of Burnsville as a salesman in 1989. He was the top salesman within a year, and was promoted to sales manager before being named general manager.
“He just flowed along and became what I needed,” Adamich said.
Saba joined the family by marrying the Adamich’s daughter, Dana, who worked at the dealership when he came to work there.
“He asked if it was OK for him to ask my daughter out,” Adamich recalled with a smile. “I was really impressed with him asking that question.”
Greg Adamich had a degree in economics and was working for the former First Bank System’s auto dealership loan division when it was discontinued, his father said.
“He was never interested in the car business because of the huge hours involved,” John Adamich said. “But when you don’t have a job, he decided to come to work here rather than sit on his hands. And I think the more he hung around, the more he liked it.”
Greg joined Dodge of Burnsville as information technology leader, and within a few years had volunteered to replace an outgoing service manager, a position he took in 1997.
“You don’t have to be a mechanic to be a service manager,” John Adamich said. “You just have to be able to talk to people and get the paperwork done correctly.”
He and Betty have developed an estate plan to pass Dodge of Burnsville along to the two younger families. Saba will become the dealer of record, Adamich said.
“The considerations are to make certain that if the taxation gets too bad, there are insurance policies and things that are in place that can fix that,” he said.
The plan is to turn over the business assets slowly, he said.
“And hopefully, I can get them to think along the same lines with their kids. … I didn’t work this hard to build this up to see it go out the window, is why I’m thinking like this.”
John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweeek@ecm-inc.com.
I took my Chrysler Crossfire in to Dodge of Burnsville for an oil change. I was told it would be 15 minutes. No one was in the waiting area nor anywhere else I could access. An hour and 45 minutes later, my car was back. The windshield washing fluid was still empty, one tire was still low on air and there were greasy marks on the leather seats. It cost nearly $60. I was furious. I wrote a letter to Mr. Adamich and never received a response of any kind. I take my business elsewhere.