TIME AND ALLY FINANCIAL HONOR CLEVELAND HEIGHTS DEALER
Chuck Gile Wins National Recognition for Community Service
and Industry Accomplishments at NADA Show
(New York, NY, October 22, 2018) – The nomination of Chuck Gile, dealer principal at Motorcars Honda in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, for the 2019 TIME Dealer of the Year award was announced today by TIME.
Gile is one of a select group of 51 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 102nd annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show in San Francisco on January 25, 2019. The announcement of this year’s 50th annual award was made by Jorg Stratmann, publisher, TIME, and Doug Timmerman, president of Auto Finance for Ally Financial.
The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors. Recipients are among the nation’s most successful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service. Gile, 68, was chosen to represent the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association in the national competition – one of only 51 auto dealers nominated for the 50th annual award from more than 16,000 nationwide.
“I am proud that Motorcars Honda has been recognized as the first carbon neutral auto dealership in the world by BP Global,” nominee Gile said. “It is very rewarding that we are a green innovator in an industry not traditionally known for that kind of environmental stewardship.”
A 1968 graduate of Appleton West High School in Appleton, Wisconsin, Gile earned a B.A. in business management from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire in 1973, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Epsilon fraternity.
Unlike many dealers, Gile started his career outside of the industry and never worked in sales. He landed a position as a controller at Fairchild Chevrolet in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975 and became General Manager in 1978, later joining Motorcars Honda in Cleveland Heights as a managing partner in 1989. Eventually, he bought out his partner and also acquired Motorcars Toyota in Cleveland, which he still owns today.
“To learn the business, I would stay late, go home to eat with my family, then go back to work and stay until the wee hours,” Gile said. “I also spent – and still spend – a lot of my time reading about companies outside of our industry and how they approach things, as it’s always less expensive to learn from someone else’s mistakes.”
Today, his son Matt is general manager of Motorcars Toyota and son Trevor is general manager of Motorcars Honda. “Having my sons work with me every day is very gratifying,” Gile said. “I can’t think of a better way to spend time with them than having lunch together to discuss dealership issues, find new revenue streams, launch new businesses, plan and watch them grow and mature.”
And it was his family that inspired him to make a significant green investment in Motorcars Honda, adding solar panels over the dealership’s pre-owned lot and reducing the carbon footprint. “We’re doing our part to protect the environment for our children and grandchildren,” Gile said of his green initiatives. “I want my grandchildren to be able to see live polar bears, not stuffed carcasses and videos that show what they used to be.”
In addition, he and his sons participate in many auto dealer gatherings and meetings with local business owners to share their green innovations, showing how these changes can positively affect the bottom line. In recognition of the Gile family’s future-focused improvements, Cox Automotive presented them with their annual Leader in Sustainability Award in 2017 and Fixed Ops magazine with their Dealer of the Year for Innovation in 2018.
Gile has even gotten the community involved by hosting a Solar Car Derby for children, where kids ages 5 to 8 and ages 9 to 12 compete with solar cars built with kits provided by Motorcars Honda. He also supports youth charities, including Bluecoats, which provides financial support for families of police officers and fire fighters who die in the line of duty, and Flashes of Hope, an organization that raises funds to accelerate a cure for children’s cancer while honoring sick children through photography. Motorcars Cleveland, Gile’s auto group, was lead sponsor for that organization’s Big Shots and Little Stars benefit this past August. Gile is also on the board of Cleveland’s Metro Hospital and was chairman of the Metro Hospital Gala Event in 2017, which raised more than $2 million.
In addition, Gile has raised money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and has donated to numerous Chagrin Valley charities, as well as collected food, clothing and school supplies for various groups. He has also held a pet adoption event at his dealership to support the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter.
Dealers are nominated by the executives of state and metro dealer associations around the country. The award is sponsored by TIME in association with Ally Financial, and in cooperation with NADA. A panel of faculty members from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan will select one finalist from each of the four NADA regions and one national Dealer of the Year. Three finalists will receive an additional $5,000 for their favorite charities and the winner will receive an additional $10,000 to give to charity.
In its eighth year as exclusive sponsor, Ally will recognize dealer nominees and their community efforts by contributing $1,000 to each nominee’s 501(c)3 charity of choice. Nominees will also be recognized on AllyDealerHeroes.com, which highlights the philanthropic contributions and achievements of TIME Dealer of the Year nominees.
“It’s an incredible honor to recognize these dealers for their business accomplishments and their unwavering commitment to ‘Do It Right’ by helping others in their communities,” Timmerman said. “They are extraordinary auto leaders who care and go the extra mile to give of themselves to make their communities stronger. Ally is proud to support and celebrate their achievements.”
Gile was nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by Lou Vitantonio, president of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association. He and his wife, Georgia, have two sons.
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About TIME
TIME is a global multimedia brand that reaches a combined audience of more than 100 million around the world. A trusted destination for reporting and insight on the people, places and issues that matter, TIME captures the events that shape our lives. TIME’s major franchises include the TIME 100 Most Influential People, Person of the Year, Firsts, Best Inventions, Genius Companies, World’s Greatest Places, and more. With 45 million digital visitors each month and 40 million social followers, TIME is one of the most trusted and recognized sources of news and information in the world.
About Ally Financial Inc.
Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a leading digital financial services company with assets of $171.3 billion as of June 30, 2018. As a client-centric company with passionate customer service and innovative financial solutions, Ally is relentlessly focused on "Doing it Right" and being a trusted financial partner for its consumer, commercial, and corporate customers. Ally's award-winning online bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender) offers mortgage-lending services and a variety of deposit and other banking products, including CDs, online savings, money market and checking accounts, and IRA products. Ally also promotes the Ally CashBack Credit Card. Additionally, Ally offers securities brokerage and investment advisory services through Ally Invest. Ally remains one of the largest full-service auto finance operations in the country with a complementary auto-focused insurance business, which together serve approximately 18,000 dealer customers and millions of auto consumers. Ally's robust corporate finance business offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies. For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally.com/#disclosures.
About the NADA Show
The annual NADA Show brings together more than 20,000 franchised dealers and their employees, industry leaders, manufacturers and exhibitors to learn about the latest auto industry tools, trends, products and technologies.
