Women in the auto business

POST FALLS — During the recession of 2008, Eve Knudtsen was seriously considering throwing in the towel.

“The manufacturer went bankrupt and there was no access to credit,” she said Friday afternoon. “There were times when I was going, ‘I don’t think I want to do this anymore.’”

She worried about her employees and the future of her dealership, solicited advice from businessmen she trusted and considered finding a buyer.

Then one day, something serendipitous happened — a tipping point.

“We opened for business that day and suddenly we were busy,” she said. “To me, that was the message that, ‘You’re not done yet.’ That’s actually when I decided I needed a master’s degree."

Knudtsen has kept going strong. On Saturday, she celebrated her 20th year as the dealer principal of Knudtsen Chevrolet in Post Falls. Her leadership was honored Thursday and again during a dinner celebration Friday at the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn, where her dealership family raised their glasses to 20 years and many more to come.

"I'm very proud of my sister," said Eric Knudtsen, Eve's brother and general manager. "She and I are very proud of our father and the accomplishments that he made in this community and as a business leader, and Eve has definitely followed in those footsteps.”

Aside from representing the third generation of Knudtsens to operate a successful dealership, Eve also represents a small slice of the automotive world: women in leadership. She graduated from Northwood University with a bachelor's in business administration, management and economics and an associate degree in automotive marketing. When she attended Northwood, she said her dad most likely hoped she would catch a husband to help with the family business.

“At the time this was going on, there really weren’t women yet," she said. "Most of those women became dealers because they’d been married to the dealers and the dealer suddenly died, and so now they’re thrust in the position where they didn’t have kids that were ready to take over the responsibility and they needed to keep it together, and then they decided that they liked it, so they stayed.”

Eve said it's difficult for women to consider a career in the automotive industry. Only 9 percent of the sales force is women and 17 percent of all industry employees are female.

Gender diversity in the industry is the focus of Eve's master's thesis as well as something about which she is extremely passionate. She is one of only 230 female leaders in charge of General Motors dealerships across the nation.

"There is such an opportunity for women in the automobile business,” she said. “The No. 1 reason that people said that they bought the car that they did where they bought it is because they liked, believed and trusted the sales person. Women do that better than anyone.”

Eve attended at the inaugural Women in Automotive conference in Orlando in August, where she spoke on a panel. She is determined to help other women go far in the business and serve as a mentor while continuing to be a community leader like her father.

“We were blessed to have C. Wayne Knudtsen as our father,” Eve said. “I miss him. He was definitely my hero and my role model. If people say half the things about me and think of me half as much as they thought of my father, then I believe I’ve been successful.”