Gaudin Ford, family owned since 1922. First in business in California, in Las Vegas since 1955 (thanks Steve!)

George Gaudin’s family moved from Tennessee to Northern California in a covered wagon, accompanied by their livestock and almost nothing else. In his early 20s, Mr. Gaudin earned money working on his family’s lettuce farm. It was in this role that he accidentally stumbled upon what would be the world’s first commercial utilization of front-wheel drive in U.S. agriculture. One day, he realized he could get more power from his father’s Ford Model T Truck by putting the cab and bed on backward. The vehicle not only made his lettuce farming more efficient because it allowed him to get the produce to the markets quicker, but it caught the attention of Ford Motor Company.

In 1922, they approached Mr. Gaudin about his concept. The smart opportunist in Mr. Gaudin seized the moment and rather than accepting money, he spoke of his desire to become a Ford dealer and a deal was struck. The first “dealership” building was in Escalon, Calif. and opened in 1926. He moved the store several times in the next few decades to larger markets in the northern California area.

In the mid-1950s, Mr. Gaudin sold his Ford store in Salinas and moved to Newport Beach where he opened up Gaudin Ford in Buena Park, just minutes from the popular attraction, Knotsberry Farm.

In 1972, Mr. Gaudin decided to retire from active participation in the car business. He gave his sons-in-law the first right of refusal. The fork-in-the-road ultimatum resulted in the Buena Park dealership being sold to Fletcher Jones, and the Las Vegas dealership remained with his son-in-law, Don Ackerman.

Don's son got job experience working at Galpin Ford from 1974-1979

http://www.gaudinford.com/about-us/
http://annualmobiles.blogspot.com/2014/08/
http://gaudinmotorcompany.com/about-gaudin/

Although Fletcher Jones himself died in 1994, his family still runs dealerships here in Las Vegas. Two years before he died Jones bought a bankrupt Mercedes-Benz dealership in Newport Beach and had his son Ted (Fletcher Jones Jr.) to run it. In two years it became the second largest Mercedes dealer in the country - today Fletcher Jones is the top Mercedes seller in the U.S. with dealerships in Las Vegas (a 225,000-sq.-ft. superstore); a 186,000-sq-ft. store in Newport Beach; one in Chicago; and another in Honolulu.

Their other dealerships sell Audi, Ford, Honda, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Toyota, and Volkswagen in Chicago, five in Hawaii, two in California, two more in Las Vegas and Henderson, and one in Reno.

Fletcher Jones Sr. started the family business in 1954 with one Los Angeles dealership. The company is still owned and run by Fletcher Jones Jr. (Ted). At the time of his father's death Ted was married to Jan Jones - the Mayor of Las Vegas.

This is not terribly interesting to most people, but I got interested in the Fletcher Jones story when I learned that Sr. had sold Spring Mountain Ranch to the State of Nevada in 1974, whereupon Nevada made it a state park - my favorite state park. Started as a water stop on the Old Spanish Trail in 1830, the first buildings (still there) went up in about 1864. The ranch today looks like someone uprooted a chunk of Virginia countryside and plopped it down in the middle of the desert.

Famous owners have included Willard George (the fur coat designer and seller to the stars from the 20s to the 50s), Chet Lauck (Lum of "Lum and Abner" radio comedy fame), German actress Vera Krupp (married into the Krupp munitions family), and Howard Hughes. And of course Fletcher Jones.