DealersEdge Professional Forums

I have never posted anything here before. However due to the state of our business and our economy I have been thinking alot. I am a 30 year professional at the dealership level. At our store we have been through lay-offs, salary decreases and other cost cuts. How long are we going to survive moving foward? The only thing that has not changed is the dealer principles ifestyle. How bad can it be ? Or is it just a smoke and mirror show ? I beleive that they are using the state of the economy to their own greedy advantage. Is it just me thinking this way, or is there others ?

It is bad. Automotive News reported 50,000 dealership jobs lost. Dealerships are closing and most dealerships are really struggling to keep the doors open. The monthly overhead for even a small dealership is astronomical. Very few of those expenses can be reduced or stopped when there is little money coming in. Not only dealerships, but nearly every business in America is looking at ways to reduce expenses. You are not alone.

Stop using the economy as an excuse. Even if people aren't buying cars they still need to get the old ones repaired and maintained. Look at your customer base and cater to them, you will be amazed.

Go to the "mall" on a Friday night to see how bad the economy is. It was an eye opener when I went a few weeks ago. Even the teens weren't hanging around.



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Its like a big lifesize chess game.

[This message has been edited by Stevenspeaking (edited 02-03-2009).]