Auto sales vet has been at all 42 TC Auto Shows

Schnackenberg has attended and/or worked at every single Twin Cities Auto Show. That’s 42, including this year.

And yes, Schnackenberg, 77, was working this year too, on the opening day of the show, giving an auto-show browser a tour of a gorgeous black GMC Canyon pickup truck. The Canyon is the official vehicle of this year’s show, which continues through March 15 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

“I remember being at those early shows in the old Minneapolis Auditorium,” says Schnackenberg, who is a sales and leasing consultant with Wally McCarthy Automotive Group, the dealership he has been with since 1970. “At that time we sold Oldsmobile and Pontiac too, but, oh well,” he adds with a wry smile, referring to two brands that have disappeared.

Unlike those brands, though, Schnackenberg is still going strong. On this day, he’s in prime form, encouraging the browser he’s been visiting with to come in to Wally McCarthy for a test drive.

Schnackenberg, who is a Minnesota native, says he started in the car business on the West Coast in 1961. “The first car I ever sold was a 1958 Edsel.” He moved back to Minnesota in 1970.

Shop for auto show specials at CarSoup.com.

—Angelo Gentile, Content Editor, CarSoup.com