Lou Giordano calls the automobile industry a “very passionate business and a very essential business.”
Still, discretion replaced desire when the economic bubble burst circa 2008 and the owner of Croton Auto Park in Croton-on-Hudson, like many domestic dealers, saw about a 40 percent decrease in sales.
When rewinding to conditions prior to the Chrysler bankruptcy and economic downturn, “I would say, now, we”™re still off 30 percent or so.”
As owner of the largest Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealership in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties, Giordano has adopted an additional role as chairman of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.
Giordano has gone to Washington, D.C., and to Albany this year to testify against additional financial oversight that the proposed consumer financial protection plan would implement.
“We talked to senators and Congress people and we explained to them that the automobile industry is not a bank and we”™re just a conduit from the bank to the consumer, and we in no manner, shape or form contributed to the crisis that happened in the fall of 2008,” he said. “So we felt we were kind of unfairly put in the category with the people that supposedly caused the financial meltdown, and made our case that really we had nothing to do with that and there is plenty of oversight on automobile dealers as far as lending and issuing loans are involved.”
Automobile dealers and community banks have been granted an exemption from the pending Consumer Financial Protection Act, which appeared to be moving toward passage at press time.
“In the opinion of many, it would have been as big of a disaster for the consumer as it would be for the dealer,” Giordano said. “And I feel very strongly about that. We provide a service and the essence of it is: I can get you a better rate more times than not than you can get on your own.”
First on Giordano”™s agenda as he represents more than 650 franchised car dealerships in the New York metropolitan area is to “strengthen our franchise laws.”
Though, geographically, the region is economically viable because of its close proximity to Manhattan and the healthy number of suburban residents who rely on automobiles to transport them, Giordano said “we have some of the toughest franchise laws in the country.”
“I don”™t want to say we”™re fighting, but we”™re always pushing hard for issues that benefit the automobile dealers,” he said.
In an industry hit hard by the Toyota recall incident, big name bankruptcies and gas crunch, Giordano said that “most of us have adjusted our business profile to the point where we”™re not worried about survival anymore, but we”™re trying to grow our business back to levels it was four or five years ago.”
In the early 1980s as an automobile wholesaler, Giordano would find outlets for vehicles that new car franchises did not want to sell themselves.
Through wholesale work, he forged relationships with many new car dealers and “in 1991, an opportunity arose from an existing new car dealer to buy his (Dodge) franchise.”
He later acquired a Chevy and Jeep franchise and ultimately traded Chevy for Chrysler to become what is now known as Croton Auto Park.
Franchise life on the five-acres he owns has been both rewarding and challenging for a man who once worked in an auto repair and parts capacity.
“People love cars, they want cars and I provide a service,” he said. “When business is good, you can make a nice living as an automobile dealer. Conversely, in bad times, it”™s not so good, but the other part of the reward is that I employ 35 people and after years, they become like family and children.”
