Local auto dealer nominated for industry award

Michael Martin, The Anniston Star, Ala.
·4 min read

Nov. 1—Dale Benton, the president/owner of the Benton Nissan Auto Group — including Benton Nissan in Oxford — has been nominated for the 2024 TIME Dealer of the Year award.

Benton is one of a group of nominees from across the country announced last month who will be honored at the 107th annual National Automobile Dealers Association show in Las Vegas on Feb. 3, 2024.

The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry's most prestigious honors, recognizing the nation's most successful auto dealers who demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service. Benton was chosen to represent the Automobile Dealers Association of Alabama in the national competition — one of only 49 auto dealers nominated for the 55th annual award out of more than 16,000 nationwide.

"The automotive industry has been the vehicle for me to achieve the American dream," Benton said. "The most rewarding part of my career has been building a business that makes a difference in our communities. It is also a privilege to provide a place where employees are proud to work."

Benton attended Jefferson Davis Community College (now Coastal Alabama Community College) in Brewton and Kennesaw State College (now Kennesaw State University) in Kennesaw, Ga. His dream to play professional baseball was derailed two years into his athletic scholarship when he suffered a career-ending injury.

While Benton contemplated his new path forward, he met his future wife, Victoria, and needed money to buy her an engagement ring, so he answered an ad for a sales consultant at a car dealership in Georgia.

"The ad said there was no experience necessary," he said. "I had never really sold anything but, nonetheless, after one week of training, my new employer told me to get to work."

Benton found that the challenges of selling cars satisfied his competitive spirit, and he saw the retail automobile industry as a way to determine his own destiny.

In 2010, after 17 years in the business, Benton invested his family's life savings to partner in a Nissan dealership in Oxford. He bought out his partner a few years later and has since added three Nissan dealerships to his Benton Auto Group portfolio — three in Alabama and one in Tennessee.

Benton said his business and brand are respected in the communities his dealerships serve. "Investing in the community and helping others is good for business, but when it comes from the heart, it is contagious and creates a culture of generosity," he said. "When you are part of something bigger than yourself, it feeds the soul and gives life more purpose."

Benton's investment in the community includes the annual Benton Nissan Bass Fishing Tournament to benefit King's Home, which serves youth, women, and children fleeing abuse, neglect, or homelessness across Alabama.

"King's Home provides more than just shelter, it offers rehabilitative programs to help bring restoration and hope," Benton said. "In the past six years we have raised and donated $217,000, and we could not have achieved this milestone without the support of our employees."

Benton is also a major benefactor for Foundry Ministries in Bessemer, which helps people struggling with addiction rebuild their lives, and the Christian Service Mission in Birmingham, which provides food for needy families.

In addition, Benton's employees fill backpacks with essential supplies for the company's annual Backpack & School Supplies Giveaway which helps children in need.

Other organizations he has supported include The Donoho School, where he is currently on the board of directors, Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, the Rotary Club of Calhoun County, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Autism Society, Habitat for Humanity Greater Birmingham, and Hoover Helps, among other causes.

Dealers are nominated by the executives of state and metro dealer associations around the country. 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, donated by Ally.

Benton was nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by Thomas R. Dart, president of the Automobile Dealers Association of Alabama. Benton and his wife, Victoria, have one son.