Larry H. Miller Group Company History in the Treasure Valley

Larry H. Miller Subaru began in Boise in 1997. Read about the history of our dealership and founder below.

Larry H. Miller, husband, father, grandfather, entrepreneur, philanthropist, community advocate and humanitarian, passed away from complications due to type 2 diabetes on February 20, 2009.  He was 64. He created the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, one of the 10 largest retail automobile operations in the United States. 
  
Larry was born in 1944 and grew up in the Capitol Hill area of Salt Lake City, Utah. Following his graduation from West High, Miller married his high school sweetheart, Gail Saxton, and began working construction until 1964 when he went to work for American Auto Parts.

In 1966, he became the parts manager at a Utah auto dealer, and then later moved to Denver to work as the parts manager for two Denver Toyota dealerships. He was soon promoted to operations manager over five Toyota stores, where he became the number one Toyota parts dealer in the United States and the first to hit a million in sales, and then two million.

In 1979, Miller purchased a Toyota dealership in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray, Utah. It opened as Larry H. Miller Toyota. In the years that followed, he opened many more dealerships. Today, the Larry H. Miller Management Company operates 23 different automotive brands under 53 dealership locations in Idaho, Utah, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado.

On Tuesday, April 1, 1997, Larry bought Wolfe Auto Group (9 dealerships) here in Boise and Idaho; Sundance Dodge; Capitol Cadillac/Buick/Pontiac; Honda of Boise; Target Acura/Mitsubishi; Target Subaru/Hyundai (currently Larry H. Miller Subaru); Happy Day Ford; Better Buick/GMC/Nissan; Easy Auto Finance; & Happy Day Wholesale Auto. The dealerships were sold in 2009, but the 4 Boise dealerships remain as: Larry H. Miller Subaru, Larry H. Miller Used Car Supermarket of Boise, Larry H. Miller Chrysler Jeep Dodge, & Larry H. Miller Honda.

In 1985, Miller became a co-owner of the struggling NBA franchise, the Utah Jazz, and then a year later purchased the remaining portion from Sam Battistone to become the sole owner. As the team began to have success, they quickly outgrew the Salt Palace Arena where they played. It was at this point that Larry decided to build the Delta Center, now EnergySolutions Arena, in downtown Salt Lake City. The arena, commonly known as home to the Utah Jazz, has been the stage for thousands of special events ranging from rock concerts and rodeos to the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

But the company growth didn't stop with the Jazz and the automotive dealerships. Because of his strong commitment to sports and family entertainment, Miller successfully added a collection of businesses to the organization. Some of these entities include the Salt Lake Bees, the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; Miller Motorsports Park; the Megaplex Movie Theaters; television and radio media outlets; financial institutions, sports memorabilia retail outlets and many others. However, the most important aspect of growth is the fact that, over the last 30 years of business, the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies has become a family of over 7,000 employees in six states.

With so much evolving, changing and expanding since that first dealership opened its doors in 1979, one thing has remained constant, the continuing mission to exceed the expectations of customers, employees and the community as a whole. Larry's goal to be the benchmark for excellence in every aspect of business is what has moved the company forward over the past thirty years. And it is this mission and philosophy that will undoubtedly move it forward for the next thirty years.