Family-Owned Cadillac Dealership Keeps Clients Coming With Committed Service

Mohammed Badi is a 12-year veteran of the Capitol Cadillac dealership with a sales record worth boasting about.

His supervisor, general sales manager David Marshall, said Badi always makes the most sales every year, often selling 40 more Cadillacs, Buicks and GMCs than the average salesman.

Although Badi is proud of his accomplishments, he said at the end of the day it’s about his customers.

“You help the customer find the car, fall in love with it, see what it’s like to drive it, and show them little features they don’t know about,” Badi said. “You’re not going to buy a $25,000 or $30,000 car and not be happy about it.”

Badi is one of several longtime employees at Capitol Cadillac, which has been operating in Greenbelt just off the Beltway since 1979.

“It’s the people that make someone want to buy from a place,” Marshall said. “Maybe the name got you in here, but the experience is from all of the people.”

Marshall said that it’s not unusual to see the same faces for decades at a Cadillac dealership.

“In the car business you have a lot of turnover of employees. Here we don’t,” Marshall said. “Most people in the Cadillac business, especially here, seem to stick around.”

Marshall been with the dealership for close to 30 years. He grew up in Prince George’s County, attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School and Prince George’s Community College, and then started working at Capitol Cadillac.

The dealership sells 75 to 80 new and used cars every month. Marshall said their clientele is largely African American and are older than 50. Customers often have grandchildren in tow—rarely their own children.

Service is also a major component of Capitol Cadillac. The dealership’s service center can fit 40 cars—making it one of the largest in the area—and anywhere between 300 and 400 cars are repaired each week. Clients can enjoy complimentary repair services and car washes for the first four years of ownership or until the car reaches 50,000 miles.

Marshall admits that service—and not sales alone—are essential to Capitol Cadillac.

“Everyone thinks a dealership is for sales, but there are other components to it,” he said, “Service is the biggest part of any business. The thing that keeps people coming back is their service department.”

Although Patricia Gilbert of Landover bought her family’s GMC at another dealership, she services her car at Capitol Cadillac.

“They’re on the money to get whatever you need done, accurately and professionally,” Gilbert said. “They’re not one to give you the runaround.”

Capitol Cadillac is a third generation, family-owned dealership that opened in 1934 in downtown DC.

Floyd D. Akers, the original owner, enjoyed more than 30 years of sales in the city, but as residents began to move out to the suburbs, he and his son-in-law, Howard Jobe, realized it was time to relocate.

Phil Lark, a sales consultant who has been with Capitol Cadillac for more than 40 years, worked at the DC location before the move.

“At that time DC was the place to be, but the costs for a dealership like this were not very efficient,” Lark said. “It was very beneficial while they were there.”

Although the market and the merchandise have changed over the years, Lark said that the business practices established by Akers have held fast.

“It’s still the same basic shirt and tie, jackets preferred but not required, and that’s how it’s been since its inception,” Lark said.

Marshall said the short term and long term goal of the business is the same—to stay open.

Lark asserts that Capitol Cadillac has laid the groundwork for many years of success.

“I’ve had a good job over the years, and that’s why I’m still here,” Lark said. “What’s good about Capitol Cadillac is that it’s always had a good core that has kept the dealership running for a number of years.”

The key to success selling Cadillacs, Marshall said, is knowing what you’re in for.