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Don Graff Automotive is proud to introduce Gunnar Hopson, a Certified Don Graff Automotive Consultant and our Director of Sales.
After completing his college education in the Midwest and spending some time in the Army, Gunnar started in the car business in 1986 with the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Automanage organization. He was brought aboard as a participant in an accelerated management training program. During Gunnar's time with Automanage, the organization was operating forty-two dealerships stores across the country. Twenty-two were located in the Cincinnati area, with additional franchises spread out in California and Florida. Gunnar spent a total of eight years with Automanage, managing successful Toyota dealerships in Cincinnati and Clearwater, Florida.
The Automanage business model was one hundred percent process-driven, with every store managed the same way without exception. Gunnar learned virtually every major sales position, including Sales Consultant, Sales Turnover Manager, Sales Desk Manager, Used Car Sales Manager, and Finance & Insurance Manager. The accelerated nature of the program required a lot of effort out of the participants, but the in-depth knowledge and experience paid off for Gunnar.
Gunnar left Automanage in Florida and began working with Fitzgerald Jeep Eagle in Palm Harbor. In 1993, that dealership expanded into Hyundai and Subaru franchises. Gunnar served as the Sales Manager for the Hyundai and Subaru brands at Fitzgerald. At around the same time, Gunnar met his future wife in Clearwater, who was from New Jersey. They were married in 1995, and relocated to the Northeast.
Gunnar's next position was with Oxford Resources in Linden, New Jersey, as a manager in the Remarketing Division. His new job was to wholesale vehicles that were managed by Oxford Resources' leasing company out to dealerships. The company was also offering Used Car Leasing, a relatively new concept being developed in 1996.
1997 brought Gunnar to the doors of Bell Saab Audi in Rahway, New Jersey, where he took on the position of Used Car Manager. Through his efforts, the Saab franchise was ranked number one in used car sales on the East Coast, and the Audi franchise stayed among the top ten Audi Assured used car dealers in the nation.
Gunnar's next career move was back into the leasing business, with the Don Rosen Collection in 1999. This was a high-line leasing firm, leasing only top echelon vehicles to a select clientele. Here, Gunnar managed the entire dealership facility.
Then, in 2000, Gunnar joined Prestige Motors (www.driveprestige.com) as the Director of Pre-Owned Sales Operations in Ramsey, New Jersey. Gunnar was recruited for the Prestige Toyota franchise, where used car sales and service operations grossed four million dollars per year on average.
Between 2006 and 2010, Gunnar moved around a number of franchises in a variety of management roles, except for a time in 2007 when he left the car business to work at Wachovia / Wells Fargo Mortgage. His return to automotive retailing was in 2009, joining the Open Road Nissan of Morristown organization as General Sales Manager. During his tenure at Open Road Nissan, Gunnar increased net profits by seven hundred percent!
After departing Open Road Nissan in early 2011, Gunnar joined Don Graff Automotive in July of the same year. Our organization is proud to have a leader with so many achievements in his career, and his vast experience in Used Car Sales Operations, Dealership Financial Analytics, and Management Training is a great asset to our group. Contact Gunnar to help solve your dealership problems today!