Time Magazine Dealer of the Year, Buzz Rodland

TIME MAGAZINE AND GOODYEAR HONOR EVERETT DEALER

Buzz Rodland Wins National Recognition for Community Service and Industry Accomplishments at NADA Convention

(San Francisco, CA, February 5, 2011) - Buzz Rodland, President and General Manager of Rodland Toyota-Scion, a Scion and Toyota dealership in Everett, Washington, was named one of four regional finalists for the 2011 TIME Dealer of the Year award today.

Rodland 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 on Saturday. The announcement of this year's national Dealer of the Year and finalists was made by Kim Kelleher, Publisher of TIME, and Johann Finkelmeier, Vice President and General Manager - Original Equipment N.A. Consumer Tire, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, at the formal opening of the convention, which is expected to draw 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 new-car dealers. Recipients are among the nation's most successful auto dealers, but they must also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to effective community service.

Rodland, 60, was chosen to represent the Washington State Auto 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.

Says Rodland: "I joined the family business in 1963 part-time and in 1974 full-time upon the love, influence and coercion of my father."

Rodland graduated from Everett (WA) High in 1968 and from the University of Washington, in Seattle, in 1974, with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. "I started at Follestad Motors in 1963 the same way my dad, �Wally,' did in 1935," says Rodland, "at age 13, sweeping floors, pumping gas and washing cars every day after school and Saturday's." During high school Rodland moved up to the lube rack and detailing cars. "My dad took on Toyota in 1965," he says, "and that influenced my decision to apply for a youth exchange trip to Japan in the summer of 1968 when I graduated high school." Rodland sold his first car in 1967, at age 17, and, he recalls, "It was a red 1966 Plymouth Barracuda" Rodland attended Northwood Institute (now Northwood University) for one year (1971-'72), and after graduating from college he began selling cars fulltime. He became general manager in 1980, and, upon the death of his father in 1985, dealer. Rodland's older daughter, Lindsay Crow, joined the firm in 2004 and is now TRAC rental car manager, Internet manager and marketing director. Daughter Allison graduated from college last spring and has now joined the new car department as a salesperson.

In the area of community service, Rodland has a distinguished record of dedicating time, talent and resources to many causes and civic enterprises, including: United Way of Snohomish County; Rotary Club of South Everett/Mukilteo; Washington State Attorney General's Dealer Advisory Committee; University of Washington car coach (providing free use of vehicles for coaches for 25 years); Everett Arts Commission; South Everett Business Association; Providence Hospital Festival of Trees; Everett Chamber of Commerce; American Heart Association / Snohomish Chapter; Everett Education Foundation; and Bank of Everett Founding Board Member. Every year since 2004, Rodland Toyota-Scion has received the United Way of Snohomish County Best of Industry Award as the largest auto dealership donor to United Way in Washington. Rodland gets involved in every way imaginable. "To establish a positive partnership that advances legislation supportive of a healthy and fair business environment for consumers and new car and truck dealers, I have personally lobbied members of congress in Washington, D.C., for over 25 years," says Rodland. He's also run an annual book drive for Hawthorne Elementary School since 2004, raising money to supply four classrooms with enough books for each child to take home three books each. "I travel to Guatemala every year now to help build schools in the Mayan villages of Huehuetenango," he says. "I travel with a team of 10 from my rotary club through the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation, and in the past six years, I have helped build eight schools." The most meaningful award he's ever received? "A hug I got from every single villager last March at the Village of Las Palmas in the Northwest highlands of Guatemala," says Rodland.

Nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by Vicki Fabre, Executive Vice President of the Washington State Auto Dealers Association, Buzz Rodland and his wife, Carol, have two children, Lindsay (Crow) and Allison, and two grandchildren.

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