When Benny Robles Jr. officially took over Bartow Ford on Jan. 1, 2017, he expected the moment to feel celebratory. Instead, he started thinking about the hundreds of employees and families who depended on the dealership.
“I realized there were 300 employees depending on me,” Robles Jr. said. “If you figure four people per family, that’s 1,200 people counting on you not to mess this thing up.”
The transition marked the second generation of leadership at one of Florida’s top Ford dealerships. Since taking over, Robles Jr. has expanded Bartow Ford’s branding, advertising and regional reach while continuing to operate with the same hands-on management style his father spent decades building.
Today, the dealership sells roughly 400 to 500 new and used vehicles a month and employs more than 250 people across its 30-acre campus in Bartow. Bartow Ford also operates one of the largest Ford service departments in Florida with 72 service bays and regularly ranks among Ford’s top-volume dealerships nationwide. According to the company, the dealership has won Ford’s President’s Award 26 times, more than any other Ford dealership in Florida, and recently earned Ford’s Triple Crown recognition, an award reserved for roughly the top 1% of Ford dealerships nationally.
“We’re in the people business,” Robles Jr. said. “We just sell cars on the side.”
The ownership transition also changed the working relationship between father and son almost overnight.
“On Dec. 31, he had the final say,” Robles Jr. said. “On Jan. 1, I had the final say.”
The two often disagreed on spending, advertising and how aggressively the dealership should grow. Robles Jr. described his father as more conservative while he pushed for more aggressive branding, marketing and public events throughout Central Florida.
“There were definitely times we butted heads,” he said. “There were times we didn’t talk for a couple days at work.”
Even so, Robles Jr. said the disagreements usually stemmed from differing views on risk rather than differing values.
“My dad used to say you have to be both a hunter and a farmer,” he said. “You have to go out and grow the business, but you also have to plant seeds and make sure you’re protected when things slow down.”
Robles Jr. grew up inside the dealership long before he became dealer principal. He started washing cars and mowing grass at Bartow Ford when he was 12 years old. He worked summers and weekends throughout middle school and high school and spent much of his free time at the store even when he was not scheduled to work.
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By the time he was a teenager, he was already sitting in sales meetings, listening to managers work through problems and watching his father handle difficult customers and employees.
A police officer who was friends with his father once jokingly asked Robles Jr. for working papers while he was washing cars on the lot. Convinced he was about to be arrested for working underage, he ran across the dealership property before realizing the entire store had been watching the prank unfold.
“I figured I was going to live in the woods for a couple days and then meet back up with my dad,” he said, laughing.
Robles Jr. attended Florida Southern College while working full time at Bartow Ford. He moved through sales, internet sales, finance, and management roles before completing the National Automobile Dealers Association Dealer Academy.
Along the way, he absorbed different leadership styles from his father and his father’s business partners. He still remembers watching his father calm an angry customer by defusing the situation rather than escalating the confrontation.
“He kind of got down on the customer’s level and de-escalated the situation,” Robles Jr. said. “The guy was super mad. I still remember that.”
Those interactions continue to shape how he manages employees today.
“Most people think employees leave jobs because of pay,” he said. “But most of the time, they leave because they don’t feel valued.”
Robles Jr. said Bartow Ford avoids the excessive work schedules common throughout the automotive industry. Sales employees generally work 40-50 hours per week, and managers remain active throughout the dealership rather than staying isolated in offices.
His father regularly worked Saturdays and rotated through departments even while serving as owner. Once a month, Robles Sr. worked a shift in a different department, whether that meant washing cars, changing oil or helping employees in service operations.
“He didn’t ask employees to do something he wasn’t willing to do himself,” Robles Jr. said.
Robles Jr. said his father also taught him to view employee problems as management problems.
“I remember my dad telling me one time that if you have to fire someone, then you failed too,” he said. “You didn’t train them right, develop them right or get them to buy into what the business was about.”
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That management philosophy was shaped long before either man owned the dealership.
Robles Sr. was born in Spain and moved to Cuba before fleeing the Castro regime as a child. He arrived in the United States without his family and spent time in foster homes and orphanages before eventually settling with a foster family in Detroit. Years later, he reunited with his family in Tampa, attended the University of South Florida and went to work for Ford Credit.
While auditing dealerships for Ford Credit, Robles Sr. became familiar with Bartow Ford, which was struggling financially at the time. The dealership’s owner eventually offered him a job. Over time, Robles Sr. moved from finance to sales to general manager before joining the ownership group.
“He worked his way up,” Robles Jr. said. “The owner wanted someone who was going to take care of the customers and operate with the same business philosophies he had.”
After taking over, Robles Jr. expanded Bartow Ford’s advertising footprint and invested heavily in large public events designed to keep the dealership visible throughout the region. The dealership hosts Easter egg hunts that attract thousands of attendees, holiday events featuring snow and live entertainment, and country music concerts that have brought nationally known artists to the property.
Robles Jr. said the goal was to keep Bartow Ford visible even when customers were not actively shopping for vehicles.
“I don’t believe if I go on the radio and tell somebody to buy a Ford Explorer today that someone who isn’t in the market is suddenly going to go buy one,” he said. “But if you bring your family here and have an amazing experience, then when you’re in the market later, you’ll at least give us a chance.”
At the same time, Polk County and the Interstate 4 corridor were growing rapidly.
“For a long time, Bartow had a population of around 10,000 people,” Robles Jr. said. “At the same time, we were outselling dealerships in Tampa, Orlando and Miami. We always felt there was something unique about this area.”
More than 300 employees now volunteer during concerts, holiday events and community gatherings hosted at the dealership.
“I think it differentiates us,” Robles Jr. said. “But it’s also a thank you to the community that’s supported us for so long.”
The differences between father and son became especially important during Covid-19.
When shutdowns and economic disruption spread across the country in early 2020, Robles Jr. initially considered cutting staff and reducing payroll. His father urged him not to react too quickly, having already navigated recessions in the 1980s and the financial crisis in 2008.
“He steadied the water,” Robles Jr. said.
Bartow Ford kept its workforce intact and still had enough staff to handle the surge in demand that followed.
Today, Robles Sr. no longer owns a stake in the dealership, although he still comes into the store several times a week. Robles Jr. said their relationship has improved as both adjusted to the transition from one generation of leadership to the next.
“We probably gel better now than we ever have,” he said. “That’s pretty amazing after 33 years.”
Robles Jr. now hopes to expand beyond a single dealership location. He has explored acquiring additional stores within driving distance of Bartow, partly to create advancement opportunities for longtime employees and managers inside the company. He said future growth would likely focus on stores close enough to share operations, advertising and management infrastructure.
“My dad came from nowhere,” he said. “He couldn’t speak the language and worked his way up. If all I do is maintain the dealership, I don’t think that’s enough of a legacy. I want to help pull other people up with me.”
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