Auto Dealerships Closings Continue Across U.S.
Everyday more and more reports surface of auto dealership closing. Just this week Bill Heard Chevrolet closed all 13 of it’s dealerships, laying off over 2,700 employees. Last week in Central Florida, Courtesy Pontiac GMC Buick closed it’s doors. Do a google search for “dealership closing” and you will get 7,640,000 returns. Dealerships are closing across the country at an alarming rate.
Earlier this year Ford dealerships were closing, consolidating smaller, less profitable lots into a singular location. Solitary Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep locations closed to combine the three brands under one roof.
And, while some dealerships were closing due to less car sales, others such as the Bill Heard franchises, closed in part due to a faulty business practice. According to this article, the once profitable dealerships succumbed to, “a flaw in his business model: high-volume but low-profit sales targeting people with blemished credit histories.”
It is no secret that dealership owners across the nation are wondering when these hard times are going to turn around. Dealers who were making record profits only a few years ago are selling half, or more often a quarter, of what they were selling last year. Consumers are putting off purchases due to the high rise in gas, the looming recession, and the lack of fuel efficient vehicles. Banks are tightening the reigns, making financing more difficult for the dealerships. Simply put, everyone from the consumers to the sales people are wondering how much longer this is going to last.
Here is todays ‘Thought of the Week’.
Car dealerships are closing in record numbers. With the government bailing out the financial industry, CitiBank aquiring the failed bank Wachovia, the ongoing gas crisis and recession, is there an end in sight? Will the upcoming election signal a turning point?
What are your thoughts on the subject?
Tags: auto dealership closings, Bill Heard Chevrolet, CitiBank, Wachovia
November 28th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
This was inevitable. Nothing, not even a new adnministration can stop it. The last two generations born will face a total change in their world. I studied the Great Depression, the Long Depression (1800′s) and the two recessions since the 1930s. While I do not beleive it will get to people starving to death it may be close. We will not bottom out until the Dow Jones Industraial Average hits about 4000 or if very lucky 6000. Then the dollar will fall to $.50. Then we will hit at least 25% unemployment. Oil will not be a problem because the demand will fall. Ethonal also will not be a factor but farm proces will fall dramatically. We will start seeing the farm failures with the collapse of the largest ethonol producer in the area. It affected 5600 or more farms. Kiss your loved ones and hold on tight.