Business View - February 2016 39
According to Whaley, this attention to customer sat-
isfaction goes back many years when the Toyota/
Scion division became an official Toyota dealership in
1980. Dick and Mary Campagni came in as partners
in 1985, and then bought out their former partner,
Fritz Hitchcock, in 1989. In 1997, the owners of a lo-
cal Ford store decided to sell but were being very se-
lective about who they wanted to sell to, determined
to leave the business in the hands of a family-oriented
buyer who would promise to keep its employees and
grow the dealership with them. “And so, they offered
the Ford store to Mr. Campagni,” Whaley says, “and
he purchased it from them.” Today, the Group has four
franchises – Dick Campagni’s Capital Ford, Carson
City Hyundai, and the combined Toyota/Scion store
and service center.
Devotion to its over 100 employees is also an impor-
tant aspect of the company’s culture. Whaley gives
the following example: “Four or five years ago, when
the market turned so bad, we survived and we were
profitable and we laid no one off. One thing that we
did – the upper management took pay cuts until we
could get through it in order to keep our people. That’s
what’s so wonderful about the store.”
The Campagni Auto Group is also well-known for its
high level of charitable giving. In 2015, it donated over
$200,000 to local organizations including: the North-
ern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation; the Carson
Tahoe Cancer Center; Austin’s House, a shelter for
abused and neglected children; Toys for Tots; St. Te-
resa of Avila Catholic School; and the Nevada Humane
Society. Carson City Toyota also sponsors many com-
munity groups and events such as: the Carson City Lit-
tle League; the University of Nevada at Reno’s varsity
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