Nicholson sees increase in quality, sales for 2010

  • By Jennifer Kneuss
  • March 4, 2010
  • 590
                        
Barry Nicholson is deeply proud of being the third generation of the Nicholson family to provide quality vehicles to its customers at Chuck Nicholson Auto Superstore. The dealership offers Chevy and Buick cars and Chevy and GMC trucks to the area. “We sold to 53 counties and 12 different states last year. We have customers that come down from Cleveland just for oil changes,” said Nicholson. “We have a lot of customer loyalty. That is one of the things that has sustained us over this economic auto crisis.” The Millersburg and Dover stores each carry about 300 vehicles. Seventy percent of sales are trucks and SUVs. “There are options on a truck that make or break the job the truck is doing. You’ve got to know what you’re doing. Our guys are extremely knowledgeable about trucks. I would put my guys up against any other truck dealer, anywhere,” stated Nicholson. “I actually like to call our employees educators. We’re not selling anything. What happens is, customers are in the market to buy a car every two to six years, depending on the customer. So they don’t do this very often. What we do is we give our customers the information they are looking for. Our customers walk through the door, they can make the decision by themselves. I give them the information, they say yes or no. It’s very simple. We educate the customer,” he stated. Nicholson sees tremendous opportunities for the year ahead. “We have made a complete 180 in the domestic car field. Imports and domestics have been pretty much toe to toe for the past several years. What we’re seeing now is the opposite. The domestics are starting to outrank the imports.” Nicholson credits GM bringing car genius Bob Lutz on board in the early 2000s as playing an instrumental part in the turnaround. “The vehicles that we have on the grounds right now, that started with the Bob Lutz era,” explained Nicholson. “The reintroduced 2011 Buick Regal is going to be a phenomenal vehicle. It’s a four-cylinder, with a turbo charger, so it is actually going to have more horsepower than a V-6, but you’re going to get four-cylinder fuel economy. The Buick is one of those brands that even the media that hates domestics, they love Buick. They compare the quality of Buick to the Lexus. It’s been that way for a long time. It’s just huge, absolutely phenomenal. “The Chevy Equinox is a new model; one of the nicest SUVs I’ve ever driven. The quality and engineering is incredible. Same thing with the Buick LaCrosse. Every single customer that owns them that has bought them in the last three months has lavishly praised them. The GMC Acadia is another one of those flagship vehicles for us. They sell themselves,” said Nicholson. “The forecast for this year, from all economists, is that there will be somewhere between 12 and 12.5 million new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2010, an increase of 2 to 2.5 million over 2009. So we’re looking for a better year of sales.” Nicholson credits the company’s excellent reputation to its customers. “Our loyalty customer base is what helps sustain us when it’s very rough. We’ve got a lot of other good things to look forward to. There’s no place to go but up. The quality of the new models coming out…every new model we have right now, it’s like the vehicles have waiting lists. We can’t get enough of them. It is wonderful.”


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