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State of the automotive economy


Troutman
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Tight credit, economic worries and high petrol prices combined to crush the sales of US and foreign automakers alike last month, with Ford, Toyota, Chrysler and Nissan all posting drops of more than 30 per cent.

 

Ford Motor Co's 34 per cent decline marked its worst sales month this year, and the results across the industry are a strong indication that the financial turmoil that has swelled since mid-September is pushing the auto industry deeper into its trough.

 

General Motors Corp, buoyed by its offer of employee pricing on most of its vehicles, saw US sales drop a less severe 16 per cent, boosting the automaker's market share to its best level all year.

 

Dealers from many manufacturers said their customers are having an increasingly hard time qualifying for loans to buy autos, as banks have restricted lending because of widespread mortgage defaults that led to disruptions in the financial markets and the collapse of several banks. Plus, several automakers' finance arms have limited or discontinued leasing.

 

Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president for marketing, said economic conditions have raised uncertainty among buyers.

 

"Even if you have good credit, there's a reluctance to pull the trigger on a big ticket item," he said.

 

Nissan Motor Co, which posted significant sales increases in July and August, saw its sales plunge 37 per cent on double-digit drops in demand for nearly every one of its models.

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Hundreds of thousands of new cars and trucks that would have quickly made their way to people's driveways a year ago are now stacking up on dealer lots across America, with potential buyers worried about whether they will keep their jobs, be able to pay for petrol, or qualify for a car loan.

 

For auto dealers already suffering under the worst US sales downturn in 15 years, the increasing cost of the credit they use to keep inventory in their showrooms means every Ford Focus and Jeep Grand Cherokee with a sale sticker in the window is chipping away at dealers' razor-thin profit margins every day and threatening to send more of them out of business.

 

Like the banks that have been collapsing under the weight of the credit crunch, auto dealers are highly leveraged, making them some of its first victims, said Sheldon Sandler, founder of Bel Air Partners, a New Jersey-based firm that helps car dealers find options when they want out of the business.

 

"Car dealers are like the canaries in the coal mine," he said. "The energy crisis had been affecting their revenue for a while. And now with the credit crisis, in some cases, banks are turning off their credit."

 

Paul Taylor, chief economist with the National Automobile Dealers Association, said Friday that dealership closures spiked in September, prompted him to raise his forecast of closures. He now expects 500 to 600 of the group's 20,770 dealerships to shut their doors this year, up from previous estimates of 300 to 400.

 

About 430 dealerships closed last year and 295 closed up shop in 2006, according to the NADA.

 

Car dealers get vehicles for their lots through a practice called floor plan financing, where the funds needed to pay for inventory are supplied by a lender. The longer the vehicle goes unsold and the higher the interest charged, the more it costs the dealer.

 

Ray Ciccolo, president of Village Automotive Group in the Boston area, said his financing costs have doubled in recent years. That's had a "disastrous" effect, he said, on his six dealerships that sell Cadillac, Saab, Volvo, Honda, Hummer, Nissan and Hyundai vehicles.

 

In some cases, funds are not available at all. Ciccolo said one of his dealers recently expressed interest in picking up another franchise but could not find a bank willing to finance the inventory.

 

"I've been in this business for 46 years and this is the first time I've seen anything like this," Ciccolo said. "It's a perfect storm of calamity."

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Let me make this very clear, if your blaming bush, you look like a fucking idiot to anyone who understands the economy and the real issues.

 

if you want someone to blame, blame clinton, he single handedly deregulated banks and removed all the safe guards, bush attempted TWICE to put these back in place, but a hippy controlled congress blocked it.

 

I went from shopping around 100k+ cars to barely getting by and wondering abut the near future, but I don't blame bush except for the bailout plan which was a stupid fucking idea.

 

So since you work for chrysler, or did, is there any chance you could talk to who runs jeep and kick them in the nuts for the HORRIBLE interior color schemes of the WK 05-10 grand cherokees.

 

If al gore had been in office we would have been broke from investing in hopeless dreams of going green, and if kerry had been in office then wow "sorry, I have to go to the beach, I'll get with you just as soon as I finish my circle jerk and pick up a latte"

 

there is also blame with the general public, especially investors and banks, the whole market is grossly overinflated, I have said it before and I'll say it a gain, 1 dollar is a dolla,r when you make it work as 4 dollars with 3 I.O.U's someone is going to call in there debt.

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I blame Bush because he has made this nation look like retards who cant finish a sentence with proper english (search Bushism's). Also I dont work for Chrysler I work for a supplier to Chrysler. If I worked for Chrysler I would have not even posted a comment as they get 95% of thier pay when they get laid off and I have to settle for a mere $330 a week which equals about 43.9% of my regular pay.

As for automotive engineers that make the decisions on what goes into a vehicle they are all idiots.

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ok, your statement about bush makes no sense, he went to yaleand got better grades then kerry, and he did this long before his dad was president

 

just because you think he's an idiot, which frankly the first few speeches in office, and only that first year don't make up for it, I admit he looks like a bit of monkey, but clinton looks like the creepy uncle, and he fucked us over much more then bush benefitted us.

 

who do you think started oil's rise

who is 90% responsible for the political side of allowing these banks to start these practices

 

who pushed nafta

 

who took us from an internet boom to oil doubling in price

 

who was busy with some fat nonmale instead of his job

 

oh right, all clinton

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are you joking? reagon was an amazing president and did wonders, but you know, winning and ending the cold war, setting the basis for the modern world, apparently that doesn't matter.

 

as for bush sr, pretty neutral, he didn't do anything special while in office, but he didn't fuck thyings up either, remember he was once head of the CIA so he knew the state of the world and how to deal with peopel, plus puking on the gooks was just funny

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