After career as bartender, U.S. Marine came to Nissan, never looked back

EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY Ulrich Stanley

BY EVAN WILLIAMS ewilliams@floridaweekly.com Sometimes it's an advantage to have a memorable name. When it comes to buying a Nissan in Fort Myers, people have no trouble remembering who to ask for — U.S. Marine, the general sales manager at south Fort Myers' Sutherlin Nissan.

"It's been a good name for me in the car business," said Ulrich Stanley Marine Jr., 37, with a sparkling smile.

He is as clean cut and professional as a solder, with his slight frame draped in a dapper linen suit. But his name has no connection with the Corps, just family. Marine grew up in Tampa and was a bartender at Bennigan's before abandoning the restaurant industry to find a better-paying job selling Nissans.

"Life was certainly easier then, but the car business has been really good to me," he said.

In the restaurant business, he could show up to work at 4 p.m. and didn't have any real responsibilities, other than to himself. That was 15 years ago. Bar patrons who worked at Nissan in Tampa used to come in and tell him how well he could do selling cars.

"One day I decided I needed to grow up and get a real job," Marine said.

Within a month of working at the dealership, with some of the same group he served at happy hour, he was the top salesman on the floor.

"I never looked back," he said. "I think I always knew I was going to be in some sort of sales."

The secret to his success, he said: treat people well, make a fair deal and ask for referrals. "I still ask all my customers to send in their friends and family."

By 1997 he had become a manager in Tampa, and he moved to Fort Myers in 1998. He lived above the Cigar Bar in downtown Fort Myers before getting married in 2000.

"It was great when I could just go downstairs and shoot some pool," he said.

His two brothers, a sister, and mother and father stayed in Tampa.

"It's close enough for me to go visit but I never want to move back there," he said.

He also invested in real estate during the boom years.

"At that time I thought I was the smartest guy around," he said. "And now I'm not so smart. I never imagined that it would crash the way it did. I figured it would level off."

After stints selling cars at Mitsubishi, then Volkswagen, he came to Sutherlin Nissan in 2003.

"They make a great product," he said. "Nissan makes a great car and it's where I started out. So I am back to my roots. The Sutherlin group is great to work for."

Marine manages 116 employees in three different departments: new car sales, used car sales and the parts and service departments. Each department is responsible for its own income, so they compete in a friendly way. Marine makes sure everyone stays in line.

"A lot of people don't realize they're all separately run departments, all under one roof," he said. "… It's all about checks and balances. That's my job, to make sure everybody is being fair, keeping everybody happy."

Still, he said the majority of his time is spent, "selling cars and making friends."

The bestseller is the Nissan Altima, but the new Nissan Maxima is expected to fly off the lot.

"It's really hot," Marine said. "A great looking car."

The Nissan Murano has been a popular cross-over vehicle.

Nissan also makes the GT-R, a new "super car" which can go from 0 to 60 in 3.3 seconds and has a top speed of 196 miles per hour.

"It's one of the fastest production cars in the U.S.," Marine said.

It's available special ordered for $90,000, but the 2009 model may already be sold out.

In August, Marine said Nissan sales were up 14 percent overall, even while most other car companies were down in sales.

"The American-made vehicles aren't doing as well as the imports," he said.

He's also offering large rebates on trucks and SUVs, which are less popular because they use up more gas.

Nissan's Titan trucks, for example, are marked down $10,000 off the sticker price.

"For a while there, my truck sales came to a grinding halt," Marine said. But with the special deals, and depreciating values of those cars, "that has come to a stop."

Meanwhile, Marine and his wife have a 5-month old girl and live in Estero.

"We wanted to have a baby for quite a while and it's been an amazing experience," he said. "I should have done it a long time ago."

When he's not working, don't expect to see him out at one of his old downtown haunts.

"As of late, I'm spending every minute with my new daughter," he said.