UsedCarNews.com
October 15, 2018
State Quality Dealer Serves as Mentor to Others
Photo by Jeffrey Bellant HISTORY MAKER: Otto Hahne, owner of City of Cars in Troy, Mich., won the Michigan Quality Dealer of the Year award from the Michigan Independent Automobile Dealers Association this month. He received the award during the group’s annual awards dinner held at the historic Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. By Jeffrey Bellant
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DEARBORN, Mich. – Otto Hahne, president of the Michigan Independent Automobile Dealers Association, received the group’s Quality Dealer of the Year award during an event at the Henry Ford Museum. “It’s kind of a Horatio Alger story,” said Michigan IADA Treasurer Joe Kuhta of GWC Warranty, who joined board member Rick Rynberg of Rynberg’s Car Co., to present the award. “It’s hard work, dedication and doing things the right way that’s allowed this person’s family and business to be very successful.”
Despite his business success, Hahne never went past the eighth grade. “School didn’t work out for me,” Hahne said, “and I ended up going to a place called Boysville. And at Boysville, I met a bunch of brothers who became mentors to me. “They gave me confidence that I had been lacking.” Kuhta said Hahne later graduated out of the Michigan Career Center and eventually opened up a repair shop in 1980 and later opened up a motorcycle auction business. One of Hahne’s early businesses was located in Pontiac, Mich. next to a kennel.
“There were 100 dogs barking all day long,” Kuhta said. He joked that you could hear the dogs in the background when you were on the phone with Hahne. But it was in 1994 Hahne founded his auto dealership, City of Cars. In 2007 he opened up a second lot. “He’s gone from nothing, to now being a wholesale/retail outlet for about 1,500 cars a year,” Kuhta said. Family is important to Hahne, Kuhta said. City of Cars is a family business he runs with his wife, Jerrianne. Hahne praised his wife of 36 years for being his rock. His extended family also gets to-
gether every Wednesday night for dinner. “I’m very fortunate to work with my family,” Hahne said. “Not only that, I also work with the best sales team.” Kuhta said Hahne is always a mentor to other dealers and desires to give back to the industry that has given him so much. Hahne said his experience at Boysville made him realize the power of mentoring. It was people mentoring him that led him on the path to success. “I realized how important that was,” he said. “So I’ll also continue to mentor people.”