Tuesday, May 04, 2021

the first salesman of Hondas in the USA was 16 year old Rita Manly.


her parents had been selling Honda motorcycles for 8 years, and were selling so many that they won a trip to Honda in Japan, saw the new N360s, and wanted to start a Honda dealership. 

So, they got the 1st dealership, and their daughter was the first salesman to wait in a dealership to sell the first Honda car in the USA.

That's pretty damn cool. 16 years old, selling cars, in Santa Rosa,1970. 

Road and Track vol 4, page 120 https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a35904272/the-california-dealer-that-risked-it-all-to-sell-americas-first-hondas/

What's more, she's still selling Hondas, and her daughter joined the family business too! 

Rita Case is one of the few female dealers to have followed a mother into the business and also to have seen a daughter join.

Rita is vice chairman of Rick Case Automotive Group, which ranks No. 26 on the Automotive News list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S. as ranked by 2014 new-vehicle retail sales.

She and her husband, Rick Case, operate 16 dealerships in Florida, Georgia and Ohio.

https://www.autonews.com/article/20151109/OEM12/311099991/in-male-dominated-industry-this-small-group-shines-with-skill-and-personality

2 comments:

  1. My fathers friend Bob Sleeth owned Sleeth Oldsmobile in North Syracuse NY. He bought a Subaru dealership in 1970 for only $2,000! He said they begged him to take on the dealership which he later sold. Crazy!

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  2. She also owns a Honda Jet!

    ReplyDelete