FEET ON THE STREET: Are December 08' Sales As Bad As They Say? YOU Tell Us!

All department sales down significantly. Even service is slow.

But HOW low?

Worst month ever, zero sales?

Details please and what brand/brands are we talking about?

001

Our dealer sells Mini/BMW. Mini is still strong, like I can’t believe BMW, used and CPO, I would guess off buy at least 30%. AWD sales are the majority right now in our snowy area and there is a lot of interest in the new diesel X5. Still hard to say what the month will end up at, last week of year is all big business. It is the foot traffic that is off that worries me the most.

And for all the BMW salespeople, 004 and myself are in the market and would LOVE a center lease deal if you need to make your numbers...

email me direct if you need to move some iron...donald@autospies.com

001

I'm in the mkt for a 2 yr lease on a 08 M5 SMG as well!

I am in the Phoenix market, Toyota dealers that used to do 500+ new units are now doing 175-200. Some local Dodge dealers are doing as few as 18 new units in November. A local Chevy dealer that used to sell 800+ (routinely) new units and as many as 1100 new in the best of times (2004) are now selling less than 100 new units.

I speak to a lot of dealers and dealer employees and hear that many of them are selling many more pre-owned units than they used to, but still not enough to offset the drop in new car sales.

Usually Lexus' Dec. to Remember event reaches the highest levels of Lexus sales all year, this year dealers in Phoenix are stuggling to get to their minimum acceptable numbers.

It pretty much breaks down like this, people in this market experienced a windfall a few years ago, but they soon learned that home equity loans are not truly the "cash" they claimed to be paying us with, or the 10-20 grand they put down on their loan. They are learning that payments on a 40K vehicle are painful and that they are no longer experiencing the "windfall" any longer making new vehicle sales crater/tank/fall monumentally here.

On the other side of the coin, many people are being foreclosed on and having vehicles reposessed and are now searching for $500-$1000 vehicles like they all had a diamond ring in the trunk!

That is our little slice of heaven! Happy Holidays to all!

My local Infiniti dealership just got fresh shipment of EX and FX crosovers. They were being PDI and taken to the detail most the afternoon.

I was talking with the GM at the local VW dealership today, he said sales were off 50% for the year as a whole. To add insult to injury, with the new product lineup including the CC, the Routan and the diesel offerings it makes it doubly disappointing.

-00J

VW is offering 2.99% for 60 months on the CPOs.....

My business is just a small snapshot, but I am down 25% for the year. I have been in auto sales for 30+ years and I have never seen such turmoil and uncertainty

and given that the 1st half of 2008 was strong, for people to say they're down 25% for the full year means that 2H08 is an unmitigated disaster.

Lexus sales are stron in Texas. I am up 15% over last year which was a recod month for up. We are still going to sell 325 new cars this months.

When these 0 down 30% off MSRP 77 month finance buyers come to trade their cars in 3 years they are really going to know what negative equity is and realize how bad of a business model the american market was. By then all of these things will be gone and they will be stuck in these cars till then end of their term. Insurance claims for car fires and thefts will be at an all time high in 4 years. Mark my words.

My Lincoln Dealer is small and the best dealership I have ever delt with. They always gave me the Red Carpet treatment even when buying the smallest lowest priced car.

They went out of business due to Sales Volume. The Lincoln Dealership was given to the largest Ford Dealer in the area, but that Ford Dealer is tough to deal with and they are very arrogant. They do huge fleet volumes for trucks and their service bays are running a 3rd overnight shift.

So the same small Lincoln Dealership that went out of business, has a Old and small Ford dealership in the next town over (10 Miles). They Service and Inspect my Lincoln with open arms, and they can't seem to do enough for me, always giving me 1st class treatment.

Last week a young service guy made me an appointment, for my car inspection, the day of my appointment he was no longer there, The Parts counter was ghostly vacant. I exchanged some Motocraft parts and asked what I owed in Cash difference, they guy waved at me and said forget about it and walked away with his head down. I walked to the showroom, the whole sales force is now gone except for the Sales Manager and a Retired guy running the sales desk. The lot is loaded with inventory and no place to pile the snow for the plow.

Looks like we all priced each other out of business. This dealer gave me many great deals which I always strong-armed even lower, now it looks like I won't have nice folks to make me deals anymore and give me great service.

I said to the Sales Manger, "Maybe I got one too many good deals." He said it wasn't me, "everyone who came in the door over the years drove us hard and wanted everything for nothing."

Come on, everyone has their own agenda. The buyer is going after his/her lowest price and the seller wants to make as much money as possible. This has been going on and working fine since the first human's started walking earth. To say that this problem is the buyers fault is a cheap cop-out. Fact is, there are no Toyota, Honda, BMW, MB, Audi dealers going out of business(or verry few). Yes times may be tough but they will survive because they ran their business' right/better. They didn't sell crappy cars and give crappy service.

I think times have changed, American vehicles are on-par with,and even in some cases,surpass foreign imports but it may be a little too late.

Before anyone says anything, the new toyota camry(traded it in) sucks balls. Interior is cheap, squeeks galore, and the ride quality, while buick plush, is not competent or confidence inspiring at all. Can't say too much about drive-train reliability, had the car for only 37k but I'll assume, based on history, bulletproof. Toyota better get back on it's game or they will go down the road of GM. I think they are getting too big and greedy......we shall see.

I feel guilty because this dealership inspects even my older cars. I replace my own brakes and bring them cars to be inspected that are in top shape. The Service manger last month said "Hey, based upon your milage, you are due for a fuel filter, Much to his surprise, I told him, "I just put a new one on last week"

I go to the clerks window and pay my $15.00 inspection fee. If the Clerk had an old fashioned Cash Register, The "NO SALE" flag would probably ring up every time.

I think one of these days soon I'll bring them a couple dozen Donuts to cheer-up the Sales and service team. They well deserve it.

this past summer, there was an article in Automobile magazine featuring a guy who brokered dealerships.

healthy toyota stores were worth $20 million. the vegas lexus store had changed hands for $100 mil.

he didn't share prices of healthy domestic dealerships (are there ANY?). but did say a ford store just barely making it could change hands for just 1/2 million.

i wonder what the CURRENT valuations would be?

(mercuryguy, i do sympathize with your dealers. sounded like decent people, just victims of the current marketplace.)

I work at a BMW/MINI dealership - been here a bit over 3 years, things are down but not out - internet traffic is down (Im the internet director), walk in traffic seemed down, but this week it has picked hugely! Overall for the year we as a dealership are up over last year (for every month this year, including Oct & Nov).

Knock on wood, the last few months have great.

0.9% on Select CPO BMW's, 0.9% on most remaining new 2008's and Select New 2009's. Lots of new models coming out soon combined with good programs should make things interesting.

Email me if you have questions about programs or cars - djsardana@crownauto.com

i work for a BMW dealership in the Chicago market. It isn't busy by any means, but it isn't slow either. I would call it steady. I did have my best 2 months ever this year, but I have been in the industry just over 3 years.
There are some major incentives for people to buy right now. Right now we are leasing all of our loaner vehicles because they are written down and they are remaining 2008's. Some people are keeping the same payment!
If anyone has any questions about vehicle sales, email me anytime!
jdouglas@elmhurstautogroup.com