2025 TDOY Nominee

Karl J. Zimmermann Jr. is one of a select group of 49 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 108^th annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 25, 2025.

The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors. The award recognizes the nation’s most successful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service. Zimmermann was chosen to represent the Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA) in the national competition — one of only 49 auto dealers nominated for the 56^th annual award from more than 20,000 nationwide.

“Our dealership culture is our greatest strength,” nominee Zimmermann said. “We start with a respect for people — from team members and customers to vendor partners and the community. This, in combination with a commitment to excellence in all that we do, creates our cultural ethos that is the secret sauce to our undeniable market success.”

Zimmermann attended the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York from 1982 to 1984. He earned a B.A. in economics and management from Albion College in Albion, Michigan, in 1986.

His road to owning a car dealership started at General Motors, where he was selected as a GM Scholar, earning both an academic scholarship and an internship during the summer of 1986. After college, he moved to Chrysler and entered the automaker’s College Graduate Manufacturing Management Training Program, before promotion to production supervisor at Detroit’s old Jefferson Assembly Plant, making K-cars and New Yorkers. His next stop was Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where, among other clients and projects, he helped design and implement a custom payroll and retiree payment system for Ford Motor Company.

In 1993, Zimmermann joined his father-in-law, George Matick Jr., now deceased, at his Chevrolet store on Detroit’s western edge and initially took responsibility for managing new vehicle inventory. He was named general manager in 1997. In 2008, he invested everything he had, borrowed everything he could and bought the business — just months before GM’s bankruptcy and its initial decision to wind down the dealership. After well over a year without new product from the factory, a successful trial “performance year” and a multi-million-dollar overhaul to the massive 108,000-square-foot building, the franchise agreement was fully restored in 2014. Since then, the dealership has affirmed the wisdom of GM’s decision reversal by earning nine straight Chevrolet Dealer of the Year awards.

“My late father-in-law gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to learn and ultimately purchase a business that he had built over 40 years,” he said. “He was a great mentor and allowed me to make plenty of mistakes along the way but had enough faith and confidence in me to turn the reins over when he largely retired in 1998.”

Today, Zimmermann oversees the Matick Automotive Group, which includes George Matick Chevrolet, Matick Toyota and Matick Buick GMC, all in the metro Detroit area.

“It’s been a wonderfully rewarding ride,” he said. “I am energized by our daily interactions and impact on our customers, our passionate involvement and generosity in our region, our investment in employees, and our commitment to the long-term viability of our dealership for our next generation of leadership.”

Zimmermann has served on the board of the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association and has held leadership roles in the Metro Detroit Chevrolet Dealer Association. He is actively involved in the DADA where he has held a number of leadership positions, including his current post as chairman of the 2025 Detroit Auto Show.

“The Detroit Auto Show has reinvented itself from a media-driven event to one that is squarely focused on generating excitement about vehicles — and Detroit,” he said. “We launched a new campaign and branding that not only draws upon the emotional connection that people have with their cars but spotlights the Motor City and its people.”

Zimmermann’s commitment to veterans compelled him to work with other local business and community leaders to found and vigorously support the Veteran’s Outreach Project for Southeast Michigan (VOPSM), for which he has served as board member and president for its first 10 years. This 501(c)(3) supports the 17th District Veterans Court of Redford Township, which empowers veterans to permanently emerge from the criminal justice system, following completion of a rigorous, judge-directed program and through the court’s coordinated assistance from various federal, state and local agency programs.

“To date, nearly 100 veterans have graduated from the program, allowing them to return as productive members of our community,” he said.

Zimmermann also opens his dealerships to the community for numerous events, including monthly chamber of commerce breakfasts, frequent meetings and events for a wide variety of charities including, car seat safety inspections, food drives and especially, fundraisers.

In addition, organizations he has supported include Toys for Tots, Truckloads of Hope food drive, Pickups for Paws which supports non-profit animal charities in metro Detroit, Haulin’ for Heros which collects items for hospitalized veterans, American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, Methodist Children’s Home, Henry Ford Hospital, and many others.

Zimmermann was nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by Rod Alberts, co-executive director of the DADA. Zimmermann and his wife, Sarah, have two children.