Celebrating the Time Dealer of the Year

In 1969, Mike Carey, a longtime Detroit ad sales representative for Time magazine, took over an annual Saturday Evening Post award that had been given to the top auto dealer of the year since 1960.

Carey renamed it the Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award, with the first class of nominees in 1970. The honor, now known as the Time Dealer of the Year award, is still considered one of the top annual accolades for new-vehicle retailers in the U.S.

Carey, who died in 2010, "must've been a real smart marketing guy at the time and saw an opportunity for the Time brand to step in and really establish an amazing footprint in the auto industry through this alignment through the NADA," said Damian Slattery, vice president of client solutions for finance at Time Inc.

Then and now, Slattery said, the award honors dealers for "doing well in the business" and "doing well by their communities" through philanthropy.

Dealers are nominated by members of the Automotive Trade Association Executives. Then judges comb through the list of nominees, which usually ranges in number from the high 40s to the low 70s.

Four finalists are selected and then one winner is announced at the NADA convention.

"The Time Dealer of the Year award is the most prestigious industrywide recognition for new-car dealers," Jeff Carlson, 2016 NADA chairman, said. "Just to be recognized as a nominee in your state is a huge honor."

Kitty Van Bortel, owner of Van Bortel Motorcar Inc. in Victor, N.Y., remembers how important the award was to her father, who was a dealer before her. Van Bortel, 62, became a new-car dealer in 1999 and nominated herself every year, but "never won it for my father." 

In 2016, Van Bortel won. Her father had died in 2011. "I was so incredibly honored and fulfilled that I won this thing for him nationally. From a personal level, that meant a lot to me," Van Bortel said. 

She was only the third woman to receive the award. Van Bortel said, "I went through a lot of discrimination, a lot of difficulty and to be a woman in business and being able to have that validation really meant a lot to me from the business standpoint." 

Bob Russell, retired owner of Russell Chevrolet in Sherwood, Ark., won the award in 1987. Russell, now 78, said his father, himself and his son all have been nominated. 

"The automobile dealer is important to his community," Russell said. "It's a very prestigious award and I was shocked that I won, because most everybody [nominated] has a pretty good background in contributions in their community." 

Over the years, the award has changed. Its name slimmed down, the judging body shifted to the University of Michigan Tauber Institute for Global Operations from Northwood Institute and, in 2009, Ally Financial became the sole sponsor. 

Ally took a dealer-oriented approach to the award. It arranged an earlier announcement of nominees, so dealers could take advantage of the honor longer. 

The company provides dealers with award logos and merchandise, advertising copy and calls to the dealers' local news outlets. Ally also awards grants to nominees' designated charities. 

"We believe, if we're going to partner on a program, we're going to slowly bring it to life and we saw this as a way for dealers to leverage the good will that surrounds the award," Andrea Riley, Ally's chief marketing officer, said. "For many dealers, this is the Heisman Trophy -- it's the most important award they can get."