Twenty years is a long time in the car business. Dealerships open and close on Hillside Avenue every few years. Lots change hands, signs come down, and the names people trusted last decade are gone by the next one.
Sunrise Autoland is still here.
We opened our doors at 91-35 183 Street in Jamaica back in 2003, and we have been selling used cars from the same corner of Queens ever since. Same address. Same phone number. A lot of the same faces behind the desk. This is the story of how a small independent lot became one of the most recognized used car dealerships in Jamaica, NY, and why the way we do business has not really changed since day one.
Where It All Started
Sunrise Autoland began as Expo Motors Inc., a small operation with a modest lot and a simple idea: sell good used cars to working people in Queens without the games.
That first year was not glamorous. The inventory was a handful of vehicles. There was no website, no online inventory feed, no digital retailing platform. If you wanted to see what was in stock, you drove to 183rd Street and walked the lot. Deals were done across a desk with a calculator and a handshake.
What we did have was a location that made sense. Jamaica sits right where Queens meets Nassau County. Buyers coming from Hollis, Queens Village, and Springfield Gardens could get to us in ten minutes. So could people driving in from Elmont, Valley Stream, and Floral Park. That geography turned out to matter more than we realized at the time.
[CLIENT TO CONFIRM] Founder name, background, and the story of how the business started. A first-person quote from the owner here would strengthen this section significantly and is the kind of detail search engines and buyers both reward.
What Car Buying Looked Like in Queens in 2003
It is worth remembering how different the process used to be.
Twenty years ago, most buyers walked in with almost no information. There was no easy way to check a vehicle’s history before you arrived. Pricing was opaque. If you had thin credit or a rough patch on your report, the answer at most dealerships was a polite no, and that was the end of it.
We took a different view early on. Credit history tells you something about a person’s past. It does not tell you whether they show up to work every morning, whether they need a reliable car to keep that job, or whether they will make their payments. Plenty of people with damaged credit are entirely reliable borrowers. Somebody just needed to look at the whole picture.
So we built relationships with lenders who were willing to do exactly that.
Saying Yes When Other Dealers Said No
This became the thing Sunrise Autoland is known for.
Over two decades we have built working relationships with banks, credit unions, and specialty lenders across New York. Some of them handle prime credit. Several of them specialize in subprime. Because we work with a wide network instead of one or two lenders, we can shop a single application across multiple desks and find the one most likely to approve it.
That is the whole mechanism behind the phrase on our banners. When we say we tell you yes, it is not a slogan about optimism. It is a description of how our finance department actually works.
Customers have walked in after being declined somewhere else that same week and driven home the same day. Some had no credit file at all because they had recently arrived in the country. Some were rebuilding after a bankruptcy or a repossession. Some were 22 years old buying their first car with nothing on their report but a phone bill.
Today you can even start the process before you visit. Our pre-qualification tool with Capital One runs a soft credit inquiry, which means you can see what you qualify for without any effect on your score. That option did not exist when we started. We adopted it as soon as it did.
From a Handful of Cars to Twenty Brands
The inventory grew as the customer base grew, and it grew in a specific direction.
Queens is one of the most diverse places on earth, and the buyers who come through our door want wildly different things. A contractor in Hollis needs a Ram 1500. A family in Bellerose needs a third row. A nurse commuting to Long Island wants something fuel efficient with low miles. A buyer in Jamaica Estates is shopping Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
Rather than specialize, we stocked for all of them.
Our lot now carries twenty brands: Acura, Audi, BMW, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Jeep, Land Rover, Lexus, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Ram, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Sedans, SUVs, minivans, trucks, and pickups. We also keep a separate exotic and high-line selection for buyers shopping at the top of the market.
The range runs from used cars under $10,000 for buyers on a tight budget all the way up to late-model luxury SUVs. Very few independent dealers in Queens carry that spread. Most pick a lane.
If you already know what you want but do not see it on the lot, our vehicle finder service lets you tell us the make, model, and budget, and we will source it.
Earning the Badges
Trust in this industry is not given. It accumulates slowly, and it can disappear in a week.
Along the way we picked up credentials that customers can verify independently, which matters more than anything we say about ourselves:
| Credential | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| CARFAX Advantage Dealer | Vehicle history reports are available on our inventory, so accident and title history is on the table before you commit |
| CarGurus Top Rated Dealer | An award based on verified customer review scores, not on advertising spend |
| BBB Accredited Business | Expo Motors Inc. maintains an active Better Business Bureau profile and rating |
| NIADA Certified Dealer | We run a certified pre-owned program built on national inspection standards |
Our NIADA certified pre-owned program is the one we are most proud of. Eligible vehicles go through a structured inspection against published NIADA guidelines and come with certified protection coverage. For buyers who want more, we offer extended service contracts and warranties on top of that.
The point of all of it is the same. You should be able to check our work.
The Customers Who Kept Coming Back
The best measure of twenty years is not the number of cars sold. It is how many people came back.
We have sold second and third vehicles to the same households. Parents who financed a car here in 2008 have sent their kids in to buy their first one. People who moved out to Nassau or across the bridge to New Jersey still drive back to Jamaica when it is time to trade up. That is not normal in this business, and we do not take it for granted.
You can read what customers have written about their experience on our reviews and testimonials page. We publish them as they come, good months and slow ones.
[CLIENT TO CONFIRM] One or two real, permission-cleared customer stories with first name and neighborhood would be the strongest addition to this post. Specific beats general every time.
Serving Queens, Long Island, and Beyond
We are physically in Jamaica, but our customer map stretched well past Queens years ago.
On a typical week we sell to buyers from Queens Village, Hollis, Springfield Gardens, Rockaway, and the rest of the borough, plus Elmont, Valley Stream, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Franklin Square, Lynbrook, Hempstead, Great Neck, Garden City, Oceanside, and Mineola on the Nassau side. We also handle a steady stream of New Jersey buyers, and we manage the out-of-state paperwork so registration is not a headache on your end.
Getting here is straightforward from the Grand Central, the Van Wyck, or the Belt. If you want turn-by-turn from wherever you are, use our driving directions page.
What Has Not Changed
Plenty has changed since 2003. The website, the online inventory, the digital credit applications, the soft-pull pre-qualification, the certified program. All of that is new.
Three things have not moved.
We still look at the person, not just the score. That was the founding idea and it is still the reason most people find us.
We still price to sell. Our price-reduced inventory gets updated regularly because sitting on a car helps nobody.
We still answer the phone. Call (718) 526-2000 during business hours and you get a person at the dealership, not a call center in another state.
What Comes Next
Twenty years in, we are still adding to the lot, still expanding the lender network, and still bringing in newer inventory including hybrids and EVs as more Queens drivers make that switch. We have a Tesla Model 3 and a Jeep Wrangler 4xe on the lot as of this writing, which would have sounded like science fiction in 2003.
If you are thinking about trading in what you drive now, our trade-in valuation tool will give you a number before you come in. If you would rather just talk it through, contact us or stop by. We are open seven days a week.
And if you want to be part of the next twenty years, we do post open positions from time to time.
Visit Sunrise Autoland
Address: 91-35 183 Street, Jamaica, NY 11423 Phone: (718) 526-2000 Fax: (718) 526-2733 Hours: Monday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 7:30 PM. Sunday, 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM.
Come see the current inventory or meet the team in person.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has Sunrise Autoland been in business?
Sunrise Autoland has been selling used cars in Jamaica, Queens since 2003, which is more than twenty years at the same location on 183 Street. The business operates as Expo Motors Inc. DBA Sunrise Autoland.
Where is Sunrise Autoland located?
We are at 91-35 183 Street, Jamaica, NY 11423, in southeast Queens near the Nassau County line. We serve buyers across Queens, Long Island, and New Jersey.
Can I get approved at Sunrise Autoland with bad credit?
Yes, in most cases. We work with a wide network of prime and subprime lenders across New York, which lets us find approvals for buyers with poor credit, limited credit, or no credit history at all. You can start with a soft-pull pre-qualification that does not affect your credit score.
What brands does Sunrise Autoland carry?
We stock twenty brands including Acura, Audi, BMW, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Jeep, Land Rover, Lexus, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Ram, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, and Volkswagen, in price ranges from under $10,000 to premium late-model vehicles.
Is Sunrise Autoland a certified dealer?
Yes. Sunrise Autoland is a NIADA Certified Dealer, a CARFAX Advantage Dealer, a CarGurus Top Rated Dealer, and a BBB accredited business through Expo Motors Inc.
Does Sunrise Autoland sell to buyers outside New York?
Yes. We regularly sell to New Jersey and Long Island buyers and handle the out-of-state title and registration paperwork as part of the purchase.
