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Nov 12, 2008 7:02 pm US/Eastern
Sales Still Slow For Car Dealerships
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
Remember last summer when cars were just not selling -- despite some of the best discount and sales offers out there?
"These are pretty some tough times, but we will get through it absolutely," Debbie Peters of Day Chevrolet said last July.
"Traffic is down, volume is down, and there is some uncertainty and uneasiness in the economic market," added Aaron Borchert, sales manager at #1 Cochran.
High gas prices were a killer -- but five months later -- gasoline prices are down again -- but this time the market is awful, unemployment is worse and people's pensions have been hard hit.
Car dealerships just can't seem to catch a break.
"Well I'd be lying to you if I told you it was great. New car business has been slow," George Benson of Benson Lincoln Mercury says today.
That's putting it mildly.
In October, GM sales were down 45 percent, Chrysler sales down 35 percent, Nissan down 33 percent, Ford down 29 percent, Honda down 25 percent and Toyota down 23 percent.
So trying something really new to move cars off his lot, George Benson has a different kind of incentive.
"Towards the end of the year, we always want to get rid of the '08s or leftover models -- and we have 21 or 22 of them -- so we offered 50 shares of Ford stock if you purchase one of those cars before the end of this month."
At $2 a share, Ford is not exactly a high-priced stock these days -- but Benson is optimistic this creative deal will make a difference.
"It has brought more traffic on the '08s, so I think it is working."
Some customers prefer the $100 instead of stock -- but Benson thinks the stock could go up, especially if Congress steps in to rescue Detroit.
"It would be great if it was $10 a share, you know, but it's going to be hard to tell. It just depends on what the government puts together."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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