GDL Automotive is a mechanical repair business operating on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Owner/Manager Dannie Lyman has more than a decade of experience in the automotive trade (including experience on European, Asian and Australian vehicles) and has built a business focused on convenience for the client.

About Dannie

Before running the business Dannie was found behind the wheel of high performance cars, a passion that saw him establish and manage a car enthusiast club for seven years.

Outside of the auto world Dannie is either reading fantasy books along the lines of The Lord of the Rings, screaming for the Sea Eagles (local football team), drumming, enjoying good food in some of Northern Sydney’s amazing restaurants or getting into video games.

However, if you call him and his phone is off you can bet he is in a cinema. Aside from cars, film is Dannie’s great passion.

The passion for film is so strong that his sister Miriam and him play guess the film. One will say a line and the other must guess the film.

Meet our Specialists

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    SARA

    Sara is the wife of GDL owner Dannie. She has an administration role at GDL Automotive, keeping the well oiled machine that is GDL functioning. Outside the company, her primary passion is children and is qualified as a diploma trained childcare educator. She has grown up on the Northern beaches and loves going to the beach. She is also enthusiastic about cooking, baking, reading and craft.

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    TRACEY

    Tracey joins the GDL team in an advisory role. She is a cofounder of The real Business Group and is working with the management team of GDL in a strategist capacity. Bringing Tracey on board will allow the team to expand the business to reach its dreams by implementing measurable goals and a level of accountability to the management staff.

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    BRENDEN

    Brenden joins our team after seven years at Honda. Brenden grew up in Forster he moved to Sydney to get work in the mechanical trade. Once in Sydney, he met Emma and lined up an apprenticeship at Honda. He has developed a passion for dirt bikes. Two stoke death machines are one of his great passions in life, along with cars, 4-wheel driving outback adventure type behaviour and of course his lady friend. Brenden hopes to get his foot in the property market soon, he may not yet be aware that this means he will probably have to give up the bikes in order to afford this.

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    JON

    Jon joins the team after several years experience working for Jeep. He has worked with Dannie in the past both a previous employment and in the early days of GDL.
    Jon has a passion for fishing and most things water based. He is a skilled welder and loves the fabrication side of the industry.
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    BEN

    Ben joins our team with years of experience on heavy vehicles, having worked in the truck and tractor sector for many years. From there Ben branched out into marine work and as a result has extensive experience with all things boats as well as trucks and cars.
    Ben is a very relaxed young man with a friendly demeanour and an exceptional sense of humour. After only a few short weeks in the team it feels like Ben has always been with us.

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    BRENT

    Brent joins the team as Store Manager at our Warriewood site. Brent has a long history in the automotive world, with the previous ten years spent working at Mercedes Benz G Brothers in a sales capacity. Before that, he was involved in Woolworths and BP in operational capacities. Brent brings his years of experience and wisdom to our most established site and has the goal of growing and expanding GDL further.

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    KYLE

    Kyle moved across the country for us. Originally from Perth, Kyle sought employment after relocating across the country. He is currently an apprentice at our Warriewood site. He has completed a large amount of academic studies for the first year prior to his commencement of the apprenticeship. Kyle is a quiet soul and keeps to himself mostly. We have yet to find out what his hobbies and likes are. What we do know is he has a network of friends in Western Sydney and spends a lot of his weekends visiting them. And he is a huge fan of AFL.

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    VINCE

    Vince came for a job interview, couldn’t drive manual and was told to come back when he could. He landed six lessons in the next two weeks and proceed to hound Dannie until he gave in. Vince joins our Hornsby team as an apprentice who can now drive manual. He’s picked it up super quickly and has a sensational attitude. He does drive a Dodge Neon (we will remedy this). Vince resides on the Central Coast and uses the train to get to work… Whatever it takes to start your career.

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    FLYNN

    Flynn is currently studying and working part-time for both us and business education company Business Blueprint. Flynn brings a huge hub of knowledge in regards to digital marketing, online marketing, SEO and website development. It’s his job to get digital leads. Flynn is a bit of an adventurer with a love of the outdoors and mountain bike riding getting the better of him most weekends.

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    ETHAN

    Ethan currently works for GDL part-time while he finishes high school. Ethan carries out many of the yard hand duties at our Warriewood site. In the coming years, it is expected that Ethan will join the GDL team permanently. In what capacity is yet to be determined, but this young man has the potential to do great things in our company.