Employee Profile: Carl Wilburn

Thursday, 22 March, 2018

A love of cars is in Carl Wilburn’s blood.

“Growing up, my uncle built race cars from the ground up, so I was always fascinated by cars,” Wilburn said.

In addition to his uncle, Wilburn’s grandfather worked for a Lincoln Mercury dealership in California in the 1950s and ‘60s. As a kid in Carmel and Oakland, California, Wilburn was immersed in car culture, and not just from his family.

“Growing up in the Bay Area, everybody was into muscle cars,” he said. His uncle had a 1968 Mercury Cougar for a few years, and Wilburn thought it was a cool car. He bought one for himself (a 1969 Cougar) with his own money at 16 years old.

“I started buying all the different parts and accessories for the car before I bought the car,” he said. He stocked up on a steering wheel, engine parts and even music for the car. “I just wanted a nice car and wanted it to be what I had envisioned in my head. We built it from the ground up, did the paint job and everything. I kept that car until I was about 21.”

He joined a Cougar car club in the Bay Area and would hang with his fellow members every Friday and Saturday.

“We’d go to a sideshow on Seminary Blvd., have racing competitions and show the cars off,” Wilburn said. “It was kind of like our weekend thing.”

With his love of race and muscle cars, it’s no surprise Wilburn ended up working for a car dealership. Now, he does inventory control for Landers Kia.

Wilburn takes inventory of each new and used car that comes in from the factory, online auction or trade-in. He takes care of the vehicles the dealership sells to auctions and wholesales, and he assists customers in making a decision when needed since he knows every car on the lot. If a salesperson needs to know something about a vehicle for a customer, they’ll come to Wilburn for the answers.

“People will ask questions about one car being different from another and I’ll tell them the difference between them,” Wilburn said. “For example, the difference between a base Charger and Charger R/T.

“The biggest thing is when I interact with people, I want to educate people on what you need to know about buying a car.”

Helping people is what Wilburn loves the most about his job, and it all goes back to his childhood in California.

“I always lived by the beach, lived in a melting pot with all kinds of people,” Wilburn said. “It helped me be more of a people person, because I was raised around all different kinds of cultures. I come in every day with a good attitude, positivity and a smile on my face because you never know who you’ll be able to help that day.”

Categories : People

Tags : 2017 Hyundai Tucson