Nick Mitsos, CEO and president of Mountain View Tire & Service Inc. in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is Modern Tire Dealer’s 19th Tire Dealer of the Year. He was elected by a panel of independent judges, including two former Tire Dealers of the Year: Barry Steinberg, president of Direct Tire & Auto Service in Watertown, Mass. (1993); and Ken Towery, president of Ken Towery’s AutoCare SuperCenters in Louisville, Ky. (2008). Ken’s wife, Joanne, who is executive vice president of the company, also was a judge on the panel.
The other 2011 judges were Saul Ludwig, author of MTD’s monthly “Ludwig Report” and managing director at Northcoast Research Holdings LLC in Cleveland, Ohio; and Dick Morgan, president of Morgan Marketing Solutions in Dallas, Texas.
The following is a list of our past Tire Dealer of the Year award winners.
1993 - Barry Steinberg, Direct Tire & Auto Service
1994 - Jerry Bauer, Bauer Built Inc.
1995 - Tony Troilo, Rosson & Troilo Motor Co.
1996 - David Stringer, Stringer Tire Co.
1997 - Walt Dealtrey Sr., Service Tire Truck Centers
1998 - Tom Gegax, Team Tires Plus Ltd.
1999 - Raynal Pearson, Pearson Tire Co.
2000 - Les Schwab, Les Schwab Tire Centers
2001 - Larry Morgan, Morgan Tire & Auto Inc.
2002 - Tim Raben, Raben Tire Co.
2003 - John Marshall, Grismer Tire Co. Inc.
2004 - Bob and Juanita Purcell, Purcell Tire & Rubber Co.
2005 - Paul Zurcher, Zurcher Tire Inc.
2006 - Bill Williams, Jack Williams Tire Co.
2007 - Charlie Creighton, Colony Tire Corp.
2008 - Ken Towery, Ken Towery's AutoCare SuperCenter.
2009 - Bill Ziegler, Ziegler Tire & Supply Co.
2010 - John Snider, Snider Tire Inc.
In recognition of this achievement, MTD will donate more than $5,000 in Mitsos’ name to the St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Church in Pasadena, Calif.
The Mountain View Tire suppliers that ran congratulatory ads in this section are: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., NAPA Auto Parts, Myers Tire Supply Co., O’Reilly Auto Parts, Hawley Insurance Services, Valpak of Los Angeles, BusinessVoice, Clear Channel Communications (Los Angeles), KeyMotive Marketing Services, Chevron U.S.A. Inc./Southern Counties Lubricants LLC and Narvid Scott LLP/Martini, Iosue & Akpovi.
