Walter Hansel was among the first people to drive an automobile into Yosemite Valley in the early 1900s, and there's a vintage photo by Ansel Adams hanging on the wall at Hansel Ford to prove it.
A century later, his descendents oversee the largest group of car dealers in Sonoma County, a business with $288 million in sales last year.
Walter Hansel, who started out selling bicycles, sold his first automobile, a steam-powered model, in 1899 and two years later opened California's first Cadillac dealership in Stockton.
His son, Walter C. Hansel, came home from World War II and in 1946 obtained a new Ford dealership in Vacaville, the location literally drawn from a hat.
In 1961, Hansel moved to Santa Rosa and bought former Mayor Robert Bishop's Ford agency, located where the Macy's at Santa Rosa Plaza stands today.
"Cars are in our blood," said Henry Hansel, son of Walter C. Hansel and president of the Hansel Auto Group, with four dealerships in Santa Rosa and three in Petaluma. Hansel Ford, the flagship of the group, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Justin Hansel, one of two group general managers, is Henry's son and the fifth generation in the transportation business.
Justin's great-great-grandfather, Joseph Hansel, started a carriage business in 1851 in Stockton, where it was succeeded by Walter Hansel's auto agency.
Neither of two latter Hansels jumped into the car business right away.
Henry Hansel, 62, attended prep school in San Jose, graduated from Santa Clara University in 1970 and went to work selling huge commercial computers for Memorex in Silicon Valley, well before the desktop PC era.
Hansel said he "learned a lot about competitive selling" in that job, but in 1973 accepted his father's offer to join Hansel Ford, trading the congestion of San Jose for the beauty of Sonoma County.
On sunny days, Hansel said, he enjoys the scenery tooling about in a 1965 blue Mustang convertible that he bought for $750 in 1974. "It's a great car," he said, with a mere 80,000 miles on it.
In 1979, Hansel said he "began knocking on doors" and built the auto group by acquiring other dealerships. Today, the Hansel Auto Group sells Fords and nine other brands.
Kirk Veale, who sold his VW, Porsche, Audi and BMW dealership to Hansel in 1990, called the deal a "win-win" for both parties.
"I can't say enough how much I respect the way they do business," said Veale, a Santa Rosa businessman who retained ownership of the dealership property and has rented it to Hansel for two decades.
Justin Hansel, 36, grew up in Santa Rosa, graduated from Cardinal Newman High in 1992 and then Santa Clara University in 1996. Hansel went to work for Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, not giving the family business much thought.
"I wanted to prove myself," Justin Hansel said, noting there was no pressure from his father to maintain the family dynasty.
But like his father before him, Justin Hansel returned to Santa Rosa in 2002 and sold cars at every dealership before moving into management.
Despite 50 years in business, Hansel Ford is nowhere close to a longevity record for California Ford dealers.
Tiffany Motor Co. in Hollister, the sixth-oldest Ford agency in the nation, turned 100 last year.
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