Bruce Bennett Nissan & Infiniti has opened Connecticut’s largest indoor auto dealership facility in Danbury, as dealers statewide appear to be accelerating into 2023 on continuing strong sales, despite interest rate hikes that are making car loans far more expensive.
The sprawling new Bruce Bennett Nissan & Infiniti showroom and service building totals just over 80,000 square feet of space just off Interstate 84 and Route 7, in a retail plaza at 13 Sugar Hollow Road that once housed Bed, Bath & Beyond and The Sports Authority. The showroom has capacity for about 70 vehicles, not including another big bay for service.
It is the second new dealership facility to open this year on the Route 7 corridor, along with Garavel Subaru’s new showroom in Norwalk. Another is in the works just down Sugar Hollow Road, where site preparation is under way for a new Mercedes-Benz of Danbury showroom.
“This was the rarest property in the area — it’s almost eight acres,” said Andy Perna, fixed-operations manager for Bruce Bennett Nissan & Infiniti with oversight of the new Danbury showroom and several others in Connecticut and New York. “In the short time we’ve been open, we have been able to sell quite a few cars.”
Connecticut auto sales hit $12.3 billion last year, according to estimates by the National Automobile Dealers Association, based on its surveys and data from the Center for Automotive Research and IHS Markit. That represented a 22 percent lift from Connecticut auto sales in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting both demand and rising prices.
New car sales in Connecticut appeared to maintain that pace in the first six months of this year. But the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported auto loan and lease originations beginning to moderate after July, though still easily ahead of new loans in 2019.
As of June, Connecticut had about 250 new-car dealer ownership groups, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association, not including those that sell used cars exclusively. Combined, new-car dealers employ more than 12,400 people in Connecticut on payrolls totaling just over $1 billion.
The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles lists nearly 700 new-car dealers for varying brands — some of them owned by the same parent company as the case with the Bruce Bennett entities — and roughly four times as many used-car lots.
At Bruce Bennett Nissan & Infiniti Danbury, the building design allows customers to drive their vehicles inside for drop off, hop in a loaner car and be on their way without any exposure to the elements. The department has 15 bays equipped with lifts, and construction is about to commence on an indoor car wash as part of the larger facility.
“Everything happens inside,” Perna said. “It’s a really good buying experience.”
During a Wednesday visit, Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito noted the run of dealerships on Sugar Hollow Road that include Audi of Danbury and Volkswagen of Danbury, and around the corner on Miry Brook Road North American Motor Cars’ showed off new vintage auto restoration and storage facility. And farther up Miry Brook Road, Connecticut’s lone commercial auto manufacturer Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is making race cars, though the company continues to list Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. as its primary office in regulatory filings with the state of Connecticut.
The Bruce Bennett Nissan name dates back to 1988 on the Danbury Road in Wilton, with the dealership sold in 2020 to New Jersey-based PSD Automotive Group. Bennett bought the business from Bob Sharp, who is credited with developing actor Paul Newman’s interest in racing. PSD Automotive plans to keep the Wilton showroom where it is adding a new lot.
Under CEO Patrick Dibre, PSD Automotive has continued to expand in Connecticut otherwise, including the purchase last January of David McDermott Lexus and Dave McDermott Chevrolet along Interstate 95 in East Haven.
“We are getting customers out of New York — that is why coming to Danbury was a big deal for us,” said Brian Soboh, a managing partner with PSD Automotive, speaking of the company’s newest showroom. “Once we get going, I think it’s going to be really good.”
Alex.Soule@scni.com; @casoulman