While his competitors are going out of business and fending off
lenders, Gilroy Toyota principal Frank Bolea is moving ahead with
plans to relocate and expand.
While his competitors are going out of business and fending off lenders, Gilroy Toyota principal Frank Bolea is moving ahead with plans to relocate and expand.
He still has additional paperwork to square away with the city, but Bolea said he plans to break ground by May 2010 on a sleek two-floor dealership, which will transform the empty lot at 6605 Chestnut St. across from Gilroy’s auto mecca.
“It’s going to be upscale, and now is a good time with prices for wiring, steel and other construction materials down,” Bolea said in his office on Stutz Way that sits along U.S. 101. Giving up that highway storefront – on which Bolea has another two year lease with owner Paul Brinkman – and its advertising clout may seems like a poor choice, but Bolea said the freeway actually causes more confusion.
“We don’t have good signage in this town, and people actually get confused trying to get here,” Bolea said. “It’s basically all word of mouth.”
And with 70 percent of customers returning to buy a car from him and 38 years in the business under his belt, Bolea said the combination of the Toyota name and the resale value of the auto-maker’s cars spell a bright future.
“Toyota has been good to me and I’ve been good to Toyota,” Bolea said.
While sales of his new cars are down about 40 percent, which is lower than reported declines from other nearby dealerships, Bolea has shrunk his inventory to 180 new cars and said he continues to move his used stock of about 50 cars at its normal rate.
The meticulous man with seemingly perfect teeth not only watches revenues but his employees and their families as well. He shows up six to seven days a week and it is not unusual to see him answering phones or washing cars – anything to help create a near-spotless and desirable work environment that customers remember, he said.
“Hey, have you done your homework?” Bolea asked one of his technician’s sons who nodded with a smile on his way through the show room.
“Hey, what’s that sign doing on the ground over there?” he asked a nearby salesman who quickly fixed the promotion.
Financial promotions seem harder for Bolea’s neighbor, Gilroy Volkswagen Mazda, representatives of which recently spoke with City Administrator Tom Haglund about any advocacy the city may be able to provide on the dealer’s behalf, Haglund said. Gilroy Pontiac Buick GMC and Gilroy Ford Lincoln Mercury, both of which were owned by Don Malinoff, went out of business last month primarily due to stricter lending standards.
Gilroy Volkswagen Mazda’s Finance and Fleet Manager Mike Wynne has said the dealership has no immediate plans to close, but he lamented the same headaches Malinoff’s former general manager, Joe Lopez, described – tighter consumer credit and limited up-front rebate offers from the dealer’s lender equaling fewer financing options for fewer customers.
“It’s like they don’t care about us,” Wynne said, adding that the dealership needs financing to loosen up within the next six months to avoid cuts.
Officials with GMAC – Malinoff’s former lender and the financing arm of General Motors – dismissed the blame and instead pointed to the larger economy while calling for more personal responsibility among dealers.
For Bolea, though, money doesn’t seem to be a problem.
“We don’t have any problems with our banks and our credit rating is awesome,” he said, adding that he has already paid nearly $40,000 in city fees and invested more than $1 million in designs and other plans.
That’s a long shot from the salesman Bolea started off as in Illinois.
“My daddy didn’t buy me no dealership,” Bolea said.
And Bolea said he will give the same opportunities he had to the 50 or so people he planned to hire at the new dealership, which will have 32 instead of 12 car hoists and a homey cobblestone driveway to welcome customers to the 70,000-square-foot store that city documents indicate will be built by San Jose Construction, though Bolea could not be reached to verify if he still planned to employ the company to the north, where most of his customers come from, he said.
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