ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 13, 2010 – Lee Carlson, Owner of Main Motor Sales Co. Inc., a Chevrolet and Cadillac dealership in Anoka, Minn., was named the TIME Magazine Dealer of the Year from Minnesota.
Carlson was chosen to represent the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition. The award is sponsored by TIME Magazine in association with Goodyear, and in cooperation with NADA.
The roots of Anoka’s family-run Main Motors are deep; so are Lee Carlson’s. “I started pumping gas and sweeping floors at Main Motors when I was 12,” says Carlson. “My dad, like most in his generation, came up the hard way. He expected the same from me.”
In 1952, Carlson graduated from Anoka High School, and then earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Economics from Gustavus Adolphus College, class of 1956. “After graduating from college, I served two years in the United States Army. On Saturday, September 12, 1958, I came home,” recalls Carlson. “My dad wondered when I was coming to work. I told him in a week or so. In his typical gruff manner, he said, ‘You'd better start Monday.’” Carlson started that Monday, and has never looked back.
“In those days, we sold everything ourselves, not only the car and accessories, but the financing, collision insurance and life insurance. We also did all the paperwork,” explains Carlson who truly learned the hard way in those early days. “Anoka was a small town then…and being the owner's son, all the unhappy customers came to see me.” Learn he did, as 51 years later Lee Carlson is still doing the hard work to make customers happy: “As a working dealer, I am in the store every day. Instead of delegating all the problems to my managers, I handle many customers' questions and concerns myself.”
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