Bay Ridge Toyota has grand reopening

It’s new and improved.

With a new general manager and a grand reopening, Bay Ridge Toyota, 6401 Sixth Avenue, is geared to continue to give customers top notch-service and care.

Vincent Tepedino, who has been the general manager for three months, is a lifelong Brooklynite and is thrilled to be a part of his local dealership.

“I started at Bay Ridge Toyota over 30 years ago in the service department,” said Tepedino, who attended St. Anselm’s School and Fort Hamilton High School. “I started delivering parts when I got out of the Air Force and worked my way through the various departments at different dealerships that the company owns and now wound up back home. I grew up and live in Bay Ridge.”

Construction just finished on the dealership to offer customers from all over the city a better shopping experience. “This is a grand reopening as we just did the whole showroom,” Tepedino said. “It was completely gutted and redone. We opened everything up, made it a much cleaner space. We’ve been here well over 30 years in this building and it’s gone through a couple of updates and this is our latest one. It just finished. We moved in about a week ago.”

Included in the improved space are wider open areas that can fit more cars and accommodate the customers. “It now allows us to easily show customers why Toyota is such a great car,” he said.  “Our goal was to make the showroom more customer-friendly.”

Customer service remains pivotal for Bay Ridge Toyota. “We try to take the hassle out of buying a car and make it as accommodating as possible,” Tepedino said, adding that convenience and experience separates us from other dealerships. “Our location is great. We have valet parking and try to make it as easy as possible to get here. We do internet and phone transactions to keep things flowing because, with people’s busy schedules, they don’t have a lot of time to spend in a dealership and we try to accommodate people however we can.”

That includes catering to the neighborhood’s diverse population. “As diverse as Bay Ridge is, that’s how diverse this dealership is,” Tepedino said. “I think the dealership is a great representation of Bay Ridge. We’ve made sure to accommodate all customers and have a wonderful team assembled to make sure every customer feels comfortable, regardless of language and culture.  At Bay Ridge Toyota, we speak your language.”

Becoming the GM means the Bay Ridge native has come full circle. “It’s great. It’s a family-owned business and you’re part of the family and their organization, which also goes right into how we treat our customers, which is like family,” he said.

For more information, visit www.bayridgetoyota.com.