[Editor’s note: When buying something as big as a house or a car, the last thing one wants is to be taken advantage of. For those newly immigrated to America, this is even more so, due to the language barrier.
Which car to buy? You decide. Which dealer to visit? We try to provide some useful information. The Epoch Times will run a series of featured articles—interviews from those dealership in the Greater New York area, which are with the highest BBB Rating—“A+” and/or BBB Accredited. These can be helpful references for those who are buying car.
BBB (Better Business Bureau), founded in 1912, is not a government agency, but a private business franchise of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work together through the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB).
The goal of BBB is to foster a fair and effective marketplace, so that buyers and sellers can trust each other—"Start With Trust.”]
Oftentimes, the conversation of the sales staff in an auto dealership sounds sweeter than singing.
When you ask the sales managers about customer feedback, he will tell you whatever the customers say, even if it reflects badly on the dealership. If you ask the general manager about the business, he will simply tell you what he knows, both good and bad. If when you first met these people, they shared their opinions candidly with you, a reporter they had just met, what would you think about that?
My first thought was that these two had nothing to hide. They would be able to tell customers exactly what the customer needed to choose the right car.
And that is exactly how I felt when I spoke wuith General Manger Albert Louzon and sales manager Robert Lakomy of Queensboro Toyoya.
When Money Is Tight, Used and Fuel-Efficient Cars Sell
Albert believes the car business is stabile now, though it is slow to rebound. Business, says Albert, took a “big hit” from the combination of two things: lowered consumer confidence and tight credit from banks.
“Banks are not advancing as much money as they used to. They’re much stricter on documentation. That has created a lot of difficulties in getting deals. The approval rate is about the same but customers don’t get as much money,” Albert told me.
Robert feels the same way, “Consumer confidence is just as important. They are really fearful to purchase. They don’t know what might happen next. They don’t know if they are going to have a job.” He also thinks that Americans’ low saving rates affects their purchases.
Albert saw some strength in the used car market, though. “The used car market seems to be more affordable for the consumer and that’s what they are going for.
“Now, good fuel economy car are still holding around. That’s where the market’s going to go. Once the economy rebounds, I believe gas prices will continue to go up. Especially if the American dollar remains weak, they will go up even more.”
The Toyota Camry is one of the most popular cars among Chinese buyers in the U.S. cars for Chinese people, so I was surprised to hear Albert say that Queensboro Toyota was not selling many Camrys.
New Arrivals Should Establish Credit Right Away
People who work off the books are out of luck, Albert told me; banks won’t even talk to them. “In our neighborhood that could be hard because a lot of people are working off the books, they don’t have those documents. I would guess it’s probably the same in the Chinese market as well.”
“It’s not whether they have poor credit. It’s that they don’t have any credit. Once you are in a no-credit situation, you need to prove your income, and a lot of them are working off the books so they can’t prove it,” said Albert. He suggested that new immigrants start building up credit as soon as they arrive; but most new arrivals don’t know they need to do this.
From Robert’s experience, most Chinese immigrants have better credit ratings than the rest of the population regardless of ethnicity. “It’s always a surprise to see a Chinese customer with a bad credit history.”
“What happened was that a lot of people’s credit improved over the last several years because the housing market went to the roof” Albert explained. “So people had mortgages, and paying the mortgage is excellent for building up credit. We definitely saw much higher credit scores than in the past.”
However, nothing lasts forever. “Now of course, we are going to pay a price, because they’re not going to make payments on their homes and their credit scores will be hurt. A strong real estate market is great for everyone, for everyone’s credit, and it really helps out,” said Albert.
Being Straight Up With Customers
I mentioned to Albert that some Chinese customers had been taken advantage of at other dealerships because of the language barrier and the customers’ lack of knowledge about financing.
Albert responded, “That’s the whole thing! This industry is a very tough, dirty business. Especially with newspaper advertising, there are a lot of tricks. They will do whatever they can.”
Albert makes sure Queensboro Toyota doesn’t work that way, explaining, “That’s the difference between our dealership and some others. We don’t work like that. We work straight up. Perhaps we don’t sell as many cars as some others do. But we are working on building a long-term relationship with our consumers.
“We don’t have it in our hearts to act like that. We don’t have that in us, and we don’t tolerate any kind of trickery. Our words are our word. We stand behind our words and that’s important. That’s something I try to stress to Robert and Robert tries to stress that to his sales people. I don’t play like that. It does not worth it,” said Albert.
“We started in 1967. We are one of the original Toyota dealers in the northeast, we have just moved in 2006 to this facility, which is much bigger than our previous facility.” The Louzoun family has stayed committed to Toyota because they believe in the car. As Albert put it, “That’s why we invested the money in that.”
Albert suggests that consumers do some research before buying a used car. “Buying used cars is like buying a diamond or a precious stone. You’ve got to be careful who you buy that from. But don’t forget, technology has helped made that a lot easy for the consumers. There are things like AutoCheck and CARFAX, and information on the Web to research where a car came from, and its repair record.”
Stay Open and Transparent
“Sometimes we will work with our competitors, where you send the customers over if they insist on shopping around, knowing that the other store is not that good. Customers go there and they will be back in a half-an-hour. They come back because they are actually getting very mistreated over there. They don’t get the service that they would like to get,” said Robert.
Robert said this dealership is very open. “When you purchase a car from Queensboro Toyota, you will find out about your payments way before you pick up your car. “
The last thing a buyer wants is to get a surprise when they are told the final price. “That’s one of the biggest problems consumers have always had with dealers. They never know until the very end how much they are paying. Here you can know days before. You place an order today; I will tell you your payment right away,” said Robert.
“You can’t really always please everyone,” said Albert. But Albert, his father and Robert all believe is that they can please most customers most of the time.
“I would probably say the best way is if you continue to provide your consumer with same quality of service, you will be successful. That is probably the best way to put it.”