HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — CU Xpress Lease, the joint venture by Fusion Auto Finance and GrooveCar, recently opened a Los Angeles-area office and chose a former Autoland executive to oversee the operations.

Company executives indicated the new facility in Valencia, Calif., is meant to better serve a growing constituency of credit unions and dealers. Not only is this office geared to provide service in California but handle customer needs in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona as well.

CU Xpress Lease then tapped Mark Chandler to be its vice president of West Coast operations and work out of this new facility. Previously, Chandler served as president of Autoland, one of the West Coast's leading credit union auto buying services based in Chatsworth, Calif.

Chandler is being charged with leveraging his more than 25 years of industry experience overseeing relationships with both credit unions and dealerships to introduce CU Xpress Lease's products to the region.

GrooveCar and Fusion Auto Finance pointed out they joined forces back in 2006 to launch CU Xpress Lease, what's branded as a turn-key credit union lease program.

The companies emphasized CU Xpress Lease can provide dealer training, marketing and technology solutions for credit unions, which includes front-to-back servicing and safeguards against risk by guaranteeing lenders the full balloon/residual value at the end of a lease.

"California is the nation's largest auto lease market. Credit unions are seeking to provide their members with highly competitive loans and evolve into becoming full service lenders," declared David Jacobson, founder and president of GrooveCar.

"We had been hearing for quite some time from credit unions on the West Coast asking when we would establish a presence there," Jacobson continued. "Mark was the final piece necessary to provide credit unions on the West Coast this much needed lending product. He has the experience and local savvy necessary to get us jump-started and to grow quickly on the all-important West Coast to complement our East Coast operations."

Jim Calvert, Fusion's chief executive officer, has high hopes for what CU Xpress Lease can achieve with these additional resources.

"This toe-hold, which we truly intend to grow, will make the vehicle leasing and buying experience all the more easier," Calvert stated.

"Most credit unions are heavily weighted toward pre-owned or used-car lending," he went on to say. "Leasing will provide the solution to balancing new and used-car lending volume. And the new office should help put us in the thick of this effort."

Meanwhile, Chandler described how he is up for the challenge.

"My journey was successful in searching for a new compelling program, which would make an immediate impact for progressive credit unions in the West hoping to add ever important auto loans to their portfolio," Chandler explained.

"This platform supports that goal as well as benefiting the local auto industry," he added. "What David and Jim have built with CU Xpress Lease is a great solution to fill those needs. Together, we will discover something intrinsically unique that will build the CU Xpress brand."