Local Auto Dealerships Remain Optimistic

By Larry Favinger & Magen Petit
Staff Columnists
YORK COUNTY —

Although there seems to be bad news for the auto industry on the national and international level almost daily, that is not necessarily reflected locally.
While there has been an acknowledged drop in new vehicles sales, local dealers are very optimistic and are compensating in other areas, including the sales of used units and the quality of their service.
“New car sales are definitely off for us,” Steve “Hoaty” Houghton, general manager at Starkey of York, said, “but not as far off as nationally.”
Sid Porter, corporate director of sales, leasing and finance at Dick Bournival Dodge of York, said “business, traffic wise, is a little bit off” but used car sales are holding, or, in some cases, are going up.
General Manager of Somersworth Nissan, Dan Forget, mentioned sales were “actually pretty good” during President’s Day weekend.
“We are down a little from last year, but we sold almost 70 vehicles,” said Forget.
Over at Dover Auto World, General Manager Curt Sylvia said he’s “doing better than in 2008”.
“During President’s Day weekend, we sold about 15 percent or more from last year,” said Sylvia. “They were mostly used, but that’s expected. In these economic times, affordability payments are an issue. Eighty-five percent of sales are used cars.”
John Hayes, owner of Village Motors of South Berwick, a dealer who sells only used vehicles, has seen truth in that statement.
“For us, I would say we’re a little recession resilient,” Hayes said, sitting in his office at his Route 236 sales and service facility. “We do actually, a little better, usually, during these times for the simple fact that people either fix the cars they have or buy used.”
At times like these, former customers and referrals become even more important than usual.
All the negative publicity nationally has an impact on the walk-in or impulse buyers Porter said. “You have to divert your energy to your repeats and referrals. We’d love to see more walk-in business, but we’re getting by with our data base, our own owners.”
“Our repeat and referral business is double the national average,” Houghton said. “That puts us in a unique position and gives us a little bit of an edge in the current economic climate.”
Adding to that, Sylvia claims he’s had very low turnover.
“I think that plays into relationship building,” expressed Sylvia. “We build a lot of tenor here. We have a lot of repeats and referrals. This market is in hard economic times, so that’s the best source of advertisement.”
“This time feels a little bit different than the other two recessions I’ve been through,” Hayes said, “but business has been steady, if not a little up tick for us.”
One area in which national news has had an impact is the feeling of the general public toward financing.
“That’s a whole other category,” Houghton said.
In the last quarter of 2008, he said, “It was difficult to get financing for people who should have had no trouble getting it.”
But since then, Houghton said, things have loosened up a little bit and banks are lending more money.
“People with good credit will not have trouble getting a loan,” he said. “Difference is, if you have poor credit, you’re going to have trouble getting financing.” He said. “People who have the best credit will get the best rates.”
Dover Auto World is offering zero percent financing.
“We have rates as low as 1.9 percent,” explained Sylvia. “It’s all about mathematics because when the payment is calculated, it seems too high for folks.”
Forget’s keynote way of doing business is “you pay, we pay”.
“We’re selling cars at invoice price, which costs less than rebates,” explained Forget. “This also helps save time because there is no hassle or negotiations as well as saving money.”
Hayes said there are people who think financing is not available even though it is.
“They have raised the bar,” he said of the financing institutions. Among other changes, he said, is that the banks “want more money down.”
This part of the country is lucky in that there are more community banks and credit unions. “Those guys are still lending,” he said. “They haven’t been hit like the big guys.”
Overall, the auto industry, from a local standpoint, isn’t as bad as it could be.
“It’s no shock, right around October, we took a decline, but there are positive signs, too,” said Forget. “February was a great month, so hopefully that’s a good sign.”
Sylvia added, “It’s not as bad as one would think. We focus on being positive and focus on taking care of the customer. We have the ingredients that makes us successful.”