Cliff Banks
Cliff Banks has been involved with the automotive industry for nearly 20 years and has covered the industry for Ward's for nine years. He is an award-winning...more
The Big Three restructuring plans are due to Congress Tuesday December 2. So here’s a question, will General Motors’ plan include the cutting of certain brands?
Several dealers and media reports think so. Plans are being formed now for dealers to fly into Washington D.C. next week to lobby against any blue print that calls for the elimination of brands or dealers.
The ones on the endangered list? Pontiac and Hummer…Saturn or Saab? If all four brands were eliminated, nearly 2,000 franchises would shut down. Of that 2,000, roughly 1,000 would be stand alone dealerships. Ouch!
Ward’s is holding its annual Automotive Spring Training Conference again in Tampa, FL, on March 15 through the 17th in 2009, and we want you to join us.
You can check out the conference site here. Also, check out our video invitation below.
here.
We’ll be updating the site regularly with information about the conference along with stories relating to marketing.
Last year’s conference was a hit, and was one of the premier events of the year. You can read several stories from last year’s conference here.
We want to help dealers create the 21st century marketing department by showing you how to weave the power of the Web throughout all of your advertising efforts throughout all of the departments.
We’re also not ignoring the so-called old media. We’re going to spend some providing tips on how to make sure your TV, Radio and print advertising out performs your competition’s.
And you’ll hear from dealers on the Ward’s e-Dealer 100 ranking how they’ve managed to create the 21st century dealership.
Also, instead of dinner in a stuffy hotel ballroom while some speaker drones on unmercifully, you can join us for dinner outdoors and a spring training game where real networking takes place.
Few dealers are taking advantage of the downtime to refocus and get into position for when the market returns – and it will. It might be a while, but people are going to have to buy cars. The question is, are you going to be the one selling to them?
Ways to leverage or improve Internet operations likely is not high on the priority list. But this might be the perfect time to start moving the dealership into the 21st century. Dealers that do will be the ones who reap the benefits when people start buying cars again.
A few weeks ago, I flew to Atlanta and met with Jim Ellis to interview him for our annual Ward’s Dealer of the Year award. After spending most of the day with him, I am convinced he is one of the classiest and ethical people in the business. The Ellis group is one of the great organizations in automotive retail.
In 2001, Ward’s created the award to help shine a light on dealers who are sharp business people, great at selling cars and who are phenomenal people within the community.
It’s my favorite story of the year to write - that’s why I haven’t handed it off to others here to write. It’s an opportunity to spend time with great people in this industry. And there are many.
The toughest part is deciding who to name as the Ward’s Dealer of the Year. Past winners include Bert Boeckmann, Galpin Automotive; Jerry Reynolds, former owner of Prestige Automotive Group; Herb Chambers, Herb Chambers Automotive; Lloyd Chavez, Burt Automotive Group; Shau-wai Lam, DCH Automotive Group; Bob Pietroske, Pietroske Automotive Group; and Annette Sykora, South Plains Ford Lincoln Mercury and South Plains Ford Lincoln Mercury Dodge Jeep Chrysler.
The Denny Hecker Automotive Group in Minneapolis is closing six stores and selling three because of a dispute with Chrysler Financial.
Chrysler Financial pulled all of its financing last week from Hecker’s 18 dealerships and affiliated companies.
Hecker promptly filed a lawsuit against Chrysler Financial citing five counts of fraud, defamation, interference with contractual relations and negligent representation. Click here to read the lawsuit.
The Hecker company is the second large privately held dealer group to have its credit line and floor plan financing yanked by one of the auto maker captive finance firms. In September, GMAC LLC stopped providing floor plan financing to the Bill Heard Automotive Group, one of nation’s largest dealer groups and General Corp.’s best selling Chevrolet dealer. The Heard group subsequently declared bankruptcy and is in liquidation.
It’s Ward’s first attempt at the world of blogging, so there might be some trial and error.
But hang with us, because we’re going to make Dealer Dialogue the place you go to find breaking news, relevant insight and ideas to help you manage your businesses.
You’ll also be able to provide your own insight and commentary on the hot stories of the day, in addition to sharing your ideas on how to sell and service cars.
We’ll be adding new and exciting stuff for you in the next few weeks, so be sure to add us to to your RSS reader or visit us often.
In case you missed the news last week, Ward’s broke the story that AutoTrader.com had been for sale but was taken off the market. You can read the story here.
The problem isn’t with AutoTrader, it’s with Cox Enterprises, which has a lot of debt it needs to pay down. An AutoTrader sale makes a lot of sense. Cox likely will get a lot of money for it once this credit crisis gets fixed.
In other news, sources tell me that for the first time in its 84 year history, Kelley Blue Book laid off 22 employees and shut down nine open positions a few days ago.
J.D. Power and Associates also laid off approximately 50 employees last week, most of them from the automotive side of the business.
The sad reality is, because of Wall Street’s stupidity and greed, many of our companies have been, and will continue to exercise job cuts.
It’s almost inconceivable, but the U.S. auto domestic auto industry is near collapse. GM will be out of money within weeks and Chrysler may not be far behind.
Yet Congress may not have the votes to secure emergency loans for auto makers. Senate hearings are being held this week with a test vote tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
Dealers may be the only ones with the financial and political clout to convince the White House and Congress that a bailout is necessary.
It’s time for dealers to flood the White House and their congressional and senate members with phone calls and emails supporting legislation that provides emergency funds to the auto makers.
You can find the contact information for your representatives and senators here.
Ward’s Dealer Business Editorial Director Cliff Banks shares his views on emerging trends and technologies that promise to help dealers sell more vehicles.
