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TORRANCE, Calif. — A longtime veteran of Toyota and a pioneer of the automaker's certified pre-owned vehicle program is retiring next month.

Norm Olson, who began what ended up being nearly four decades with Toyota in January 1972, is stepping down on June 11.

Toyota has not yet appointment a replacement for Olson, who is the sales operations manager for Toyota Certified Used Vehicles.

On Monday, he shared his plans for his upcoming retirement with Auto Remarketing.

"I'm going to enjoy life. Lots of trips planned and cruises," Olson said. "The next year is all planned out. What a great job, I had."

His retirement wraps up a career with Toyota that dates back over 38 years. When he first came aboard, Olson worked in warranty operations for Toyota Motor Sales, USA.

He eventually would move over to the Los Angeles region, where he served as district parts manager, district service manager and district sales manager, officials indicated.  

In January 1980, Olson stepped away from the wholesale side of things and became vice president of Toyota of Redlands, before coming back to TMS a little more than three years later.

Upon his return to TMS in August 1983, Olson worked in various service training roles. Then in February 1986, he became dealer analysis manager.

Olson would eventually take on the newly created role of used-vehicle merchandizing manager when Toyota began bulking up its support for its dealer network's used operations.

"Norm's early work in the area of used vehicles eventually led him to become one of the founding team members on the birth and launch of Toyota Certified Used Vehicles (TCUV) in January 1996," said Scott Heyer, Toyota Motors Sales' corporate manager of fleet, TRAC and TCUV, an in internal e-mail obtained by Auto Remarketing.

"He has been an integral part of the success of TCUV over these many years. TCUV has been widely recognized within the industry as the standard bearer among manufacturer CPO programs and has held the title of Number One Selling Certified Used Vehicle Among Single Vehicle Line Manufacturers' since its inception," he added. "We wish Norm and his wife Nancy a long and  enjoyable retirement."