Area auto dealers retooling

Auto dealerships had to pump the brakes a bit when coronavirus first hit but are now adjusting to the challenges presented by the new normal.

“I’ve been in the car business my entire working life and have never seen anything like this,” said Jen Bressi, dealer manager at College Hills Honda in Wooster. “The only thing that even compares to this was the ‘cash-for-clunkers’ program back in 2009, but even that was a very different kind of challenge.”

Bressi said the coronavirus hit at the worst possible time for dealerships. “March, the spring market, is usually one of our best months. The weather starts to clear up, the sun shines, the birds chirp and people begin thinking of upgrading their vehicle,” she said.

Bressi said she usually anticipates selling more than 75 units for March, but by the end of this March, they had closed only 33 deals.

Business has started to improve for College Hills in recent weeks, though, and seems to be coming back now.

“I think people are starting to realize that even with the threat of this virus, life must go on — and we can do so while taking necessary precautions,” Bressi said.

Millersburg’s Village Motors sales manager Tom Poorman said coronavirus has affected every facet of their dealership too. “You know things are different when you can’t introduce yourself or close a deal with a handshake anymore,” he said.

While the dealership has scaled back service department hours, sales have remained fairly steady, according to Poorman. “We’re a Ram Ag dealer too, so that has definitely helped,” he said.

Poorman said the dealership has really tried to think of absolutely everything as far as its procedures and operations. “When we get done signing a contract, we don’t even take the pen back,” he said.

Poorman said Ford has made many attractive options for buyers including arrangements like no payments for the first 120 days and even 0 percent financing for up to 84 months.

“The local banks have also given us some really good rates too,” Poorman said. “We just want people to know we’re still here to do business.”

For five generations the Snyder family in Orrville has been serving the area, even before the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

From selling horses, to giving driving lessons, to having a traditional dealership, to now selling previously owned cars that match a customer’s needs, Snyder’s has adapted and thrived.

Steve Snyder is the fifth generation in the business. Now called Bob Snyder Auto Exchange and located off South Main Street in Orrville, Bob Snyder is the president of the operation, and Steve Snyder is the vice president.

“During 108 years our family business has been shaped by historic events in both World Wars, the Roaring ‘20s, the Great Depression, the boom times of the ‘50s and ‘60s, the Apollo missions and stagflation in the early ‘80s, just to name a few,” Steve Snyder said. “From the Spanish flu to COVID-19, each of these has had a lasting impact on the development of our business.”

Snyder said the impact of the coronavirus certainly has affected how customers shop for automobiles.

“Luckily we had started to embrace the realities of online auto shopping as early as 2000, 2001,” Snyder said. “For the last several years we have shortened some of our hours, more toward an appointment-based model. This has allowed us to focus on individualized customer attention. It has been our belief that there would be a movement to more customer home-based shopping.”

Because manufacturers were doing more leases, Snyder explained, it has meant buyers have more late-model number of vehicles to choose from.

“We have been working toward this model for the last seven years or so. I know that when I shop for anything, I would much rather purchase locally in a setting that wasn’t crowded with people,” he said.

Bressi said College Hills started making changes immediately after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s first announcement in mid-March.

“We started with removing all items that are commonly touched throughout the dealership: magazines, flyers, candies, etcetera. We instituted hourly cleaning of table tops, door handles, writing utensils and so forth. We were constantly wiping down key fobs, steering wheels, shifter knobs and any other areas commonly touched during the test-drive process,” Bressi said.

Even these considerable precautions weren’t enough, though. In response to the governor’s stay-at-home order on March 23, Bressi said the dealership was faced with no other option but layoffs.

“In our 25 years of business under Bob Bressi’s leadership, we have never had to do furloughs or layoffs, so this was definitely uncharted waters for us,” Bressi said.

College Hills had to reduce its staff down from its 45-member team to just eight, so the dealership could at least remain open for emergency services for its customers. “These eight will forever be named the Corona Crew,” Bressi said.

While sales were down, the dealership looked at its service department as essential and maintained its hours.

“Everyone requires a safe and reliable car. When we furloughed, our service manager became the active service advisor, and we kept one master technician on staff for mostly diagnostic and repair. Some folks still brought their cars in for routine maintenance too,” Bressi said.

Bressi said they requested the customers remove their keys from all other keys on their key chains and wiped down all commonly touched areas before and after each service, technicians wearing gloves for the entire process.

“We took payments over the phone and discouraged people from waiting in our waiting room unless they had no other options, and then we limited the waiting room for one person or family,” Bressi said.

One of the things most commonly associated with any car dealership is the test drive. That too had to be rethought, according to Bressi.

Bressi said the dealership has applied for the special government coronavirus small business loan, but they are only cautiously hopeful.

“There are lots of ifs, ands and buts, so we’re proceeding cautiously,” Bressi said. “We have attended countless webinars and spent hours on the phone with accountants and attorneys and payroll people and have just about gone cross-eyed trying to make sense of it.”

Still, Bressi is confident her dealership will come out OK on the other end of this crisis.

“This whole experience has reaffirmed how important it is to support the local economy,” Bressi said. “We know we aren’t entitled to people’s business, but we ask them to let us earn it. Let local taxes take care of our local community. We are the dealers that sponsor your son’s baseball team, your daughter’s concert and spaghetti dinner fundraisers. And we will continue to be there, no matter what.”

Jon Kinney contributed to this story.