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.”]
Reputation Earned From Years of Good Service
According to Dennis Buchanan, Honda City’s General Manager, the dealership is one of ten dealerships owned by the John Burns family: “They have been in the automotive business on Long Island for a long time.
“We have customers coming in here who are buying their 3rd, 4th, 5th cars and it’s not just for themselves. We have got generations of families, that the parents have bought and they bring their kids when their kids are ready for a car,” said Dennis.
Besides the product itself, Dennis explained further about why customers keep coming back to Honda City: “We service the cars and the customers a little better. The easiest way to do strong business is to take care of the customers that you have got, and they will come back and tell their friends to come here too. It’s such a simple concept and it’s frankly less expensive.”
Dennis believes the best advertising is by word of mouth: “I would have to spend thousands of advertising dollars to get that message to your friend, who’s not going to believe that ad as well as you, who says ‘Hey, I went to Honda City; the car wasn’t free but I got a fair deal; they took care of me. You got a problem with the car, they would fix it.’
“That is all we are supposed to do: give a good product and a fair price. If something should break—which will happen to a car—fix it for them. We just try to be straight up and honest with the money. There’s really nothing hidden,” said Dennis.
‘Honda Is a Good Car’
Quality of the vehicle was one of the reasons Dennis settled on a Honda dealership. “I have always felt that Honda was a nicer car. For the price point of our car, it is not an expensive car; it is an average-priced car.”
However: “The cars have a lot of attention to detail. They don’t really cut any corners. If you sit inside and look at the seating, the interior, touch the surfaces, feel the buttons, it feels like a much more expensive car than it is. In my mind, that’s what the difference is between a luxury car and a non-luxury car: the attention to detail, the quality of the surfaces; and Honda absolutely has it,” said Dennis.
Having been in the automobile business for 26 year, Dennis really knows about cars: “Honda is a company that takes more concern for the customer. They actually mean it. They take it very seriously that a customer buys a Honda with certain expectations. A lot of people buy our cars because of reputation. Honda has had a reputation for cars that have a low cost of ownership.”
Dennis thinks Honda retain the value well: “Honda’s holds value really better than other cars. When money’s tight, there are a lot of people who are struggling a little money-wise. Honda’s a smart buy.
“If you are going to lease a car, Honda probably has the most attractive program, because we got the least amount of depreciation as a percentage of the cost of the car. The less the depreciation is, the smaller your payment. A car that is good to lease is the car that holds its value well,” Dennis said.
At the April 2009 New York International Auto show, Honda FCX Clarity was awarded the “World Green Car of the Year”. Dennis is proud of the environmental concern that is part of Honda’s corporate philosophy:
“The green thing for Honda it’s not really to get an award, they really believe it. They were pushing green and zero level admission cars, long before it was really popular. Right now it’s like a buzz; but we have been doing it for a long time.”
A Noble Man Gets Money in a Noble Way
There is an ancient Chinese saying that “It is not wrong for a noble man to have lot of money if he gets it in a noble way.” Dennis understands this: “Every business wants to make a profit, but if you try to make a lot of money from someone who you are selling cars or anything else and you put that ahead of taking care of the customers, you won’t make money for very long.
The president of Honda City, John Burns Jr., believes a business cannot go a long way if it focuses only on profit and loss: “We are building the business to be here for 20, 30, 40 … many years. This is going to be here for a long time. The only way you do that is by treating customers well and becoming part of the community. We do.”
Dennis said they price their cars competitively at the outset, “so you don’t have to mark up and mark down. We have very strong incentives, but what Honda tries to do is to price the cars right in the very beginning, so we are competitive in the market with or without the incentives. The incentives are just make a good deal a little better. “I don’t want anybody down there trying to sell you or trick you with a car. All I want from a salesperson is that I want them to know the product, because I want them to be able to explain and answer your questions,” said Dennis.
“All a sales person’s job at this dealership, is to help you choose a car that is going to fit what you want in the price that you are looking to spend. Just to know about the car, they walk around the car and tell you about the car. There’s no tactics in selling you the car; just provide the information and make a fair deal.” This is what Dennis asks his sales people to always keep in mind.
“I don’t want someone who’s a slick salesman, someone who has all kinds of ways to have you say yes. I want somebody who wants to earn honest dollars. For every business the challenges are finding good people. Finding people to talk to people is not the easiest thing anymore,” said Dennis.
Quality of the People Determines the Quality of the Service
Today working at this dealership, tomorrow at that one; oftentimes people come and go in the car business. It’s different in Honda City.
“We have service advisors who have been here 20 years. My parts manager is here for 20 years, mechanics 20 years. I have a salesperson downstairs, 20 years. That says a lot about the company, in an industry which does have a lot of turnover traditionally,” said Dennis.
“We are good to the employees. We want those employees who are going to be here long, and they want to be here a long time too. My service manager [Mark] started here when he was 17 years old as a helper at the shop and now he runs the whole building. He’s one of the top guys, and everyone knows Mark,” said Dennis.
A lot of dealerships are going out of business, and one would think there are a lot of people in the market looking for a job. However Dennis said that may not be the case: “but in some cases the dealers who are going out of business weren’t that great. And the reason is because of some of the people who were working there. I don’t want them here.
“I would rather take a longer time to fill a position, but I don’t want somebody who has worked at every dealership in the world, who moves every 6 months. I’m looking for someone who is looking for a career more than a job,” said Dennis.
As Dennis puts it, “It’s very easy to get a bad reputation. You don’t have to make so many people upset. But a good reputation means that we work in this dealership, we have probably more than any other dealership.
“Because you are going to deal with our customers, I don’t want just anybody off the streets dealing with our customers. We worked a long time to make them our customers. To hire the wrong person, to upset those customers … it can take years trying to correct things. It’s just not worth it. I would rather go slower, take the right person,” said Dennis.
“I want somebody who I can send my parents in to talk to. And if I thought they were going take advantage of my mother well I don’t want to take advantage of your mother so I won’t hire them. I don’t want a guy who says ‘I can make so much money from people’.”
‘Customer Satisfaction Is the Most Important Thing’
From Bayside to South Hampton, from Lexus to BMW to Mercedes-Benz, John Burns family owns about ten dealerships in Long Island.
“My father has been in the car business since right after college. Now he has about nine dealerships. My sister is in it as well. My father always said that ‘Customer satisfaction is the most important thing’,” said John Burns Jr.
Burns said his father really means it: “His life instilled it in him. His has the top customer satisfaction rating in the country. He really prides himself on it. He always told me that. It’s very, very important to him. It’s the same for me and my sister.
“My family has been in the car business and I always love it. Meeting people, dealing with people … Levittown is a great area. We treat people the way we'd like to be treated. You know, that the way we were brought up. We treat people the way we are,” said Burns.
“People come back. The parents buy cars; they buy their kids the first car; the kids come back. You know, if I took people to the restaurant, I want them to be happy to see me, not always the car guy. It’s just how we are living in the community. We support them; they support us,” said Burns.
In the parking lot across the street, a lady named Jackie from Long Island was walking to her Accord. She bought the car last August. This is the fourth car she has bought from Honda City. When asked about why, she smiled: “I’ve got used to Honda. I like this dealership. They have very good service.”
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