2021 Automotive News All-Stars

When Toyota Motor North America narrowly outsold General Motors for the first time in the second quarter this year, longtime sales executive Bob Carter, 62, was as circumspect about the accomplishment as he was proud, noting that doing so might be repeatable but it wasn’t sustainable for the world’s largest automaker. It turned out he was right — Toyota did so again in the third quarter, before running into its own microchip production buzz saw. 

Carter is a former dealer. His sales leadership has endeared him to Toyota and Lexus dealers, who know he’ll do whatever it takes to keep vehicles flowing to their dealerships and customers walking through the door, all while protecting the Japanese brands in every way he knows how.