OWNER, JIM KOONS AUTOMOTIVE COS., VIENNA
OWNER, JIM KOONS AUTOMOTIVE COS., VIENNA
Virginia Business// August 29, 2022//
A family-owned automobile dealership launched in 1964, Koons Automotive is among the 30 largest car dealers in the country and the largest based in Virginia, with 26 franchises in the mid-Atlantic region. Jim Koons’ father, John, opened the first location in Falls Church, and his older brother, John Koons Jr., was also in the business until Jim bought him out in 1992.
Selling Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet, Jeep, Mercedes and several other lines, Koons Automotive reported 2021 annual revenue of $2.78 billion. Last year, the dealership announced it had been the victim of a June 2021 data breach that may have compromised some customers’ personal information. In April, Maryland’s attorney general reached a settlement requiring a Koons Kia dealership to refund $1 million to consumers who were charged unadvertised extra “freight charges” for vehicles.
Koons has been a longtime philanthropist, having donated money to Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington — where he is an alumnus — and the Talbot Hospice Foundation, to which he and his wife, Cece, made a $1 million gift in honor of his late mother, Eleanor.