FIVE GENERATIONS. ONE WAY FORWARD.
A Family Story, Still in Motion.
Rooted in Northwest Wisconsin since 1915, guided by the Don Johnson Way, and moving guests, careers, and communities forward.
Five generations have carried it forward. A sixth may one day follow. Yet the heart of our story has always been the people and communities that made every mile possible.
Every family business begins with a moment when someone chooses the uncertain road. Ours came in 1915, when John Peter "JP" Johnson opened a gas station and automobile dealership in Star Prairie, Wisconsin. He sold Studebakers and Maxwells and worked alongside his sons, Oliver and Joye. The automobile was changing the scale of everyday life, turning distance into possibility, but the lesson that endured in our family had little to do with machines: a name only means something when the people behind it work hard, keep their word, and care for others.
Oliver and Joye learned the trade at their father's side, and then each followed his own road. Joye built a General Motors dealership in New Richmond, where hard work and customer service helped the business thrive. Oliver looked east toward Rice Lake, and in the late summer of 1935, he moved his family there in hopes of purchasing the community's fledgling Chevrolet dealership. The opportunity wasn’t immediate, so he waited, persisted, and, after several months, achieved the dream. Johnson Chevrolet Company became Oliver Chevrolet, and for the next 40 years, the name was woven into the life of Rice Lake.
In 1936, Oliver added Buick, and then he guided the Chevrolet-Buick dealership through the closing years of the Great Depression and the uncertainty of World War II. When his sons returned from overseas service, Harold and John stepped into the business, while their brother Dwight took the family's automotive experience to General Motors. The generation changed, and the industry changed with it, but the responsibility remained the same: serve people well enough that they choose to return, and live in a way that makes the family name worth trusting.
A promise passed forward
In 1977, Harold and John entrusted the dealership to Harold's son, Don Johnson, and John's son-in-law, John Gerber. Together, they renamed it Johnson & Gerber Motors, and before the year ended, they built a new facility at the intersection of Highways 48 and 53, where our Rice Lake dealership still stands. The new home also brought the opening of our first on-site collision repair facility, broadening our promise to care for guests not only when they were choosing a vehicle, but also when the unexpected interrupted the road ahead.
Growth followed because service created opportunity. In 1982, the acquisition of Skrupky Olds Cadillac brought the Oldsmobile and Cadillac franchises to Rice Lake. In 1992, John Gerber pursued other ventures and sold his shares to Don, who renamed the company Don Johnson Motors. Then, over the next four years, Don expanded into Hayward by acquiring Hayward Motors, a Chevrolet, Buick, and Pontiac dealership. The business was becoming regional, yet its strength remained local: relationships built face-to-face and promise by promise.
In 2003, Oliver's great-grandson, Josh Johnson, joined the Rice Lake dealership, and the fifth generation entered the story. Pontiac and GMC were added soon afterward, and Josh graduated from the National Automobile Dealers Association Dealer Academy before taking leadership of Don Johnson's Hayward Motors, becoming one of the youngest automobile dealers in the country. It was an achievement, but it was also a choice: another generation had decided that the legacy was worth learning, serving, and earning anew.
Five years later, the purchase of William G. Talbot & Sons brought the family business to Cumberland, while Chevrolet and Buick operations were consolidated in Rice Lake. The facility was eventually remodeled to become Don Johnson's Cumberland Collision Center, extending the collision repair tradition first established at our new Rice Lake dealership in 1977. The evolution reflected something that would become increasingly important: honoring where we came from while staying alert to what people would need next.
When family legacies come together
Then, in 2016, the Cumberland story became richer when Cifaldi Motors joined our dealership family. For 60 years, the Cifaldi family had served friends and neighbors and had earned deep respect for their outstanding service and community advocacy. Josh, a Cumberland resident, had admired that reputation long before the acquisition, and our goal was never to replace what the Cifaldis had built. It was to honor it, protect it, and help carry it forward.
Every Cifaldi Motors team member continued with the new organization, so familiar faces and long-standing relationships remained at the center of the business. The next chapter began as Don Johnson's Cumberland Motors, with Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram joining the family of brands and Fiat following later that year. Yet the most valuable addition could not be counted in inventory. It was the trust Bob Cifaldi and his family had earned across six decades, and the privilege of continuing a legacy they had built with care.
In August 2023, another respected family legacy joined ours when Toycen Motors of Ladysmith became Don Johnson's Ladysmith Motors. The Toycen family had spent 71 years in the automobile business and 27 years building a trusted Chevrolet dealership in Ladysmith. We entered Rusk County with gratitude for that history and with a promise to build on it, not over it, so guests could continue to see familiar faces while gaining an expanded selection, certified service, and the resources of a growing regional organization.
That December, Hayward Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram joined Don Johnson Auto Group as Dan and Julie Dunn turned their focus to Adventure RV and Powersports of Hayward. Once again, the transition was about more than changing a sign. Two local dealership families came together around a shared commitment to quality, guest satisfaction, and community involvement, and our ability to serve Sawyer County grew stronger.
Taken together, these chapters taught us something essential: growth is meaningful only when it creates more opportunity to serve, more careers for good people, and more capacity to strengthen the places we call home. A larger map is not the goal. A deeper, more positive impact is.
The Don Johnson Way
As our family of dealerships grew, one question became even more important: how do you preserve the closeness, accountability, and care of a family business when the family is no longer gathered under one roof? Our answer is the Don Johnson Way.
The Don Johnson Way is the cornerstone of our culture. It carries the best lessons of our family history into a shared standard for every guest interaction, every teammate relationship, and every decision. It calls us to act with integrity, listen closely, solve problems, welcome better ideas, keep improving, and give back. And it makes one truth clear: whether a team member's last name is Johnson or not, every person here has a place in the story and a responsibility for what comes next.
That culture also reminds us that honoring tradition does not mean standing still. We invest in modern technology, advanced training, more convenient guest experiences, and smarter ways of working because the automotive world keeps moving, and our guests deserve an organization that keeps pace. We want to be rooted enough to remember what matters and progressive enough to help lead the industry forward.
The next chapter
Today, the story reaches toward a possible sixth generation through Josh's children, Piper and Bram. Their future will be theirs to choose, and that is exactly as it should be. But their place in the family reminds us that a legacy is never guaranteed by birthright or secured by a sign above the door. It survives only when each generation leaves behind a business, a culture, and a community worthy of the next.
That is the work before us now. We must earn trust in a rapidly changing marketplace, create careers where people can learn and lead, and keep bringing the heart of a hometown family business to every new tool, technology, and opportunity. And we must remember that every vehicle is connected to a life in motion: a first job, a growing family, a business opening before dawn, a team practice after school, a medical appointment, a long-awaited vacation, or simply the peace of mind that comes from knowing someone will stand behind the work.
When you choose us, refer someone you care about, or join our team, you become part of that motion. You help carry forward a promise first made in Star Prairie and renewed in Rice Lake, Hayward, Cumberland, and Ladysmith: we will listen, work hard, tell the truth, care for people, and leave our communities better than we found them.
From JP and his sons to Don and Josh, and from the Cifaldi, Toycen, and Dunn families whose legacies joined ours to the team members and guests who bring this story to life each day, our history has never been one family's achievement. It has always been a shared trust.
Vehicles have been our business for more than a century, but people have always been our purpose.
Short-Form About Us
Our story began in 1915, when John Peter "JP" Johnson opened a gas station and automobile dealership in Star Prairie, Wisconsin, and worked beside his sons, Oliver and Joye. He could not have known that the work they began would still be moving forward more than a century later, but he understood the principle that would carry it there: work hard, keep your word, care for people, and earn trust one relationship at a time.
That promise found a home in Rice Lake in 1935, when Oliver purchased Johnson Chevrolet Company and renamed it Oliver Chevrolet. It carried the family through the Great Depression, World War II, and new generations of leadership. In 1977, a new dealership opened at Highways 48 and 53, along with our first on-site collision repair facility. Don Johnson later expanded into Hayward, and Josh Johnson joined in 2003 as the fifth generation.
As we grew, our presence in Cumberland began with the purchase of William G. Talbot & Sons, and the facility was eventually remodeled into Don Johnson's Cumberland Collision Center. We were also fortunate to welcome other respected family legacies. The 2016 acquisition of Cifaldi Motors united two families with deep Cumberland roots, and the Cifaldis' 60-year reputation for service and community advocacy became an essential part of Don Johnson's Cumberland Motors.
In 2023, the Toycen family's 71-year automotive legacy joined ours in Ladysmith, and Hayward Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram followed later that year as the Dunn family pursued its next chapter. Each transition honored what people had built and created more opportunities to serve.
Today, the Don Johnson Way is the cornerstone of our culture. It turns more than a century of family lessons into a shared standard for how we treat guests, support teammates, improve our work, embrace change, and give back, while modern technology and advanced training keep us moving forward.
Josh's children, Piper and Bram, now represent the possibility of a sixth generation. Whether they will one day join the business is theirs to decide, but their presence reminds us that a legacy is never automatic. It must be earned in every conversation, every promise kept, and every community strengthened.
Whether you come to buy, service, refer someone you care about, or build a career, you are becoming part of a family story still in motion. Vehicles are our business. People are our purpose. We Move People.