Bruce Hamlin started out as a salesman at Guaranty Chevrolet in Santa Ana. Today, he runs the place.
The dealership sells new and used vehicles running from the Chevy Malibu sedan to the Suburban sport utility vehicle.
Hamlin worked at Southwest Kenworth, a dealership servicing big-rig trucks, mostly in the Phoenix and southern Arizona area, before accepting a job offer to sell cars at Guaranty Chevrolet.
He worked his way up and eventually bought the business from his father-in-law in 1999.
Hamlin’s latest duties have him representing his peers as the recently appointed president of the Newport Beach-based Orange County Automobile Dealers Association.
He recently spoke with the Business Journal’s Kari Hamanaka about the Orange County marketplace, the industry and his plans as head of the association.
What goals have you set for yourself as OCADA president?
Our members want us to make sure we stay on top of the political issues that affect our industry. My responsibility is making sure we have contacts with not only our local city councils and mayors but also our state representatives.
Our job is to make sure the dealerships stay compliant with state law and any new regulations coming out.
The ship has set sail, and it’s just my job to make sure we’re there for the needs of the group.
How is business shaping up this year?
Well, the month of January started out kind of tough, but 2011 ended well for a lot of dealers. Our store was up 26% in new vehicle sales last year, and I was up about 48% in 2010. Some of that is store closings.
[There used to be] about 13 Chevrolet stores in Orange County. Now, we’re down to about six. When you eliminate some stores, people have to shop around a little bit, so every dealership is going to benefit by having a store close.
We’re optimistic about what 2012 is going to bring. The economy is getting stronger. Unemployment is slowly going down. We see a lot of upside to 2012.
What’s the financing environment like right now?
Financing is much better than it was. It’s not what it was before the downturn. Before the downturn, these finance companies were going crazy, so the financing has eased up. [Detroit-based] Ally, which is a major finance source for us, is buying very deep. We’ve got Wells Fargo. There’s a lot of companies and banks getting back into the automotive business.
What challenges do dealers face this year?
I think the only challenge is if interest rates rise. The consumer is so conditioned to having low interest rates that if inflation starts to kick up a little bit, it’s going to have an effect on dealer floor plans [bank loans used to buy cars].
Dealers [typically] will have anywhere from $5 million to $15 million worth of inventory. If the interest rate is 4%, for example, and jumps to 5%, that is a significant amount more money to pay every month.
Hybrids and all-electric vehicles continue to be the talk among manufacturers. What are you hearing from car buyers?
Chevy came out with the Volt [electric car] in 2010, and there was a lot of talk, a lot of publicity. We had a lot of buyers waiting for the product, but there’s not enough buyers to pay $40,000-some-odd dollars on an electric vehicle.
We can always legislate to tell the manufacturers what they have to make, but we can’t tell the buyers what to buy. That is something that is really going to have to be driven by the consumer (see related story, Fisker’s Future, page 1).
Many automakers are looking to brand themselves as cool and hip. Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc. is a good example. Is there greater pressure across the industry right now to market to that segment, and do dealers feel manufacturers are doing enough on that front?
There’s no question that Generation Y, the college age, is a very popular group that a lot of manufacturers are starting to target. If you can capture that buyer at 25 with your product and they’re happy with your product, well they’re going to continue to buy that product. Chevrolet is trying to capture that market. Everybody is trying to capture that market (see related story, Super Bowl Ads, page 3).
What other trends might we expect to see play out this year?
You’re going to start seeing more and more technology. Ford has come out with a lot of new technology, voice commands. Chevrolet is coming out with some products where you can get some WiFi service in your car. The technology that we’re seeing at home is going to be translated in the car. Whether that happens this year or next I don’t know, but it’s going to happen.
