Columbus, OH – Bernie Moreno has been caught lying to Ohioans – again. New reporting found that despite Moreno’s repeated claims that he “refused to sell a Buick SUV model made in China,” his dealership “did sell the Chinese-made SUVs,” “promoted the vehicles on social media,” and even posted a customer testimonial promoting the Envision.

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Spectrum News: Senate candidate Bernie Moreno sold SUVs made in China for years, but tells Ohio voters he refused to do so

Taylor Popielarz

April 8, 2024

- Moreno says that when he owned a Buick GMC dealership in Beachwood, Ohio, he even refused to sell a Buick SUV model made in China, the Envision.

- “The Buick Envision was made in China, I told General Motors I wouldn’t sell one of them, don’t even ship it to me,” Moreno said on conservative radio host Mike Allen’s show in February.

- “I refused to let General Motors ship me any of those cars,” Moreno said in a September 2021 appearance on conservative host Bob Frantz’s radio show. “They threatened to take my franchise away. They said I could never be a GM dealer at any other brand. I said, ‘You know what? It costs me millions of dollars. I didn’t care.’ Because you either stand on principle or you stand on nothing.”

- “…I sent a letter to General Motors – don’t ship me one, that car will not be on my lot…and I stood my ground and did not sell that car.” 

- However, Moreno’s dealership did sell the Chinese-made SUVs for several years, and even promoted the vehicles on social media, according to numerous social media posts found by Spectrum News. 

- Those posts appeared from 2014 to 2019, a period before Moreno sold the dealership to Crestmont Auto Group in 2020. (The name of the dealership’s Facebook page was changed by Crestmont in March 2020)

- “I purchased a 2017 Buick Envision from Buick GMC of Beachwood,” a customer said in a December 2016 video testimonial posted on the Bernie Moreno Companies YouTube page.

- “I highly suggest that you visit the team at Buick and GMC of Beachwood, a Bernie Moreno Company,” the woman said at the end of the video, which features a Bernie Moreno Company logo.

- In August 2017, the dealership shared a video ad on its Facebook page promoting the Envision. “Command the road with the all new Buick Envision for just $279 a month, zero down,” the ad said.

- GM, the parent company of Buick, confirmed to Spectrum News the Envision was only manufactured in China. The SUV became the first Chinese-made vehicle to be imported by a major U.S. automaker when it debuted in Michigan in 2016.

- Moreno’s campaign, in a statement, acknowledged to Spectrum News that his dealership did sell the Chinese-made SUVs.

- In campaign appearances covered by Spectrum News and in radio interviews monitored by Spectrum News, Moreno never mentioned that his dealership did sell the Chinese-made SUVs for years… 

- The campaign declined to comment on why Moreno…was comfortable selling the SUVs in the first place, since the Envision has always been made in China.