Driving Toward Success

When Bruce Bendell initially bought Major Chevrolet of Long Island City in 1985 with his brother Harold, he was shocked at what he saw. In the used car lot, there were just two salesman. With a background in buying and selling used cars, Bendell felt there was a huge market. So he immediately changed the way the business, earning just $10 million total in sales at the time, was run.
&#8220We basically motivated the employees, got them to take care of the consumers from day one,” he said. &#8220We changed our union contact. Basically, we made it a better working environment for our workers. Customers were treated the way they should've been. Word of mouth got out that they were getting a good deal now.
&#8220We turned around the reputation of the dealership. We took the dealership public. We very active. We advertised aggressively, set up compensation programs for all our employees, that we were much better than what they had before.”
The Bendell's eventually turned the company, now called Major Automotive Companies Inc., into a $180 million, 190-employee, six-franchise, and 12 store organization across five different towns.
In conjunction with Major Automotive Companies Inc., Bendell opened Major Dodge in 1991. The car company is now the largest Dodge dealership in New York City. In 1992, he added Jeep/Eagle and Chrysler/Plymouth. He would add a Subaru dealership in 1995.
Of the new and used automobiles Major Automotive Companies Inc. sells are Chrysler, Dodge, Nissan, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Mitsubishi.
But his proudest accomplishment in the auto world is Major Chevrolet of Long Island City, particularly their used car sales. It is the largest new car dealership in the country selling the most amount of used cars in a single point. Bendell explained the reasons are a huge selection, a strong rapport with customers, and although their cent of operations is in just Long Island City, customers can go into any of their dealerships and gain access electronically to the entire used car inventory.
&#8220That gives us a very big advantage,” Bendell said.
In the early 90's, Bendell began branching out electronically, first in the Bloomberg Terminals then on the Internet. Now, Bendell's company sells upwards of 200 cars a month electronically, and has over 2,000 on sale.
Bendell, born and raised in Brooklyn, graduated from Canarsie High School and earned his B.A. in accounting and economics from Queens College.
The community being such a large part of his success, Bendell felt he should give some back. He's done more than his fair share, spending more than half his time helping out the community. He's the director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, director of the Long Island City Business Development Corp., director of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce on the business front. In addition, Bendell is a member of the Queens District Attorney Business Advisory Council and on the board of the Unisphere Foundation, which runs and administers youth programs in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Bendell is also Chairman of Long Island City's YMCA Capital Campaign Committee to build a new $5.5 million YMCA and is Chairman of the Long Island City YMCA's Board of Managers.
&#8220After graduating from Queens and being successful in business in Queens, I went to different organization to try and help and give back to the community,” he said.
Because of these efforts, Bendell was honored in 1997 as Queens Business Man of the Year for mid-sized businesses. In 1994 and he was honored by the Sunnyside Community Services for his work. He was also given the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for community service.
Bendell is also heavily involved in the automotive world. He's a founding member and past president of the National Association of Fleet Resale Dealers, president of New york City Chevrolet/Geo Dealers Advertising Association, and a board member of the Chrysler/Plymouth dealer advertising group of New York, new Jersey and Connecticut.