Jim Hudson Automotive Group

Jim Hudson Automotive Group is a privately held group of dealerships located in Columbia, South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia. Jim Hudson founded the Midlands-based company by opening the first dealership in 1980. The Automotive Group consists of 9 dealerships across 2 states and has almost 700 employees.
History
Jim Hudson partnered with Jim Moore to open his first Oldsmobile dealership in 1980 under the name Moore-Hudson. The dealership was branded with the tagline "Count on a Friend" in order to encourage a local neighborly feeling when residents of Midlands came in to purchase their family vehicles. Three (3) years later, in 1983, Jim Hudson purchased his second dealership, a GMC branch. That same year Jim Hudson added a sports car division which sold and serviced SAAB, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati. In 1984, Jim Hudson added the Sterling brand to his sports cars division and opened a dealership for the Japanese car company, Suzuki. In 1986, Jim Hudson accumulated more import models to sell by opening both a Hyundai and a Mitsubishi dealership. Seven (7) years later, the Oldsmobile Dealership was moved to a new location in Columbia Greystone along with the GMC dealership. This was the first time Jim Hudson had merged two of his dealerships together into one building. In 1989, Mr. Hudson had added a Pontiac dealership to the group and decided to cut ties with his Hyundai dealership by selling the showroom.
Subsequently, Jim Hudson purchased his very first Lexus dealership in Columbia in 1996. A year later the Jim Hudson Automotive group added Kia to their family of dealerships. After selling the manufacturer in 1989, Mr. Hudson repurchased the Hyundai dealership in 1999. Then two years later, Jim Hudson expanded outside of South Carolina, and purchased a second Lexus dealership in Augusta, GA. Two years after Toyota debuted the Scion brand to the company, Mr. Hudson purchased a Toyota and Scion dealership in 2005.
In 2007, Jim Hudson started purchasing more domestic US brands starting with Buick, then bringing in Cadillac in 2010, and finally adding Ford in 2021.
Hyundai launched a new luxury brand, Hyundai Genesis which Mr. Hudson added to his Hyundai dealership in 2012. With the collection of several luxury brands, In 2015, he added the luxury brand, Audi, to the Automotive Group. The dealership was moved to Killian Road a year later.
In 2018 Jim Hudson decided to sell the Hyundai dealership for the second time. Then in 2019, Audi of Columbia moved locations joining Jim Hudson's other two luxury dealerships, Lexus of Columbia and Jim Hudson Cadillac, to Killian Road, giving the city of Columbia a luxury campus filled with 3 brand options for higher-end vehicles.
In 2020 Jim Hudson expanded his automotive group again by purchasing an Audi dealership and a Chevrolet dealership for the Columbia, South Carolina area.
Charity Work
The Jim Hudson Automotive Group started the Jim Hudson Cares initiative, an effort to help those in need in the Midlands of South Carolina. Over the past eight years, Jim Hudson Automotive Group has donated over 2.4 million meals to The Harvest Hope Food Bank, a division of Feeding America, through their annual Jim Hudson 2,000 Event. The Automotive Group helped provide shelter, food, clothing and counseling to homeless women and children by donating to the Oliver Gospel Mission for their construction of the Toby's Place facility.
Other local organizations that Jim Hudson Automotive Group supports include Lexington Medical Center and the American Red Cross including a donation of a Blood Mobile and an Emergency Response Vehicle.
The Automotive Group donated a New 2018 GMC Acadia to the Richland County Sheriff Department's D.A.R.E. program.
A year later, the automotive group continued to donate to law enforcement by giving sheriff's deputies $25,000 worth of tactical gear.
"Jim Hudson presented a check for $50,000 to the South Carolina Troopers Association. The funds will be used to provide resources to families of troopers who are either injured or killed in the line of duty."
The automotive group gifted the South Carolina Regional Red Cross a new emergency vehicle in late 2020. "Jim Hudson Automotive Group gifted the Red Cross with a new high-tech, energy-efficient emergency response vehicle this past week. The vehicle is said to provide more space for food, equipment and supplies for Red Cross volunteers responding to emergencies. SC Regional Red Cross CEO Rod Tolbert says the donation is very needed, as the non-profit experienced a shortage in fleet vehicles."
In 2020, a total of 115 charities received donations from the Jim Hudson Automotive Group.
Awards
With its tagline “Experience it once, and you’ll never forget it,” dedication to customer satisfaction has been the cornerstone of Jim Hudson Automotive Group over the years.
The automotive group has won numerous industry awards.
Beginning in 2001 and running for over ten years, Hudson's Lexus of Columbia dealership ranked number one or two in the nation for customer satisfaction by Lexus. In 2002 and 2003, the Lexus of Columbia dealership ranked number two behind Hudson's Augusta Lexus store which moved up to the number one spot. During 2017 and 2019 the Jim Hudson Lexus of Columbia once again had the highest CSI scores of all Lexus dealerships, finishing second in 2018.
Jim Hudson Automotive Group's consistently high customer service rating was a major factor in Toyota's selection process when it came time to award another dealership in Columbia.
Jim Hudson Cadillac, Lexus Columbia, Lexus Augusta, Audi of Columbia and Toyota have also been named J.D. Power Dealer of Excellence.

Jim Hudson also received the “President’s Award” from Toyota, and Cadillac Buick GMC's highest award for excellence.
Jim Hudson Automotive Group has been named the “Number One New Car Dealer in South Carolina,” as well as having been featured three times in Time Magazine and being awarded Time Magazine Quality Dealer of the Year. In addition to being inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame, Jim Hudson Automotive has been named Motor Trend Quality Dealer of the Year.
The dealer group has been recognized by Automotive News as one of the top 125 dealership groups in the U.S. On three different occasions Jim Hudson Automotive Group has been named one of the "Best Dealerships to Work For." In 2014, Jim Hudson was selected by Lexus as the chairman of the National Dealership Council, and in 2018 Mr. Toyota selected Jim Hudson Lexus of Columbia as the first ever Brand Champion. Mr. Toyota went on to state, “If every dealership we had was ran and conducted business like Jim Hudson Lexus my job would be much easier, and Jim Hudson Lexus is who all our dealerships need to strive to copy.”

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