OFFICIAL RE-OPENING OF HALF-WAY MOTORS NISSAN
by Scott A. Sumner
The Half-Way Motors group celebrated the re-opening of their dealership. The multi-million dollar renovation project took nearly a year to complete with an expanded showroom, additional service bays, a new drive thru service area, along with other customer conveniences.
Dealer Principal, Patrick Trevisanutto says the renovation and expansion was necessary to keep up with the strong support for their dealership. "Thunder Bay has been very supportive to our family as we continue to be a Canadian leader in market share for Nissan Canada and this renovation will allow us to better serve our customers", said Patrick. As the business enters it's 3rd generation of family ownership, Patrick acknowledges the contribution of his recently retired father John Trevisanutto in helping the business evolve into what it is today. "He worked for over 40 years to develop the dealership's reputation and his dedicated support for local charities, including Our Kids Count continues to this day. He built on the foundation that my grandfather had started when he opened a Studebaker franchise on Hodder Avenue in Current River back in 1963. In 1968, Half-Way Motors added the Datsun line, which later became Nissan at the current location at 940 Memorial Avenue".
I asked Andrew Harkness, Director of Dealer Network Development and Electrification and Corporate Strategy with Nissan Canada based in Toronto some questions about Half-Way Motors Nissan at the celebration.
“ We manage 209 Nissan dealerships and 38 Infinite dealerships across the network. Half- Way Motors is one of the oldest Nissan dealers in Canada.”
“ The first design of our Nissan Retail design at Half-Way Motors was in 2017/18 and state of the art for that time. Shortly after that we launched our Nissan Retail Design second generation and Half-Way Motors were eager to adopt the new design and it is one of the best executions we've seen. The state of the art design is customer centric trying to bring transparency and openness to the customers both in service and sales. The location of our customer service lounge is in the new vehicle display area where they can experience the Nissan product and brand while they wait for service with lots of glass.
” The Nissan market share is just shy of 6% in Canada- Ontario just in the mid 5%, but here at Half- Way Motors they are at 10% market share. They are a high performer in market share and represent us very, very well. We have about 60% of our dealer network converted to this new design and we have found the first to benefit from it is the employees, with a clean modern environment with new technology. That translates over to customers who come in with full transparency and brand experience. Happy customers continue to buy Nissans.”
“ The Canada marketplace is filled with volatility right now with the electric vehicle rebate off and on, which has caused a lot of volatility in the electric market. The tariffs really alters manufacturing plans for us and every manufacturors. Nissan has weathered that storm fairly well as we are not US based with 70% of our vehicles Mexico and Japan built.We have been faring well with our market share and dealerships growing. We have been quite happy.”
