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.”]
NEW YORK—In his novel Anna Karenina, Tolstoy wrote, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” After talking with some BBB (Better Business Bureau) top-rated car dealerships in the Greater New York area, I realized that if we simply replace the word “family” with “dealership,” that famous line is a good description of the auto dealership business.
Atlantic Hyundai seems to be one of such “happy family.” As General Manager Mr. Bryan Harris, puts it: “Car sales have been down for everyone, but for Hyundai, in general, it has been up 14% this year. We are up about 10% over last year which is very good in this economy.”
‘Keep the Customers Happy’
“Keep the Customer Happy,” this is what Harris mentioned many times when talking about the way of doing business, “We are the No. 1 Hyundai dealership in the country in volume. We sell over 4500 cars a year. Still we have a very good BBB score. That is because we take care of all the customers. If you buy a car here and there are any problems at all, we take care of them.”
Harris has been with Atlantic Hyundai since 1993. “I saw customers who bought a car. When their kids grew up and they (needed to) buy cars, they sent their family members over. We get a lot of repeat business because of the way we treat our customers. Everybody leaves here very happy, very satisfied with their purchase. We give them the best prices. Nobody beats our price.
“Our philosophy is to take care of the customers at all costs. Make the customer happy,” said Harris. “Maybe a customer comes and buys a car. Three weeks, four weeks later, they come and say ‘this is scratched’. We take care of them.”
Harris said that Atlantic Hyundai takes care of the customer at any expense. “Sometimes things don’t go right. If you bought a car from us, we will take care of any problem you have. If you bought the warranty, that helps cover it; if the warranty doesn’t cover it, we will still help you. We will do anything it takes to satisfy the customer.”
If there is any secret to Atlantic Hyundai’s success, Harris said, it would be: “Take care of customers with heart. Give them the best price. Make them happy. Our secret is: Make the customers happy.”
The Ten-Year/100,000 Mile Warranty
Harris is very proud of the unprecedented Hyundai warranty program.
“We get more repeat businesses than most other dealerships because of the warranty and the service.
“Since 1999, Hyundai has had a warranty that covers its cars for ten years or 100,000 miles. All the other companies have tried to copy that but Hyundai started it. That’s why customers are coming back,” said Harris.
Harris admitted that the warranty program is “very expensive for Hyundai, but in 1999, Hyundai had to prove that they were standing behind the cars that they sold. This program is still going on now, and going strong.”
Hyundai Assurance
Harris thinks Hyundai is a good purchase because it “is not quite expensive as other cars; has a lot more to offer in terms of warranty, assurance, and consumer rebates: you have 10 years of warranty, take-your-car-back assurance, and for some of the cars up to $5000 instant rebate.”
Harris considers the Hyundai Assurance plan to be particularly good for customers in today’s shifting economy. If a customer buys a car and then loses his or her source of income within one year of the purchase, the customer can return the car to the Hyundai dealership and get a full refund.
“With the assurance program, if you buy car, and God forbid you lose your job, which in this economic climate, you never know … Hyundai will take the car back for you and you would not mess up your credit,” said Harris.
Harris believes that Hyundai’s good acts will be rewarded: “We take the burden off you. That’s our economic stimulus package. After those customers get over (the difficult time), they will come back.”
When asked about how he would compare Hyundai with Honda and Toyota, Harris said: “Since I work for Hyundai, my point of view would be biased. However, J D Powers, whose view is not biased, ranked Hyundai above Nissan, above Toyota. The only car company above us is Honda.”
Harris has seen many Chinese customers coming to his dealership, “There have been quite a few Chinese customers who buy cars from Atlantic Hyundai. A lot of them get here by referrals. They come to see me because somebody told them that they could get a good deal. Many of them come from Brookhaven (National Laboratory.)”
From Ugly Duckling to Swan
Harris acknowledged that Hyundai got a reputation for being cheap, when they were first introduced, but he explained that the company has come a long way in the past two decades.
“Now Hyundai is very good. They don’t lose their value like they did ten years ago. Their resale value is still very strong.” Harris believes that Hyundai “has definitely risen into the top tier, and we are going for the No. 1 spot.”
42 years ago, Hyundai was founded in South Korea. In 1986, Hyundai entered the U.S. car market with a line of extremely basic economy cars. The cars were very affordable and fairly reliable, but built of cheap materials, and they didn’t hold their value well compared to other Asian imports. This gave Hyundai the unfortunate reputation of being a second-class car company.
The company did well enough, but wanted to move up the ranks to compete head-to-head with the big Japanese manufacturers.
So, in 1998, the Hyundai Group made large investments in every aspect of research, design, manufacture, and materials to improve the quality of their products.
To show it was serious and to bolster consumer confidence, Hyundai introduced its “Ten-Year, 100,000 Mile Warranty” program. The combination of much-improved initial quality and comprehensive long-term warranty turned around customers’ perceptions.
Hyundai’s efforts have paid off. Hyundai was the highest non-premium nameplate in the recently released J.D. Powers and Associates 2009 Initial Quality Study. Hyundai owners had fewer problems with their vehicles than any other non-premium car or truck brand. Hyundai’s Elantra outranked the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic among compact cars.
From Hyundai’s arrival as the ugly duckling through its metamorphosis into a graceful swan, Harris has witnessed the whole process. “In the past 10 years, Hyundai has outgrown any other car company. People view Hyundai differently and look forward to buying one.”
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