Car Dealer Says Honda and Rival Locked Him Out

Steve Shuken says he has been trying to sell Hondas in Ventura for the past seven years.

But for seven years, Shuken says, his move from Santa Paula, where he has been operating a Honda dealership since 1989, has been illegally blocked.

In a 93-page federal civil suit, Shuken has alleged that the owners of Honda of Oxnard, the New York-based Dah Chong Hong Trading Corp., bribed several executives of American Honda Motor Co. Inc. to keep him out of Ventura.

The suit has been consolidated with more than 50 others that were filed in the aftermath of a $15-million bribery scandal that has rocked American Honda in the last few years and resulted in the convictions of 18 former company executives.

Dah Chong Hong officials testified during a related federal trial that they made gifts to American Honda executives, according to Shuken’s lawsuit.

But attorneys for Dah Chong Hong vehemently denied this week that any of the gifts were bribes or that they were granted any special favors in exchange for the gifts.

“It is well known that Honda dealers all over the country gave some gifts to Honda officials,” said Edward Brodsky, an attorney for Dah Chong Hong. “That was a practice that is well known. But there was never any bribe. We got no special treatment from anyone under any circumstances. Those statements are categorically false.”

Ruling on a related complaint by Shuken, the state New Motor Vehicle Board decided Tuesday not to order the Department of Motor Vehicles to investigate the practices of Dah Chong Hong, at least until the federal suit, which is in the discovery stages, is resolved.

An investigation had been sought by Shuken’s attorneys, who have now gone directly to DMV attorneys with their request to investigate Dah Chong Hong and Honda of Oxnard.

In the American Honda corruption scandal, a federal investigation revealed that Honda dealers across the country routinely bribed American Honda officials in return for lucrative Honda franchises and extra allowances of hard-to-get, hot-selling Honda and Acura models.

In his federal lawsuit, Shuken, who owns several dealerships, including the 24-year-old Vista Ford in Woodland Hills, alleges that that is precisely what Dah Chong Hong officials did to keep him out of the Ventura market, where most of his customers come from.

Shuken’s lawsuit states that when he bought the Santa Paula dealership in 1989, he was promised he would be allowed to move to Ventura within a few months. But American Honda executives denied his move after accepting bribes from Dah Chong Hong, the suit alleges.

Alleging that the defendants conspired to keep him out of Ventura, thereby hurting his business, Shuken is seeking damages in excess of $3 million.

In 1996, after the Honda scandal was made public, American Honda finally agreed to allow Shuken to move his dealership, Vista Honda 126 East, to the Ventura Auto Mall, Shuken said in an interview this week.

But Dah Chong Hong blocked Shuken’s move to Ventura with an appeal to the New Motor Vehicle Board, according to Shuken’s lawyer, Mark Field.

That was possible because the Oxnard dealership had the right to invoke a franchise rule that prevents dealers from being within 10 miles of each other, said Dah Chong Hong’s attorney, Brodsky.

“Mr. Shuken wants to come within three miles of us,” Brodsky said. “There is a rule that says you can’t come within 10 miles of another dealer unless the economic circumstances justify that. We believe that the economic circumstances do not justify it.”

Looking back on the seven-year saga, Shuken said that if he had known about what later became the Honda scandal, he would have never bought the Santa Paula dealership.

“A Honda [official] had promised me I could move the dealership,” Shuken said. “What I didn’t know is that this official was going to go to prison. Little did I know that the district manager of Honda was also going to go to prison. . . . If I had known those facts, I would never have gotten involved in the first place.”