President of Fields Auto Group
As the President of Fields Auto Group, Dan Fields carries on an inspiring family legacy of almost fifty years, serving customers of the company’s 35 dealerships and the community as a whole with a passion for excellence, care, and compassion.
Fields’ family history in the automotive business began in 1971, with Fields’ grandfather’s first Cadillac store in Evanston, Illinois. Then, the decision to purchase a BMW dealership brought the company to Central Florida. “In 1976, a relatively unknown company—BMW, was entering the United States, and we were one of their first dealers in Winnetka, Illinois.” Fields shares. “In 1989, the year I graduated high school, BMW contacted us, and there was a dealership for sale in Orlando.”
“Then soon after I went to college, I went to University of Denver for business school and started in ‘97 in the car business. And by then, we had added a few franchises. We basically had a cluster of stores in Chicago and a cluster in Orlando.”
Over the years, Fields Auto Group has expanded into more cities in the United States, including 18 locations in Florida, with many dealerships in Jacksonville, Fields’ largest market.
Philanthropy is at the heart of Fields’ involvement in the family business, which began with his grandparents’ foundation, The Earl and Betty Fields Foundation. Today, Dan and his wife Amy run the family’s philanthropy projects. “We’re very involved with the March of Dimes and Make a Wish, and my wife is very focused on pediatric cancer. She is on the board of the children’s hospital at Arnold Palmer. In Orlando, New Hope for Kids is a charity we’ve been involved with since we’ve been in the market,” Fields shares. “We’ve really focused on communities around us that were hit hard by the pandemic, and we’ve picked out like certain food banks like Second Harvest and tried to support them during this time.”
In the face of the pandemic, Dan Fields has worked hard to put the safety of his employees and customers first. “Before we knew anything about the coronavirus, we had decided our number-one focus was safety and our number-two focus would be integrity,” Fields states. “We’ve required masks since the very beginning. That being said, we wanted to make sure someone that didn’t want to wear a mask could do a test drive at home, keep a car at home, and do the entire paperwork process at home,” Fields adds.
“You can come just like you did in the old days, and you will be protected because we disinfect the cars with a special chemical, we wear masks, we have plexiglass shields, we have hand sanitizer, and we do deep cleaning all day, everyday…Our employees are like family, so we wanted them to be protected, and it’s the same with our guests.”
Recently, Fields Auto Group renovated Fields BMW of Winter Park, an $11 million refurbishment. With over 70,000 square feet including a spacious showroom, innovative enhancements, and top-tier customer amenities, this updated dealership location provides BMW clients with exceptional service and shopping experiences.
“I’m so excited about the showroom. You can sit there in the showroom safely and see these cars whip by on I-4 underneath you…we had to raise the dealership about 30 feet,” Fields shares. “The end result is spectacular. It was designed to be more comfortable for the guests, and our lounge area has vastly improved.”
The luxurious details that go into every aspect of BMW’s mission is certainly seen in the store’s café experience. “The café area itself is much more conducive to serving a lot of people, and the selection of food will be more gourmet,” Fields says. The Fields BMW staff has made your café experience both safe and enjoyable, with socially distanced outdoor seating.
This attention to detail is reflected in Fields Auto Group’s award for Rolls Royce Dealer of the Year 2019, just one example of the company’s dedication to quality service and customer care. “If somebody goes to our Jeep store in Sanford, they should expect to be treated the same as a Bentley customer, and I’d be upset if they thought they weren’t.” says Fields. “It’s as simple as just caring about the people you’re dealing with.”
Even with all of the improvement over the years, quality growth is definitely on the horizon for Fields Auto Group. “We certainly would like to grow, but our growth is very focused,” Fields states. “We want to grow with successful brands in the regions that we’re in. I see the success of all the people in the organization as my success. I just look at my job very simply: I try to make the people, the leaders that work for me, successful. And if I can do that, then I’ve succeeded.”
