Xp Bonaire Feature Story
Autocity has been a well-known car dealer on the island for over 20 years. With its larger parent company situated on Curacao, Auto City is supported by its mother company in service, know-how and supplies. For some time, it has been a bit quiet around Autocity, but that changed a year ago in October, 2021, with the arrival of the new General Manager, Martijn Lindhout.
Martijn, born in the European Netherlands, came to live on Curacao in 1996. As an annual vacationer, he promised himself that one day he would move to the island. When the work situation in the Netherlands changed for Martijn, he knew it was time. Having family that lived on the island for many years, they decided to start their own family run hotel on Curacao.
In the hospitality industry, you meet people from all walks of life and Martijn was asked to join many different companies. While stepping out of the family business, he became part of various business ventures and made his first acquaintance with Bonaire while working for Pepsi Cola as the island’s representative. In those days Bonaire had about a third of the population it has today. On Curacao he started one of the famous restaurants, Tutu Tango. He was part of the Amstel Bright introduction and became part of Jolley Holding, the parent company of Autocity Bonaire.
During corona times, Martijn was asked to grow Autocity on Bonaire. At first, he was not so enthusiastic about this since most of his memories were from the time when Bonaire had only about 7,000 residents. When he came to see Bonaire in the summer of 2021, he was pleasantly surprised about the development and growth of the island and only a few months later, in October, he started his work on Bonaire.
Martijn had a team of 6. After introducing some changes, this year he hoped to find more team members to grow and double their numbers. With his priority,” customer delight is our priority”, always on his mind, Martijn has brought some positive changes to their service and Bonaire’s word of mouth has noticed.
What’s new?
Know how
Besides expanding the team, the team receives regular training to keep their know-how up to date.
Workshop
The workshop is expanding to double its size. 4 bridges and an expanded parts storage area will ensure maintenance and repair services of all their brands and other brands.
Hertz Office
Hertz is part of the company on Bonaire and its offices are housed in the same building as Autocity. A new office will be built on location.
Showroom
The showroom will also be expanded with a new façade and better lighting.
Car Collection
Always watching the world economy with its rising prices overall and the demand for autos, Martijn is bringing smaller, more affordable cars to the island.
Brands
Besides Suzuki, Honda, Chevrolet, Isuzu and the newest brand, Mitsubishi, Autocity will also bring a new brand commercial busses for the island’s tourism transportation and health care sectors. This brand will be revealed very soon.
Car services
When you are a customer, you can bring your car in for service or repair. They have a large stock of the common car parts for their car brands.
But even when you own a different car brand, you are welcome to bring your car and parts will be brought to the island the fastest way possible.
AUTOCITY BONAIRE INFO
Kaya Finlandia 9, Kralendijk, Bonaire
+599 717-7800
info@autocitybonaire.com
Facebook: AutoCity Bonaire
