Congratulations to Marc Cutter - Hawaii Automobile Dealers ...

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Hawaii’s 2013 Dealer of the Year
MArC Cutter, Hawaii’s 2013 State Dealer of the Year,
sits behind his perfectly manicured desk on a Monday
morning with a filled-in long yellow pad “to-do” list.
I arrived at 10 a.m. for the interview, noting the long list on the
desk with a smile and began by commenting on the size of the
beautiful mahogany and leather desk. Marc explained that it
was his father’s original desk and it had been used for a time by
his brother Nick.
Marc grew up in the car business.
Marc’s a second generation auto dealer. He said his dad,
returning from the Korean War, decided to take a job as a car
salesman because he was offered a demo use and “he needed
a car.”
His father soon owned a small used car dealership in St. Louis,
Missouri, where Marc was born in 1958. Marc said, though, that
the cold Missouri winters soon led the family to strike out for
sunshine and California.
“One day, when I was three, we all piled in the car—dad and
mom, Nick, me, Sara, Mike and our German Shepherd Jetta—
and headed out.”
“We lived in a motel for a month in Los Angeles, while dad
looked for work. He landed a job as a general manager of a
Ford store.”
In 1966, his father bought his first new car dealership, a Ford
store in Hermosa Beach; the family lived in Woodland Hills at
the time. Over those early years in California, Marc said, he
lived in Palos Verdes, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks, Studio
City, and Beverly Hills.
He started selling used cars at age 16 at his father’s Ford store
in North Hollywood.
“I’ve always loved cars,” said Marc, explaining that even as a
teenager was tearing cars down and building them back from
the frame up, with customized interiors, and the finest wood
trim, “the works.”
He graduated in 1976 from Cal Prep in Encino, California, a
school, which at the time, also had in attendance, Michael,
Marlin and Janet Jackson (of the Jackson 5), Chris Brando, son
of Marlon Brando, Christy Bono, daughter of Sonny Bono,
Danny Bonaduce, of the Partridge Family TV show fame, and
many others.
That year, the Cutter dealerships in Van Nuys included Ford, Rolls
Royce, Fiat, and Lotus. Over the years, there were numerous
Cutter dealerships in Southern California.
Marc said he started fulltime in sales at the dealerships “the day
I graduated from Cal Prep.”
Brother Nick is six years older, but Marc jokes that “I actually
brought Nick into the business.” “Nick, had graduated from law
school and was working for a law firm at $1660 a month, and I
said c’mon work at the dealership and you earn twice that and
you’ll get a new car to drive.”