A Brief History

For fifty-seven years, the Basil family has made the car business a family affair, constructing dealerships all over Western New York from the ground up. Joseph Basil started it all when he bought his own dealership in 1965.

After working his way from a salesman at Cottrel Ford and D&E Lincoln/Mercury to a Manager at Dietrich Oldsmobile, Joe Basil Sr. bought his first dealership. The dealership was Holiday Oldsmobile in Depew, not yet labeled with the now well-known Basil name.

In 1974, Joe Basil Sr. bought out Paul Wilson Chevrolet in North Tonawanda and re-named it Joe Basil Chevrolet, the first Basil Dealership to appear in the Western New York region. Basil Chevrolet remained in North Tonawanda for eight years until Joe purchased Bob Bain Chevrolet in 1982 and relocated his dealership.

Joe Basil Sr., still actively involved in the Basil auto group, has seven children (6 sons and 1 daughter), all in the automotive business, representing the family name. Of the seven children is our very own Mike Basil, the third oldest and the owner of Basil Toyota on South Transit Road in Lockport, NY.

In 1989, Mike bought his oldest brother’s, Joe Basil Jr., Oldsmobile dealership in Tonawanda. Mike later sold this property to Chuck, the second oldest Basil brother to buy Jack Adkins in Hamburg. In the year 2000, General Motors reorganized and bought the dealership out, leading Mike to purchase what is now Basil Toyota in late 2001.

On October 19, 2001, Mike Basil began his dealership, Mike Basil Toyota, with a mere nine employees and fifteen cars in his inventory. With hard work and dedication to his work and his customers, Mike has built Basil Toyota into a hugely successful Toyota and used car dealership. Basil Toyota now employs approximately 60 people and has 600 cars in inventory, with an average of 200 vehicles sold monthly.

Because of Mike Basil’s personal philosophy that the dealer needs to be available, open, and honest to the customers and Basil Toyota’s philosophy of being the easiest place to buy or lease a car without hassles and having warm, friendly, and honest relations with our customers, we have the highest customer satisfaction service department in Western New York. Basil Toyota also boasts consistent Sales and Service Excellence Awards among other prestigious awards.

Each year, Toyota Motor Sales recognizes its stellar dealerships with the prestigious President's Award. It's a very high honor a dealership can receive from Toyota, and is only awarded to those dealerships who have demonstrated a commitment to maintaining Toyota's high standards for customer satisfaction.

In order to qualify as a President's Award winner, dealerships must excel in each of a series of categories, including Customer Sales Satisfaction and Customer Service Satisfaction. Dealerships which meet the requirements in all categories receive name badge recognition at all dealer events, national recognition in an Automotive News advertisement and, of course, the beautiful President's Award Tiffany crystal trophy.

Basil Toyota is the only multiple President’s Award Winner in Buffalo, NY.

Looking toward the future that is already underway, Basil Toyota is moving into a 27 acre, 37k square foot state of the art facility from our current 3.3 acre, 16k square foot facility. The new dealership will be located next door to the current one (previously Gambino Ford) and is scheduled to be complete in summer 2011.