To those that still work in the Car Business...

[1of327]

Sitting here watching the news about the big three, and talking to my former dealership co-workers, I wonder how everyone else is fairing in this turbulent time. I can only imagine that a great amount of dealers are going under.
I guess it was with a great deal of forethought on Fords part to start consolidating its L/M franchises under a Ford dealerships roof and decreasing its dealer portfolio. Maybe they aren't as foolish as we would like to think?!

[ctrlraven]

Ford is going to close down 10 of it's production plants until the middle of next month. While Chrysler and Chevy are going to close down 20+ each for the same amount of time.

[BlownMerc]

I think it is in part an attempt to push the issue of the bailout. They usually shut down over the holidays, if I remember correctly (I live near the old Norfolk Truck Plant that was shut down last year, have many friends that have moved away to keep their jobs vs. look for new work). We have definitely seen a drop in sales at my dealership. But things are actually not looking too horrible with all of the incentives and low rates (if you can qualify) it is a buyers market, for sure. Service work is only seeing the usual dip at the holidays, so us technicians aren't suffering any more than usual at this point. Other dealerships in the area have lost a lot of benefits to cope with the economy. Glad Ford is weathering this better than the others.

[hidperf]

Car sales have slowed down at my dealership (Acura) but body and mechanical repairs are doing great. Which I can only assume means people are fixing cars rather than replacing them.
Good for me because I get paid off of those numbers.

[Black_Noise]

I cant really speak for anyone but me, I work in a GM, Buick, and Honda dealership as a mechanic. We have a partner Chrysler dealer right next door.

So for this year the slowest time for us has been in the fall when everyone was going back to school or taking thier kids to school.

Seemed like everone was just too busy, after 2-3 weeks it picked back up to normal, you get one car done and there is another one to work on.

In the fall it worked out fine for me though, if I didnt have something to work on, I could just get on the GM website and do some online training and get paid hourly for that, so it all worked out.

I do hear the sales guys are kinda slow, but of course, its christmas time, traveling and people dont want to go into more debt.

Im trying to eliminate my debt right now, I took out a loan for the credit cards and the motorcycle about 6 months ago, and are faithfully paying on the MM, as the wife is doing on the Ram.
The goal is to be out of debt in about a 2 yrs.

So who wants to get into more debt and buy anything for 30+ grand?!!

They just need to stop making cars for a year, sorry to say, that would hurt alot of people who work for ford, chevy, dodge, but if nobody is buying them, why are they building them? Its stupid!

Just my 2 cents

[gmtech]

The GM/Dodge/Hyundai/Mitsu dealer I work at cut 35% of the employees. We cant sell a car to save our lives. But I can say service is still going, not at full speed , but not to a crawl like sales. In fact ive had 5 wks over 45 flag hours.

[TAKEDOWN]

I'm still trying to figure out... If everyone including their customers are broke and dealerships are crying broke and for help, why is the special red tag event on some cars still at $65,000.00? You would think they would try to break even or at least sell the vehicle with little profit, just to keep them above water. HELL, what do I know.

[whd507]

the L/M dealer here closed up shop. but the ford/merc dealer we supply some parts to is doing all right in the service dept. the lot does look pretty bare though. sales do suck. (now if they still made a black on black Grand Marquis LSE, then I'd be inclined to help them out a bit...)

[TAKEDOWN]

the L/M dealer here closed up shop. but the ford/merc dealer we supply some parts to is doing all right in the service dept. the lot does look pretty bare though. sales do suck. (now if they still made a black on black Grand Marquis LSE, then I'd be inclined to help them out a bit...)

I myself wouldn't mind helping, they say this is the time to buy, but most red tag prices are the same as before this mess. I don't know... maybe someone will report in with a "What a great deal I got" story.

[Vortex]

The reason why Ford is in a little better shape is they have already taken out loans on every asset they own. They did that a couple of years ago.

[rumble]

The GM/Dodge/Hyundai/Mitsu dealer I work at cut 35% of the employees. We cant sell a car to save our lives. But I can say service is still going, not at full speed , but not to a crawl like sales. In fact ive had 5 wks over 45 flag hours.

Some what like that here in Dallas. Our new car sales are really soft but Fixed Ops, while off, is not to bad. My parts sales are actually tracking Dec. 08 ahead of Dec 07. Outside body shop sales are way down though.

One thing's for sure, 2009 is going to be a tough year if you're in the car business.

A very tough year.