Ryan Muir, GM, OpenRoad Honda: Honest & Loyal in Work & Play

Ryan Muir is a car-guy, it’s a family affair that starts with his father. His journey through the automotive world has taken him from the east coast to the west coast of Canada, to various parts of the US. He now calls the west coast his home alongside his wife and children.

Ryan’s father Stephen Muir, now retired, was a regional parts and service manager for Chrysler for 30 years, “I was born and raised in Nova Scotia and I got my exposure to the car business through my father. I enjoyed talking and learning about the operation side of the business with him and we both shared a love of cars. So talking about classic cars and new vehicles and things like that, I knew every model inside out and backwards.”

Along his journey, Ryan has had mentors that inspired him in different aspects in the corporate side of the industry. He credits Blake Clarke, one of his managers with Honda Canada. “He modeled how to remain even keel and steady and promote confidence within your team, just simply from your mannerisms and how you carry yourself. He was a quiet guy, not a big speech type of guy. He was never rattled. He was always confident, well spoken and had a lot of respect from everybody that he came into contact with.”

Ryan is one of three boys, he reminisces about his childhood. His parents always encouraged them to be the best, to achieve anything they wanted. His mother would reinforce work ethic, “If you’re going to do something, do it well - see it through, never half-way.” His father made sacrifices so that they could have the life they did. He tells us about how his father would be sure to attend all of their activities, how they were the priority in his life.

“My Father played hockey, but he stopped playing when we were born, because of his job and the travel. He wanted to be around more for us and support us in our activities and in our endeavors. In Nova Scotia, it’s not like here, like we don’t have ten rinks within 20 minutes of each other. We would most times travel like an hour or two each way. My father could have been at the opposite end of Nova Scotia visiting a dealership, and I would have a game and he would pass right by our home and make sure I was at the game.”

Ryan, just like his father, makes his children’s activities a priority. Sometimes he’s at dance, and sometimes hockey. He cherishes every moment of it. He is the assistant coach on his son’s hockey team, “It has been really fun. It’s our first year of me coaching him.”

With a customer centric approach, he has empathy and tries to understand where they’re coming from. “Like for us, we sell and service cars everyday, but most people don’t buy a car every day. It’s a relied upon resource in their life that they need to get to work, they need to get their kids activities. There’s a lot of stress and anxiety that can come around that. So you have to put yourself in their shoes and understand what it means to them.”

The dealership is fully stocked with vehicles to suit every lifestyle. There are a lot of new models, which postcovid you can touch and test drive. As far as innovation and the way of the future, Honda will be launching the Prologue which is their very first all electric vehicle and should be here early next year. “This dealership was built with that in mind as well, we have nine EV chargers, fast chargers, and superchargers.

Advice for our readers: “Be honest, and loyal. Be true to who you are and what your values are and make sure that that’s how you represent yourself.”

Written By: Sonia West