I work at a dealership that has a unique mix of automobile brands that is
not available in the same location under the same ownership anywhere else.
We have a Ford franchise, a Chevrolet Franchise, and a Honda franchise all
on the same lot.
Gasoline is back to a more reasonable $2.59 for regular. Yesterday we sold
TWO Tahoes, but month to date, we have sold only ONE Chevrolet car. I have
over 20 Chevy Cobalts in stock. It is a great little car, even available
with a Supercharger; standard models get 35 MPG. We haven't sold one in 6
weeks. The Malibu is based on the SAAB platform, and they sell so poorly we
stopped stocking them. The Impala was just upgraded, and the only ones
we've sold so far are the V-8 models. The V-6, which gets over 30 MPG
doesn't even get a test drive. All this after we have spent an 8 week
marketing campagn emphasising our car lines that get over 30 MPG.
Interestingly, we have about 10 Honda Pilots, 6 Ridgelines; the only Honda's
that are selling in large numbers are CRV's and Civics. I personally don't
get the logic of paying $22,000 for a Civic Hybrid to save $300 a year in
gasoline, but, If you want to buy it, that's all that counts. Me, I'd
pocket $5k and lease the Cobalt for $250 a month.
As for Ford, if we didn't have Superduty's and F150's, it wouldn't be worth
having the franchise. Even Mustang sales have taken a nose dive. Total
vehicle sales at the dealership are off 30% from last year.
David Riker
davriker@pacbell.net
http://home.pacbell.net/davriker/
http://community.webshots.com/user/fool4mg
----- Original Message -----
From "Rick Fisk" <refisk at chartermi.net>
To: <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: American carmakers are clueless (no LBC)
> to reduce unneeded production capacity.
>
> Hardly dumping all of their small and mid-size capacity. And as far
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