On Cash For Clunkers Anniversary Leading Auto Dealer Sees Proof of Stimulus:
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SEE ALSO: Acura Buyer's Guide
Paragon Honda-Acura Selling Cars and Hiring Employees After a Year of Innovative Stimulus Efforts
NEW YORK, July 21, 2010; On the first anniversary of the Cash For Clunkers program, Paragon Auto Group, one of the largest and most successful car retailers in America, announced the launch of its own auto stimulus plan. Paragon Honda-Acura's Cash For Clunkers II recently launched and will offer customers up to $3800 of trade-in value for a new or used car with improved gas mileage over the trade-in vehicle.
In recent months, Paragon has emerged as a central hub for the automotive stimulus effort, creating rebate programs that extended benefits to customers who didn't qualify for last year's government auto stimulus program (officially called the Car Allowance Rebate Program), and also by keeping the benefits going when federal dollars for Cash For Clunkers dried up faster than expected.
Under General Manager Brian Benstock, an auto industry leader who was recently recognized by Auto Success Magazine as an Automotive Pioneer, Paragon worked this year with other Tri-State Area dealers to launch dealer-funded programs like the Auto Stimulus Plan, which offered up to $4500 in trade-in value to customers who purchased a car with fuel efficiency better than that of their trade-in.
Benstock and Paragon Honda-Acura also made waves in the auto retail sector with their Vehicle Exchange Program, which encouraged customers to trade in old cars for a Honda or Acura, and shocked industry analysts with an initiative launched in April of this year, the "Triple Zero" plan, which let customers drive Acura and Honda models off the lot with no money down, no security deposit, and no first month's payment.
A noticeable economic uptick correlated with the government's original Cash For Clunkers program, as GDP rose by one point in the fourth quarter of last year. For Brian Benstock and the Paragon group, who watched as customers flocked to their showrooms to take advantage of the savings, industry-specific stimulus programs like Cash For Clunkers are an economic no-brainer.
"Paragon is intensely focused on serving our customers one thing," Brian Benstock said. "We've seen that stimulus-style programs are working. They're getting people in efficient new cars; they're creating new jobs, and they're boosting the economy all at the same time."
Paragon Honda-Acura is responsible for some of the highest Acura and Honda sales worldwide. As one of the biggest car retailers in the U.S., the auto group employs hundreds of people, in addition to the thousands of employees working for companies in the dealership's supply chain.
Paragon's success is still evident not just on the year anniversary of Cash For Clunkers, as the CARS program came to be known, but also in the midst of wide public debate about the efficacy of federal stimulus.
Across most American industries, businesses and customers alike are wondering if stimulus is the way to go, and, just as importantly, how it should be done. With Paragon Honda-Acura still selling cars and making new employee hires, the country has at least one prominent example of successful stimulus to follow.
