Bob Carter, Toyota’s ‘passionate’ dealer champion, calls it a career

Bob Carter has spent the better part of four decades talking nearly nonstop to Toyota and Lexus dealers, visiting their stores, helping them develop their businesses and building lasting friendships with his quick, folksy wit and an amiable smile.

But at the end of this month, Carter, 62 — a fixture at Toyota since the days when the Japanese automaker's pickups were called just, well, Pickup and the man who's headed sales at the automaker since 2017 — will call it a career. He said he plans to spend the next few months doing what he's done for the past several decades: head out to travel — only now he'll be accompanied by his wife, Jane, instead of just his cellphone.

"It's been a hell of a career, but after 41 years, it's time to toss the keys to the next group," Carter told Automotive News last week after Toyota Motor North America announced his retirement June 6. Last year, amid COVID-19 and supply disruptions, Toyota finished as the top-selling automaker in the U.S. for the first time.

Carter's was one of several retirements announced that day, including those of CFO Tracey Doi, 61, Chief Digital Officer Zack Hicks, 59, and Mike Owens, 60, chief risk officer at Toyota Financial Services. The retirements set off a cascade of more than two dozen top Toyota Motor North America, Toyota Financial Services and Toyota Connected executives changing roles.

Succeeding Carter will be veteran Toyota executive Jack Hollis, 55, currently senior vice president of automotive operations in North America.

Toyota and Lexus dealers found Carter to be consistently accessible and endlessly supportive of their cause.

Longtime Toyota dealer Paul Walser, partner with Walser Automotive Group in Minnesota and the immediate past chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, had nothing but effusive praise for Carter and his relationship with dealers. He credited Carter, a 2007 and 2021 Automotive News All-Star, with embedding Toyota's best-in-class dealer relations deep into the company's culture.

"Bob has made an enormous difference to dealers and to the franchise system," said Walser. "When you think about Toyota and their culture — which is the greatest part about that company to me, that constructive, supportive, what-can-we-do-for-you mentality — that all starts with Bob. He's done an extraordinary job making sure that whole culture is embraced by everyone who works there."

Walser said he never had a call or text to Carter that wasn't returned, and he said Carter's passion for the automaker's dealer networks "showed on every issue."

At a personal level, Carter's timing is understandable. He said he and Jane are expecting their first grandchild in November, and before that, they plan to head off to Bora Bora and the Galapagos Islands. They also plan to spend this summer traveling across Canada. "We've got a pretty packed schedule over the next four months," said Carter, who will continue to make his home — and keep his garage — in Texas.

"There's so much in this business that has changed and evolved, and that's good, but there are a lot of key foundations that haven't changed," he said. "This business is really about only two things: It's about product, and it's about people. And a big part of my life has been the dealer organization and the retail organization."

Jim Lentz, whom Carter succeeded, told Automotive News: "Bob has been a staunch dealer advocate, product and motorsports enthusiast and a passionate leader for 41 years with Toyota. His legacy is permanently etched into the cultural fabric of Toyota, and his philosophy of 'people and products first' remains as evergreen today as when he started in the business. I will be forever grateful for his role as a change agent, his commitment to the company and his support to help shape the future of Toyota and the industry."

Carter, who began his career with Toyota as a warranty processor near his home in western Pennsylvania, said the "biggest differentiator of our brands is the relationship we have with our dealers, and the service and the representation they provide in their local communities is second to none."

He would be in a position to know. Carter frequented Toyota and later Lexus dealerships. He predicted that the collaborative culture that has consistently put the Toyota and Lexus brands atop NADA's Dealer Attitude Survey will continue unabated, even as it evolves and is enhanced.

"The people behind me, they've all grown up in this organization. They understand the philosophy and the connection to retail," said Carter. "So I feel really good [about leaving now]. Some of these folks already have 20 or 25 years in with the company."

Danny Wilson, chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council, believes Carter has earned himself a long, healthy and happy retirement after all that he's done for dealers during his career.

"There are a lot of long-term dealer relationships with Bob Carter. He has been the consummate dealer guy his entire career. He wore it on his sleeve in the best way for all of us dealers," Wilson said, crediting Carter with building a team that believes in dealers just as he does. "If you talk about the relationship that Toyota and its dealers have, a lot of it really attributes a significant piece of that to Bob and also who Bob has brought with him through the company."

Wilson said Carter treated everyone equally, regardless of the volume they pushed through their stores. "Are we sad that he's retiring? Definitely. But I think we all want to retire at some point, and he's leaving it in a really good spot, and the dealers really appreciate that."

While he officially leaves his job in Plano, Texas, at the end of the month, Carter said dealers and others in the industry "shouldn't be surprised" if they see him hanging around at future industry events and conventions, if just for old times' sake.

"This business gets in your blood. It's beyond work," said Carter. "So as the major industry events pop up here and there, don't be surprised if you see me hanging out in the hallway."