SALEM, Ohio - If there's one thing Shorty Navarro knows, its cars. He's been selling them for nearly 30 years.
"To be good at something I always feel you should have a passion for it," said Navarro sitting in a cubicle at his Salem GM dealership. "And I always liked automobiles. When I was very young, I remember when I was 15-16 years old, I would take the engine apart, put it back together; I thought that was fun!"
Navarro was fourteen when his family emigrated from Puerto Rico so his father could work in the mills.
"My dad came here with eight kids from Puerto Rico and I was the oldest of eight," he explained. "I went to East High School and from there I started working at a gas station."
After school he joined the military.
"I went into the Marine Corps," he remembered. "When I came out I had no money. I had about $600. I was able to buy a couple junkers and clean them up and sell them. The secret was that I shined them so good that people thought it was a nice car to buy!"
He sold used cars for 22 years but Navarro wanted to have his own dealership. So in 1982 he went to General Motors applying to be one of the first Latino dealers.
"It was kind of interesting when I went out there," he recalled. "Everybody was like, 6'4", 6'3" [tall], blue eyes. I was this little Puerto Rican short guy, it was funny. But I wasn't scared, they couldn't intimidate me. I was a young Marine. I thought, can't no body intimidate me!"
Nearly 30 years later Navarro's Stadium GM dealership has grown. He's consolidated his stores into one location in Salem where he plans to build a 35,000 square foot Stadium GM Superstore which will include Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC all under one roof. Once the expansion is complete later this summer, Stadium will occupy an entire city block on West State Street.
Navarro has 65 employees at the Salem store.
"He provides us with a great opportunity to do the thing we love and that's sell cars," said General Manager Mike Hudock. "He's a people person. He cares about each and every one of his employees. Every day he asks about them, cares about their families."
He says watching his bottom line, caring for his customers, plus a love of cars has sustained his business.
"God is good," said Navarro. "And we live in a great country."
