2025 TDOY Nominee

Perry Max Webb II 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. Webb was chosen to represent the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association in the national competition — one of only 49 auto dealers nominated for the 56^th annual award from more than 20,000 nationwide.

“I continue to grow our successful dealership business by surrounding myself with the best people in the world,” nominee Webb said. “And my greatest reward is having the time and resources to serve others — our employees, our community, and our youth.”

Webb, who earned a B.S. in business management in 2009 from New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, comes from a long line of car dealers. His great-grandfather, Perry Smoak, founded his first Chevrolet dealership in Farmington in 1927. Eventually Webb’s grandfather, Marlo Webb (Smoak’s stepson) took over the enterprise and continued to expand the business. Today their enterprise is owned by Webb, his father Perry, and Webb’s brother-in-law Grant Allred.

“My father would take me to the dealership starting at age 11 to work,” he said. “I would sweep the lot, pull weeds, and clean trash. I spent my summers and after school doing odd jobs around the store.”

He added, “When I think back, it wasn’t the jobs I remember loving, it was the people. The sales team would talk to me about selling cars, the techs would show me how they worked their magic to repair different models, and I absorbed it all.”

After high school, Webb applied to be a missionary for his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During this time, he spent two years in the Philippines. When he returned, he worked his way through college by selling cars and eventually went back to the family business as the director of marketing. He also attended the NADA Academy in 2010.

Webb was later named general manager and became dealer operator in 2018. Since then, he has overseen the acquisition of Webb Chevrolet of Cortez in nearby Cortez, Colorado, and he seeks to expand more in the future. Today, the Webb Automotive Group also includes Webb Toyota in Farmington.

“For more than 15 years, I was blessed to sit daily with my grandfather and learn of his mistakes and triumphs,” Webb said. “I learned of his passion for family, business, community, and faith. I was blessed to have opportunities to grow and learn from employees that have worked for the family for 40-plus years. I have tried to be a good listener and soak up what their experience has taught them.”

Webb is equally committed to the automotive industry as a whole and has held various leadership positions at the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association. Some of these positions include board chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, and PAC chair. As a rising industry leader, he was named to the prestigious Automotive News 40 Under 40 list in 2019.

“During my time on the association board, we hired new leadership that helped us navigate the pandemic, electric vehicle adoption, changing franchise laws, and much more,” he said. “It was my pleasure to fly to Washington, D.C. to meet with our delegation and make sure that all of our voices were heard.”

Webb also invests his time and resources into helping his community, with a special emphasis on youth programs. He is a youth leader and bishop (lay pastor) for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also serves on the committee for the Connie Mack World Series, a popular annual event in Farmington that promotes youth baseball.

“My service as a youth leader in the community has been the most rewarding,” he said. “I spend 10 to 20 hours a week on this service. I meet with young people and their parents multiple times a year to get to know them individually and help them set goals in the areas of intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social growth — and set a plan to reach those goals.”

Webb has also supported the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington, Echo Food Bank, Childhaven which is a non-profit organization that helps neglected and abused children in San Juan County, Four Corners Economic Development, and many others.

“As an organization, we have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to support nonprofits that help our youth such as youth sports, after-school clubs, Native American youth groups, and much more,” he said. “My wife and I have also personally donated more than $1 million in the last ten years as we believe that the next generation needs to be better than us, so we must invest our time and resources in them.”

Webb was nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by Ken Ortiz, executive director of the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association. Webb and his wife, Christi, have five children.