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Car Dealerships caught in General Motors, Ford, Chrysler Perfect Storm
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Ford
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Being the owner of a car dealership these days is like being in the perfect storm. The domestic automakers are looking for ways to pare down their network of dealerships, credit is not available so consumers aren’t buying cars, people are losing their jobs so they don’t have the capability of buying a car, dealerships are having problems getting the credit they need for what is called “floor plan” loans, and the “B” word for Bankruptcy is appearing in print and being heard on TV every time the name of one of the Detroit Three is mentioned.
Like a 90 year old man in a retirement home, it seems that many dealers are just waiting to die. The National Automobile Dealers Association says that about 700 of the nation’s 20,000 dealers will go out of business by the end of this year.
Some have tried to be innovative in the way they show their wares. IWeguess they’re hoping that once people see the new models that are available they will open up their checkbooks and buy. One Saturn dealer set up shop at a county fair. He said that as many as 5,000 people an hour walked around the cars, especially the Sky sports car. They loved what they saw, they just couldn’t buy.
All of this means that the dealers themselves have to go into cost cutting mode. They have to lay people off, cut the advertising budget and watch what they spend on overhead.
Dealers know that the Big Three have to get help from the feds to survive and that would allow them to survive, too. That’s why it isn’t surprising to hear that 33 Chrysler dealers took time off work to travel to Washington and lobby Congress for a bailout of the Detroit Three. We wish them the best though feel their chances -- like General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler -- in getting any sympathy from "it's all your fault" Bush Administration and his Republican followers is as high as the Inquisition truly "forgiving" heretics.
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