O’Donnell Honda’s History

O’Donnell Honda of Ellicott City is celebrating 50 years in business as your local new car dealership and service center. O’Donnell started representing American Honda Company 50 years ago as a young man with a vision, 31-year-old Tom O’Donnell received his acceptance letter from American Honda in March, 1973. He became only the second Honda dealer in the entire state of Maryland. As of today, we estimate that he has sold a total of over 100,000 cars.

Tom moved the dealership “up the road” from Routes 40 & 29 to its current location in 1984. Over the years it has grown in many ways: the building has been expanded twice from its original size and our employee count is now 112! The service department started out with only 1 quick lube mechanic for oil changes; now there are 9 of them as we are servicing 120 some cars a day through the shop!

O’Donnell Honda takes great pride in consistently being voted Howard County’s Best Car Dealership and Best Service Department as well. Other awards include The President award, American Honda’s Customer Satisfaction Award, which is based on the top ten percent of Honda dealers nationwide. We were also the recipient of the Vehicles Fix It Right the First Time Award, and the Environmental Leadership Award just to name a few.

In 2011 Tom O’Donnell was awarded TIME Dealer of the Year for Maryland, the most prestigious and highly coveted award for New Car Dealers. There were 17,000 dealerships nationwide that year and this award is only given to ONE dealer in each of the 50 states, so this is no small achievement!

In the area of community service, O’Donnell has an impressive record in Howard County. We dedicate time, talent and resources to many civic and charitable enterprises. Among the many organizations that we devote our attention to are: Taste of Howard County Gilchrist Hospice, Howard County youth baseball, Mt. Hebron School sports, Howard County Police Association and Howard County Domestic Violence Center as well as many charitable golf tournaments in multiple counties as “Hole in One” cars. As a member of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce O’Donnell is active supporting their work in the community at large.

Above all we are a “family” of long-standing employees and customers, both of which span several generations. There are families with parents, children and grandchildren who have a history of many years of loyalty to O’Donnell Honda. We are very proud of this and plan to continue to earn your business and your trust for generations to come.

Thank you for your past, present and future support.

1973 HAPPENINGS

• Richard Nixon President
• #1 Movie – The Exorcist
• #1 Song – Tony Orlando & Dawn – Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree
• Price of gas .39 per gal
• Popular Clothes – Bell Bottom pants, hip huggers, earth shoes, clogs, tie dye t-shirts
• Mayor of Baltimore – William Donald Schaefer
• Secretariat won the Preakness, Belmont Stakes and Kentucky Derby
• Honda Introduced the Civic at a price of $2073 – am radio additional option for $50