A century of Moving Lives Forward
Since 1902 the same idea has run through this company — look after the people who do the work, and the rest follows. Here is how that became employee ownership.
Four generations. One idea.
Health insurance in 1948. Profit sharing in 1961. Employee ownership in 1979. Long before any of it was standard, this company was betting that looking after associates was how you build something that outlasts you.
1902
Founded in Petersburg, VA
1979
ESOP Established
26%
Employee Owned
4
Generations of Family Leadership
From a hardware store to 29 locations
Every milestone below added people, brands and places to build a career. Here is the whole run, in order.
1902
Humble Beginnings
Stockdell-Myers Hardware opened in Petersburg, Virginia, selling machinery and mill supplies. When customers started asking about horseless carriages, the team built cars from kits and sold them out of the store.
Nobody was hired already knowing how to do that. They learned it on the job — a habit that still shapes how we bring people into the trade today.
1924
Petersburg Motor Company
The hardware business was reincorporated as Petersburg Motor Company, and co-founder H. Carter Myers was elected its first President. Petersburg Ford opened on December 4, 1924.
Five years later the market crashed. Carter’s sister, Elizabeth P. Myers, began buying his shares to put cash back into the business. People kept their jobs because a shareholder chose the company over the payout — the earliest version of an idea we later made permanent.
1933
A Women-Owned Business
Carter Jr. took leave from General Electric to help the family business. When his father died in 1934, he was elected President at the age of 26.
Elizabeth kept buying shares. By 1937 she owned 75% of the company, and together with three other women, female shareholders held 92.5% of it. Leadership here has never depended on being the obvious candidate.
1943
Payroll Came First
With new car production halted for the war effort, Carter Jr. drove up and down the East Coast buying used vehicles, stored them, and sold roughly one a month — enough to make payroll and keep people employed.
In August 1943 he left to serve in the Navy on a paid leave of absence from the company. Paid military leave, in 1943. He returned near the end of the war, the facilities were expanded, and his brother Francis joined as Service Manager.
1961
Industry Leadership
Carter Jr. was elected President of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association and served longer in the role than anyone before or since. In 1972 he was named Virginia TIME Dealer of the Year.
People who grow up in this company have a habit of ending up representing the whole industry, not just one dealership group.
1961
Benefits Before They Were Standard
From 1948, the company offered group health insurance to every associate — almost unheard of for a small business at the time.
In 1961 it added an Employee Profit Sharing Retirement Program, again highly unusual for an auto dealership. The reasoning was simple and hasn’t changed since: healthy, secure people build a business that lasts.
1974
Associates Become Owners
Carter Myers III joined in 1965 and became President in 1974. In 1979, he and the board decided to share ownership with the people doing the work, making CMA one of the only automotive groups in the country to offer an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
Shared ownership means shared success. Associates now own more than 26% of the company — funded entirely by CMA, at no cost to employees. It is the single biggest reason people stay.
1982
Growth Means More Seats
The first Honda franchise arrived in 1974. In 1982 the company bought Goyne Chevrolet in Chester, and in 1984 a store in Charlottesville that became CMA’s Colonial Auto Center.
Every acquisition since has worked the same way: more stores, more brands, and more room for associates to move between them without leaving the company. In 1997 the business began trading as Carter Myers Automotive.
2003
Liza Myers Borches
Liza joined in 2003 after seven years at American Honda as a Regional Sales Manager, becoming President and General Manager of Volvo Cars of Charlottesville the following year.
She was elected company President in 2011 and became CEO in 2012 — the fourth generation of her family to lead CMA, which has more than doubled in size since. Through the 2008 recession, CMA kept every one of its businesses open while other groups closed stores.
2007
Five Stores, One Commute
CMA built a new facility for its Honda dealership south of Richmond, then added Hyundai in 2007, Kia in 2012 and Subaru in 2016.
Five dealerships now sit within fifteen minutes of downtown Richmond, four of them on the same road. For associates that means changing brand, department or role without changing your commute.
2010
Into the Shenandoah Valley
CMA entered Staunton in 2010 with Valley Honda and Valley Volkswagen, added Nissan and Subaru in 2014, and opened a brand new Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram store in 2016.
Staunton is now our second-largest market: five dealerships and more than 150 associates, with a shelf of Honda Presidents’ Awards and Subaru Love Promise Awards earned by the teams there.
2011
Recognised Beyond Our Own Walls
Carter III was named Virginia TIME Dealer of the Year in 2011 and received the AIADA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. He has been with the company more than 55 years and serves as Executive Chairman.
Liza has been recognised with Ford’s Salute to Dealers Award, the Athena Award, a place among Automotive News’ 100 Leading Women in Automotive, and Cox Automotive’s Barbara Cox Woman of the Year Award.
2018
Going Solar
In 2018 CMA built a solar superstructure over Colonial Nissan in Charlottesville — the first solar-powered dealership in Virginia.
Colonial Subaru followed in 2019, Volvo Cars of Charlottesville in 2020, and Valley CDJR in 2021, switched on fittingly on Earth Day.
2019
Moving Lives Forward
In January 2019 CMA rebranded around a stated mission: Moving Lives Forward for our associates, customers and communities. Associates are named first, deliberately.
Williamsburg Ford joined that May, bringing the company back to the brand it started with, and Subaru of Winchester followed in 2020 — its previous owner staying on as that store’s Executive Manager.
2021
Miller Auto Group Joins
CMA acquired Miller Auto Group in November 2021: two franchises in Winchester and three in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The two families had known each other for decades.
Every Miller associate began earning ownership in CMA. The group passed 20 locations, 18 brands and 1,000 people.
2022
Billy Craft Automotive Joins
Three Lynchburg franchises joined in August 2022. The Craft family said they chose CMA because they couldn’t think of another group that would treat their associates more like family.
All of them joined the ownership plan. CMA reached 23 locations and remains the only dealer group in Virginia that shares ownership with its associates.
2024
Rocky Mount, North Carolina
CMA acquired Rocky Mount Toyota in April 2024 — its first store outside Virginia and West Virginia, bringing the group to 24 locations across three states.
2025
Lexington Park, Maryland
In October 2025 CMA added Toyota and Hyundai dealerships in southern Maryland, consolidated on a single campus. A fourth state — and a new Honda store there is hiring now.
Why the history matters to your career
A hundred years of decisions have compounded into three things you can actually feel on your first day.
You earn a stake
Associates own more than 26% of CMA through the ESOP — funded entirely by the company, at no cost to you.
Careers measured in decades
Our Executive Chairman has been here 55 years. People join CMA and stay, because the incentives point the same way.
Leaders grown from within
Store managers, executive managers and department heads are routinely promoted from the floor, the drive and the shop.