Just a quick poll... how many of you have worked in the car business at all and dealt on a daily basis with what consumers "say" they want in a vehicle.
I've actually worked for an auto dealer (Ford) before, but I'm looking at what people are actually buying rather than using your method of relying on your experience ripping people off at a POS Saturn dealership.
I didn't see you post any links, so I won't consider your opinion any higher than anyone elses. Although as a lot boy, I imagine you got to wash every purchase that walked off the lot. But what the hell do I know, I just called & surveyed the &@#%ing people for 3 years.
I wouldn't consider it ripping people off when their sales person ask them what's important to them in their next vehicle and the top first 3 things they say are always: "Fuel economy" "Price" & "Comfort" but after they drive the low priced economic car, they always say: "This doesn't have much power" "The stereo sucks" & "How much is that SUV?"
You honestly want to know what I think killed all car business? Zero percent & 100,000 mile warranties. People have absolutely no reason to buy a car every 4-5 years. 15 years ago, it was an oddity for a person to finance a car any longer than 36 months with 10 percent down; 60 terms was as long as it got. Now you have people financing cars for 7 years AND you can do it all with little cash down. 20 years ago, people got nervous as their car got over 50K miles because it was likely something was going to go wrong and it was paid off & they weren't upsidedown after 3-4 years. Much easier to talk someone into trading when it's not painfully obvious how much $$ their losing and it seems like $$ on the bank when you remind them how much it cost to replace these new fangled computers when they go out.
When KIA & Hyundai made 100,000 drivetrain warranties standard, everyone was busting their nuts trying to match it. It didn't matter that the warranty was non-transferable & voided if you didn't service it at the dealer. Customers are uneducated & think 100,000 miles is 100,000 miles; and you're 36K warranty sucks.
About 5-6 years ago, car buyers saw something monumental. GM had Zero percent AND a warrenty for the next 5 years or 60,000 miles FREE. EVERYONE that was going to be in the market for a car within 3 years bought a car from 03-05. Market was damn near dry by the time 06 models hit the lots. People that were car buyers had already bought & were upside down in their car by approximately $5 - $10K. But they didn't give a crap because they were still under warranty. Not to mention that if they weren't tipped in their car, it was tough to justify to them financing a car for another 5 years for the same or higher payment to buy a car that's only a couple years newer than what they already have & trust. Not an easy sell.
So, you have people not buying new vehicles... but you also have people not trading vehicles. No used car buyer likes to hear that the used car they're about to buy is a lease vehicle or an old rental and I'd wager that 60% of the cars on used lots right now are just that.
People will be ready to buy cars again beginning in 2010... If financing is available... HA.
The best thing that could happen is to only approve zero percent for "A" tier buyers... those people never buy cars every 3 years anyway.
