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Charles City automotive dealer nominated for national award

To The Press

Mike Molstead, owner and president of Mike Molstead Motors Inc. in Charles City, has been nominated for a national automobile dealers award recognizing community service and industry accomplishments.

The nomination for the 2021 TIME Dealer of the Year award was announced last week by TIME.

Molstead is one of a group of 41 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 104th annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show being held virtually Feb. 9-11, 2021.

Charles City automotive dealer nominated for national award
Mike Molstead

The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors. Recipients are among the nation’s most successful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service, according to information from the award organizations.

Molstead, 58, was chosen to represent the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition – one of only 41 auto dealers nominated for the 52nd annual award from more than 16,000 nationwide.

“From day one as a dealer, I have always felt that giving back to the community we serve was as crucial as anything we do as a company,” Molstead said.

Mike Molstead Motors Inc. is a Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Jeep and Ram dealership.

Mike and his wife, Paula, have five children, and three of his sons and his daughter-in-law all work for the family enterprise.

“My sons are hardworking and unbelievably talented at what they do, so I know the future is in good hands,” Molstead said.

Having such strong family support was essential for Molstead, particularly when he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2001.

“For the last 19 years, I have found myself undergoing continued treatment at the Mayo Clinic, as well as participating in alternative therapies,” he said. “Without my amazing wife, family and our faith, I am not sure we could have gotten through some of the dark times that a life with cancer provides. I am very grateful to be here, still fighting a disease I would wish on no one.”

Despite his ongoing battle with cancer, Molstead still finds time to give back to his community.

He has served as an assistant football and basketball coach for both the Charles City High School and Charles City Middle School over the past 25 years.

“I love kids, so we emphasize on helping the schools,” he said. “Just in Charles City alone, we have contributed in excess of $400,000 over the years directly or by fundraising efforts.”

One such initiative was raising money to finish a new gymnasium at the new Charles City Middle School.

“I accepted the challenge and asked my good friend O.J. Tomson to donate with me,” Molstead said. “Together, we gave $150,000, and the new competition gym was completed.”

He is also proud of a holiday tradition he started when his kids were little, of adopting a family and providing Christmas for them. His immediate family, as well as the dealership as a group, bring holiday cheer by delivering presents and food to the families in need.

Molstead also participates in Ford Drive 4 UR School and Ford Drive 4 UR Community test-drive events and supports Charles City Lions Club, Charles City Area Development Corporation, and Charles City Chamber of Commerce, to name a few.

“I intend to live with hope and love, as I continue to put faith over fear and run full force until the sand runs out,” he said.

Molstead attended the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, where he earned a football scholarship. It was during college that he first entered the retail automotive industry, working at a local store detailing cars and doing light maintenance.

In 1982, he started to sell cars at Friedley Lincoln Mercury in Cedar Falls. When a freak knee injury ended his dreams of playing in the NFL, Molstead decided to pursue a career in the car business. At the age of 23, he was named general sales manager at Reed Cadillac Oldsmobile Honda in Waterloo, then seven years later became general manager of Pat McGrath Chevrolet in Cedar Rapids.

In 1995, he had the chance to open his own store.

“At the encouragement of my wife, Paula, and with the financial backing of two friends, I took the leap and became a dealer,” he said. “I was blessed with hard work and the good fortune to be able to buy out my partners after the first year.”

He has since added franchises to Mike Molstead Motors, built new facilities and doubled the size of his team.

Dealers for the Dealer of the Year Award are nominated by the executives of state and metro dealer associations around the country.

The award is sponsored by TIME in association with Ally Financial, and in cooperation with NADA. A panel of faculty members from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan will select one finalist from each of the four NADA regions and one national Dealer of the Year.

Three finalists will receive $5,000 for their favorite charities and the winner will receive $10,000 to give to charity.

In its tenth year as exclusive sponsor, Ally will also recognize dealer nominees and their community efforts by contributing $1,000 to each nominee’s charity of choice. Nominees will be recognized on AllyDealerHeroes.com, which highlights the philanthropic contributions and achievements of TIME Dealer of the Year nominees.

“The TIME Dealer of the Year award celebrates the country’s top dealers who understand that their businesses thrive when they give back and help their communities grow,” said Doug Timmerman, president of Auto Finance for Ally Financial. “In short, the award recognizes dealers who do it right in their businesses and in their communities.”

Molstead was nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by Bruce Anderson, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association.

 

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