Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
When Matthew Hohl looks at the car business today, he sees challenges, but also a lot of opportunity for those looking for a new or used car.
"The manufacturers have more incentives than I've ever seen," said Hohl, general manager of Michael Hohl Honda Subaru on North Carson Street. "Honda is one of those manufacturers that has never really played the incentive game, and now we've got special financing on Civics and special lease programs."
Hohl grew up in the car business, playing around the showroom, hiding in cars, helping out when he could. His father, Michael Sr., started in the car business in Las Vegas. He moved to Carson City in the mid-1980s when he bought the GMC and Oldsmobile dealership on South Carson Street. He bought the Honda/Subaru dealership a couple of years later.
As a freshman at University of Nevada, Reno, Hohl Jr. saw an article in a GM magazine about a school called Northwood University, which is the only school in the country that offers a degree in automotive marketing. So he packed up and moved to its Michigan campus after his sophomore year.
"It was a great education, but Michigan was cold," he said.
Now Hohl finds himself running a dealership under the cloud of an economic recession, but sees a silver lining as well. Along with incentives from the manufacturers, Hohl said they have very attractive financing available, and that the cars are a better quality than any before.
"With a regular Honda Civic, not even a hybrid, you get 38 miles per gallon on the highway," Hohl said. "And the safety has made tremendous leaps forward with airbags and supplemental restraint systems. Little cars are way safe now."
Hohl also cites that cars today are built so well that they last a lot longer, which can sometimes be a hindrance to selling new cars.
"We'll get customers who come in with 200,000 miles, and all they need is an oil change and tire rotation," he said. "It used to be 100,000 miles, and the cars were done, broken down. Now, with a Honda or Subaru, 100,000 miles is just scratching the surface. They build them to last, and the quality has come up so far. With the interior fit and finish, cars just don't rattle anymore."
Honda will also soon be introducing a new hybrid model, the Insight, which Hohl said will get great gas mileage and sell for less than $20,000.
Stories that financing was difficult or impossible to get are not true today, according to Hohl.
"The financing is tighter than it used to be, that's for sure," he said. "But within that, the rates are really low, and if you are a qualified buyer, you can get tremendous rates."
Hohl said he understands how people can be scared off by the bad economic news.
"There's so much insecurity, especially with the big job cuts and everything," he said. "If you are worried about your job, the last thing you want to do is buy a car."
But there are great deals that can be had, and according to Hohl, they are determined to ride out the storm.
"We are committed to Carson City, committed to the auto business," he said. "We are going to build two new stores, for Honda and Subaru, hopefully as soon as possible. We are working with the architects and the manufacturers on that, and getting the ground ready to move.
"That's a great sign that we aren't going away."
- Contact Kirk Caraway at kcaraway@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1261.