Yark Automotive: The Awards Just Keep On Coming!

10/31/2012

     It’s one thing to be one of the largest automotive dealerships in the area, selling more vehicles and racking up successes, year after year.

     It’s something else entirely to be publicly recognized as a great dealership – not merely for monetary success, but for aboveboard business practices and customer satisfaction.

     And to be recognized nationally? That’s the icing on the cake.  

     Just last month, Automotive Weekly magazine named Yark Automotive to its 100 Best Dealerships To Work For. Yark is one of only three Ohio dealerships selected, and is ranked 68 in the nation.

     “We believe that taking care of our employees translates to our employees taking good care of our customers,” says Yark Marketing Manager Warren Vess.  It’s a strategy that’s obviously working. Another publication, Toledo City Paper, has voted Yark Automotive Group “The Best Place To Buy A Car” in its reader poll every year since 2002.  The Better Business Bureau would appear to concur with that assessment. In 2011, Yark Automotive Group was given the Torch Award by the BBB. According to the organization’s Web site, the award is “presented to businesses in recognition of their superior commitment to exceptional standards that benefit their consumers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and surrounding communities.”

     An homage of which Yark Automotive Group is especially proud, is the 2006 Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award (TMQDA). Yark Automotive Group was selected from only 66 automobile dealers nominated, out of the more than 19,500 nationwide, to receive the most sought-after honor among domestic and import dealers in the country.

     Judging criteria for the TMQDA is significant and stringent, requiring demonstration of exceptional performance in the dealership and involvement in the automotive industry. Areas of evaluation include customer satisfaction, employee proficiency, new car and service sales records, ethics, and membership/participation in dealer associations.

     Community involvement is also an important criterion for winning the award, and it is something in which the company has long been active. In addition to serving in local organizations, such as the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce, Yark Automotive Group generously support legions of medical facilities/organizations, cultural groups, needy organizations and schools. Founded by Jim Yark in 1981, Yark Automotive Group has grown from 50 employees and less than $20 million in sales to more than 300 employees and annual sales of over $225 million.  After acquiring Jeep (as well as AMC and Renault) in 1981, the company purchased BMW and Subaru from Classic Auto in 1986, Nissan from Autofair in 1998, and Chrysler from Valiton Motors in 2003. Jim and John also saw the promise of expanding to outlying communities and, in 2002, acquired Pontiac-GMC from Nofzinger in Archbold, Ohio, followed, three years later, by Chevrolet-Pontiac from Don Scott in Whitehouse, Ohio.

     In 2011, Yark opened a Fiat studio, becoming one of the first in the United States to sell the Italian car since the automaker ceased marketing its vehicles here in 1982.