Sheehy Auto Stores turned one Beltway Ford dealership into a regional retail network. Its pitch is deliberately simple: more choice, less haggling and a relationship that continues in the service lane.
A Connecticut waterbed salesman promised customers no phony gimmicks and fixed prices. Thirty-five years later, Bob's Discount Furniture rang the NYSE bell and set its sights on 500 stores.
The company that killed the haggle in 1993 now sells three-quarters of a million used cars a year - and is trying to prove that a car lot can also be a website.