Doug Waters, owner of Doug's Motor Vehicle Repair & Towing in John Day, has once again been named the Automotive Service Technician of the Year by NAPA for the Northwest Region. An ASE Master Technician, Waters competed with hundreds of techs for the award. Officials of the NAPA distribution center in Portland presented the award to Waters.

The Acura Division of Honda has awarded Ron Tonkin Acura in Portland the 2007 Precision Team Award for excellence in customer satisfaction, facility operation, and service. Only 37 dealers in the nation received the award, which began in 1991. This is the 16th time Tonkin has received the award. Tonkin Gresham Honda also received the 2007 President's Award from American Honda Motor Co. for outstanding customer satisfaction, service, facility operation, and training.

Aamco Transmissions has opened a location in Astoria, franchise Owner James Welsh said. Astoria Aamco is located in the Astoria Business Park.

Alta Performance, a manufacturer of high-performance aftermarket parts for Mini Coopers, has opened its new headquarters, showroom, and retail center on Northeast Shute Road in Portland. During a recent grand opening, Mini enthusiasts from Oregon, Washington, California, and other states viewed a variety of cars with modified parts and systems. The firm also installs parts on-site.

The Kuni Foundation's first round of grants of more than $1.3 million have been given to cancer research and programs for developmentally disabled children. The founder of Kuni Automotive in Beaverton, Wayne Kuni was the victim of three types of cancer and was the father of two developmentally disabled children. The foundation was set up in 2005, directing much of the Kuni Automotive's profits to charity. Kuni died in 2006, but the foundation will continue to provide money to Northwest charities through its four-state dealership base.

In other Kuni news, the group has acquired Portland's Smart microcar dealership, as well as one in the Denver area from Penske Automotive Group. Penske is the U.S. distributor for Smart Car, which is manufactured in France by Mercedes-Benz. Trang Hamm, the first female partner in the history of the Kuni organization, will manage both stores.

Pendleton Ford-Lincoln-Mercury has closed due to poor sales, said Owner Kirk Williams, who also owns a Ford dealership in Walla Walla, Wash. A third of the Pendleton employees will move to that store, and other staff members were offered severance packages.

 
Another Walla Walla auto dealer has purchased Round-Up Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep in Pendleton. Gilbert Auto Group, now with seven dealerships in two states and its second Chrysler franchise, also owns Chevrolet and Honda stores in Pendleton.

A new repair facility has opened in McMinnville under the ownership of Dave and Cindy Satterfield. Dave Satterfield has 20 years of experience and worked at Ray's Auto Service in McMinnville before opening C&D Auto Repair.

Also in McMinnville, Jobe Nash is the new manager of the Les Schwab Tire Center. An Aloha native, Nash is a 15-year veteran with Schwab and has worked at outlets in Oregon, Washington, and California for the firm.

Keith Hopko and Jeremy Johnson, technicians at Murry & Holt Motors in Bend, have both been named World Class Technicians by General Motors. The pair join 32 other GM techs in Oregon who hold that status.

The Northwest Automotive Trades Association (NATA) elected four officers and 10 board members at its annual meeting Feb. 23. Officers elected are Bob Anderson, A.J.'s Auto Repair in Salem, president; Ross Bradshaw, Portland Transmission Warehouse, vice president; Rick Field of Salem Transmission, secretary; and Kurt Garbe, Esquire Motors in Portland, treasurer. Two new board members of NATA are Frank Bowen of NAPA Auto Parts in Bend and Jim C. Jones of Jones Oil Co. in Salem, who join eight other members re-elected to the Portland-based group's board. 

Kendall Toyota of Eugene has begun construction of a LEED (Leadership of Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-rated dealership that will open this summer. It's the first LEED store on the West Coast and only the second one in the country. The 59,000-square-foot facility has been designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's sustainable green building standards. The new building will feature exterior panels made of recycled aluminum, photovoltaic panels on the roof, and a rainwater-recycling system that will generate enough water to irrigate the landscaping and run the dealership's car wash for a majority of the year.

WASHINGTON

BMW Seattle has broken ground on a new store in the Sodo District of Seattle on Airport Way South. The new dealership will offer more than 300,000 square feet of space in two buildings-–one for sales and the other for an expanded parts department and a 40-bay service center. Sid DeBoer, CEO of Lithia Motors, the parent company of BMW Seattle, said its existing store on Capital Hill has outgrown its current location. The new store opens in 2009.