Kia dealer: No sales meltdown here

May 28th, 2009, 11:22 am · Post a Comment · posted by Matt Degen

The U.S. auto industry may be facing its worst sales slump in three decades, but don’t tell that to the folks at Kia Depot.

That’s because while other dealers in Orange County and across the nation are struggling just to make ends meet, the Santa Ana Kia dealership has seen its sales rise more than 400 percent this year through April, compared with the same period last year. And those figures include February, when overall Orange County vehicle sales fell to a record low of 5,446 total new cars sold, which amounted to a 46 percent drop year over year.

So what’s going on at Kia Depot? Several factors have led to the sales spike, says K.C. Heidler, executive vice president of the dealership, which also sells Suzukis as Suzuki Depot and commercial trucks as Tom’s Truck Center. Those factors include buyers looking for a value brand while shying away from other automakers, such as struggling Chrysler and General Motors.

What’s also changed, Heidler said, are the customers themselves looking at the Korean brand, whose new, sparkling U.S. headquarters are based just a few miles up the 5 freeway in Irvine.

“Orange County people weren’t real interested in driving a Kia or Suzuki except for the past two months,” Heidler said. “It really started to spike in March. We started seeing more traffic and people coming in saying, ‘I was looking at a Toyota or Honda and they look expensive.’

“To get someone that lived in Irvine or Mission Viejo a year ago, Kia was not on their shopping list. Now with the economy and even people with (larger) incomes are looking for value.”

Heidler adds that the customers are showing a rarer characteristic these days: really good credit. “These are educated buyers with good incomes and credit scores of 650-plus.”

Heidler says his dealership is selling 100-plus vehicles a month now, and is on target to hit 125 in May. Last year at this time, the dealership might have sold just 20 or 30 of the cars.

Heidler and his dealership

The Kia business has also been good for the dealer because it has helped offset the slow-down in the Heidler’s commercial truck dealership.

Heidler is confident that customers will continue to snatch up Kias, especially as the automaker comes out with more exciting vehicles, such as the hot-selling Soul and the upcoming Forte Coupe and sedan, all of which were designed in Irvine.

With that added business in mind, Heidler plans to stop selling trucks at its Santa Ana location right off the 5 freeway and make it a car dealership only by 2010 that sells Kias and Suzukis, but with a focus on the former. Truck sales, meanwhile, would continue at a nearby Santa Ana location, with an additional dealership in the Inland Empire.

And while he admits that his dealership isn’t all that “fancy,” that’s not necessarily the point in today’s market.

“I think it doesn’t matter how good the facility looks,” Heidler says. “We try to keep this place as clean as possible, but I think the customer is sick of the usual dealership look, with flags out front and whatnot. They just want to come in and buy a car.”