2011 TADA Chairman's - Media Communication Group

TIME and Goodyear Honor Grapevine Dealer
Tom Durant Wins National Recognition for Community Service and Industry Accomplishments at NADA Convention
Tom Durant, Dealer at
Classic Chevrolet, Ltd.,
a Chevrolet and Hummer
dealership in Grapevine,
Texas, was honored
today for his nomination
for the 2011 TIME Dealer
of the Year award.
Durant was one of a select
group of dealers from
across the country honored
at the 94th annual National
Automobile Dealers Association
(NADA) Convention &
Exposition in San Francisco
today. The announcement of
this year’s Dealer of the Year
and finalists was made by Kim
Kelleher, Publisher of TIME,
and Johann Finkelmeier, Vice
President & General Manager -
Original Equipment N.A. Consumer
Tire, The Goodyear Tire
& Rubber Company, at the formal opening of the convention,
which is attended by more than 15,000 individuals involved in
the automobile industry.
The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile
industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted awards for newcar
dealers. Recipients are among the nation’s most successful
auto dealers, but they must also demonstrate a long-standing
commitment to effective community service.
Durant, 61, was chosen to represent the Texas Automobile
Dealers Association in the national competition—one of only
52 automobile dealers, from 17,000 nationwide, nominated for
the 42nd annual award. The award is sponsored by TIME in
association with Goodyear, and in cooperation with NADA. A
panel of faculty members from the Ross School of Business at the
University of Michigan selects one finalist from each of the four
NADA regions and one national Dealer of the Year.
“I brought the small-town way of doing business in the auto
industry to the city,” says Durant, “and I proved that it was
Tom Durant
2011
TADA Winner
TIME MAGAZINE
QUALITY DEALER AWARD
a viable business model in a
large suburban dealership. That
business model identified that a
customer was more than a onetime
profit opportunity, and my
legacy will be that if you treat
people well, and give them a fair
deal, they will come back, and
your store will succeed.”
Durant graduated from
Granbury (TX) High School
in 1968, and from Texas Tech
University, in Lubbock, four
years later. “I started in the
family business during college
when I went to work with my
brother at his Chevy dealership
in Weatherford,” says Durant.
His brother, Jerry, put Durant to
work managing the service side
of the store, but one weekend,
Jerry had to leave town, and,
Durant says, “He asked me to
oversee sales while he was gone.
It was a slow weekend but I
gained my brother’s confidence,
and the next time he needed to
leave town for the weekend I sold 14 cars.” “After that,” says
Durant, “I talked to my dad who was operating the Chevy dealership
in Granbury, Texas, and told him that I wanted to be a
car dealer and didn’t want to work for my brother.” After three
months working for his dad, Durant’s father told him, “It looks
like you can handle it,” and he sold his son the Chevy store. “I
purchased a downtown Fort Worth store in October 1998,” explains
Durant. “I wanted to succeed on my own. That store had
never made a profit, and I rebuilt it to make it profitable. In early
1992, I moved that store to Grapevine, an expanding suburb of
Fort Worth that was still largely undeveloped. I built there the
core of the dealership that I operate today.”
In the area of community service, Durant has a distinguished
record. In 1994-95, the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce named
Durant’s dealership Business of the Year and inducted him into
the Business Hall of Fame in 2002. Durant and his wife, Susan,
the Classic Chevrolet dealership and its employees have long
supported dozens of worthy organizations, including the Police
& Fire Department Association, Diabetes Foundation, Nosh
Farm Project in Grapevine, Make A Wish Foundation, MDA,
2011 SPRING 33