Family Driven

Now At Four Generations, Pohanka Automotive Celebrates Centennial

By Ian Harmon and Raoul Dennis

Geoff Pohanka is a tall, soft-spoken man: unassuming and gentle in manner. He never allows his stature to overwhelm the people around him. But leading a family business that’s over a century in operation is the type of stature few can claim.

Pohanka Automotive began in 1919 when Frank Pohanka opened a car dealership on Ward Place, in northwest Washington, D.C. That decision, to boldly embark upon a career in the car service industry during that time period, would spark a journey of growth, success, and customer satisfaction that is 100 years strong and still going today.

“There aren’t many businesses going 100 years,” said Geoff Pohanka, the President of Pohanka Automotive Group, and the grandson of Frank Pohanka. “A 100 year [old] company had to survive The Great Depression when not many people could buy cars. The reason we survived is my grandfather, he was a master mechanic.”

Aptly named for Frank’s mechanical knowledge and customer dedication, his dealership was called Pohanka Service for 30 years, and it was there that customers received the repairs to keep their cars on the road or buy new vehicles. In 1958, after his father’s passing, John Pohanka took over the dealership and moved it to Marlow Heights, Maryland and began expanding, swiftly procuring new locations for more franchises.

Now in 2019, with 17 locations all over the Maryland and Virginia area and one in Tomball, Texas, Pohanka Automotive stands as a well-established, award-winning, customer-focused brand that has spanned four generations. There are many reasons for that sustained success, especially the service-centered values that have been passed down the family line and are visible at every location, but one that sets Pohanka apart is the dedication to the communities they serve. 

Like his father and grandfather, Geoff believes that connection and service to the community and to the company’s customers are the keys to longevity and success.

Inside track: Geoff Pohanka (far right) at a July 2018 meeting of the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable. The meeting was held at Junior Achievement. Also pictured are At Large County Councilmember Mel Franklin (far left), Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable President and CEO Jim Estepp, then Prince George’s Public Schools CEO Kevin M. Maxwell and Stephen Proctor of G.S. Proctor & Associates. PHOTO: RAOUL DENNIS // PRINCE GEORGE’S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA

“If you want to be successful, you have to help your community be successful. Auto dealers have to get involved and support community and education and be the public servants doing the work every day.” Geoff says.

He put the words into action when it was his generational turn to navigate the company through a crisis.

In the 1990s, “auto theft was a big problem in Prince George’s,” Pohanka recalls. The county suffered some 18,000 car thefts per year. “If Prince George’s County was a state, it would have been 13th in the nation in auto thefts in the 1990s. I knew that If I didn’t help fix this, I would have to [take the business] and leave Prince George’s. It was that bad.”

Pohanka knocked on doors.- including then states attorney, Glenn Ivey. “So we talked to Glenn Ivey, judges, police force and others; anyone that would talk to us. It was a horrible problem,” he said.

He began to make traction when he connected with the business community and law enforcement.

“ I met the Estepps and Gary [Michael of the Michael Companies] and [they] created the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable. The idea of the Roundtable appealed to me. I learned from my dad that you have to be involved in your local community. You are only as good as your local community and if you can help the Community do better, you will do better. We are not a bunch of castles. We are not in a cocoon. We have to take an active role.”

In its advocacy role, the Roundtable helped bring attention to the issue. Elected officials and law enforcement launched an awareness campaign and made strategic arrests. Although the needle was beginning to move in the right direction regarding crime, Pohanka still had another fork in the road to address,

“I was faced with the decision to make a big investment in a new location – so I had to make a decision – up or down. My initiatives are intended to help the county with our progress. So I stayed,” he says of the decision to open the Ritchie Station location right off the beltway near District Heights.

Geoff is a decorated board member of many committees and companies including the National Automobile Dealers Association.  As a member of the Board of Directors for the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable, Geoff has personally had a hand in achieving positive change in the area including helping with initiatives to decrease car thefts from a whopping 18,000 down to 3,500 a year and improving education, especially financial literacy among young adults.  

The business owner is a strong believer in financial literacy —- it goes to the heart of his belief that aiding community, aids business.

“Prince George’s County is among the top 100 counties in the nation in terms of income but yet [many people here] have a lot of credit issues. I think there are opportunities to improve the financial wellness of individuals in the county.” Pohanka is actively involved in increasing the financial literacy of county consumers—and the next generation: He regularly works with Junior Achievement, a financial literacy organization that teaches young people about money management, credit scores and more.

Pohanka Automotive is also one of the car sponsors that gives new vehicles to the Teacher of the Year in Prince George’s County.  

That community-focused sentiment from the top down has also helped the employee workforce feel like extended family. “You grow by attracting good people who want an opportunity to learn the business. They help to sustain that business into the future...The key is to give people that work for you upward mobility and new challenges.” One glowing example is Lenny Gonzales, who Geoff said started his career working in the car wash area, he then climbed his way up through all levels of management over the years and is now part owner of the dealership in Tomball, Texas.

Pohanka is more than the name on the license plate holder seen on many shiny new and used vehicles all around the area. It’s a family brand that has made the customer the priority and whose ties to the communities around them have helped that family of customers, community members, and employees grow over the last 100 years and will continue to in the future.

Geoff said with a smile, “As long as there are cars, we will be here.”