112 Auto Blogs

112 Auto is a family-owned and run business. Along with me, there is my wife, my son, and my sister-in-law who all work here. We have other employees on staff too—a total of twelve of us--but it's a family run business.

Our employees make sure that the vehicles in our inventory are in good running condition and stay that way before our customers takes them home.

When a customer focuses on a vehicle, it'll go to our shop where we'll go over it and get it ready for delivery.

So the customer knows when they pick the car up, it has been inspected. It's got a new official New York state inspection sticker on it, which means that it had to meet a bunch of different criteria. Tires have to be within a certain spec rates, emissions have to be good--there's a whole checklist that we have to go through to make sure that the car's right before it leaves, so it's positively roadworthy.

Our vehicles tend to last four plus years. We also offer extended service warranties. As with any vehicle, there are variables that you can't see. Cars are made up of hundreds of parts.

Our extended service warranty covers the engine, the transmission, axles, air conditioning, water pump, radiator, thermostat. There is a $200 deductible. Also, if the vehicle got stuck a hundred miles from my dealership, it comes back to my shop. We can control fraud better that way and it's taken care of.

We also offer financing for repairs after the warranty expires.

Salespeople go above and beyond

Our sales team will fit people with vehicles in our inventory and tailor their budgets and needs.

We’ll match the customer with payment terms and conditions that they can afford for the right vehicle. We won't let the customer get in over their heads because all that is, is a repossession waiting to happen. And we're not in that business. We want people driving and happy. They’ve got to get to work, they got to take care of their families, and we've got to make sure that we help them do that.

But every day we have to have that conversation with somebody who's got champagne taste on a beer budget. The customer will come in. He'll make 500 bucks a week. He’ll have $1,000 down and want a $15,000 car. And our average term loan is 36 months. So even if I stretch it to 38 or 40 months, the payments just too much for them to handle.

I will not allow a customer to get in over their head like that. We use certain ratios and figuring out a customer's payment--the debt to income. And then we'll figure out their payment to income.

They're mostly pretty agreeable when we sit down and explain it like that. We show them in black and white. Then they got to figure out the cost of insurance too. So yes. We'll show 'em, in black and white, and they typically they get it.