All Blog Posts (9)

Retail Auto Industry Loses a Friend

I was saddened today to hear of the far too early passing of a longtime friend in the auto business, Tim Bailey, president and owner of RPM of Mississippi (Gulfport, MS). I had first gotten to know Tim back in 1998 when I hired his company to help one of my stores with a staffed event. To say that I was skeptical at first would be an understatement, but I was more than pleasantly surprised to learn that Tim had two qualities that I seldom found in the retail automobile business – h… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on September 9, 2009 at 4:58pm — No Comments

The Other Shoe...

I wondered how the Treasury, the bankruptcy courts and the "New" GM were going to dance around bankruptcy law. You see, in bankruptcy, you can accept a contract, or reject a contract, but not modify a contract. The announcement GM's made at their noon press conference certainly sounded more favorable for the 1124 dealers that were notified two weeks ago that their franchise agreements would not be renewed in October 2010. Fritz Henderson called the 17 month wind-down period an "orderly transiti… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on June 1, 2009 at 10:41pm — No Comments

Bob Cockerham's Testimony Paying Off

Today (May 19, 2009) Senator Mary Landrieu testified on the U.S. Senate floor delivering news of changes that have been made in the Small Business Administration along with additional proposed changes. She named in particular New Mexico auto dealer Bob Cockerham (Car World Kia) who members of AutoDealerPeople.com and members of my personal network supported with hundreds of e-mails. LINK TO C-SPAN VIDEO (scroll forward about halfway - to 4:30 secon… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on May 19, 2009 at 6:00pm — No Comments

How to Help the Terminated Dealers

[*****CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO PETITION*****] I will be the first to admit that I don't hold a lot of hope that the bankruptcy court is going to undo the (in my opinion) abhorrent treatment of the 789 Chrysler dealers that were terminated last week. Additionally, the 1124 GM dealers that were sent non-renewal letters last week probably await the same fate. You know, however, that I didn't hold a lot of hope when my friend Bob Cockerham went to DC si… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on May 19, 2009 at 12:28pm — No Comments

GM Media Conference Call

OK, I just sat through the 41 minute GM media conference call. It told me nothing that I didn't already know, but it certainly gave Mark LeNeve the opportunity to do some damage control in the media. The bottom line is that GM gave 1100 dealers notice today that their sales and service agreements will not be renewed in October 2010 when the existing agreements expire. He said the intent was to communicate this with dealers today so that they and GM could enjoy an "orderly wind down" - unlike Ch… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on May 15, 2009 at 1:16pm — No Comments

Dealer Reputation Management and Social Marketing Should be Included in Monthly Advertising Budgets

With the rapidly emerging predominance of User Generated Site (UGC) activity as a percentage of total consumer online activity, it would… Continue

Added by Ralph Paglia on May 12, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

CHRYSLER BANKRUPTCY UPDATE II: 5/8/2009

I was forwarded this by one of my clients. (and Jim Press wants dealers to think the decision has been made yet as to who is being kept, and who is not...) DEALERS SHOULD RECEIVE NOTICE OF ASSUMPTION BY MAY 14TH. COURT APPROVES PROCEDURES FOR SALE TO FIAT The Court docket has recently been updated to include the Order approving the bidding procedures for the sale of Chrysler’s assets to Fiat. The procedure for assuming or rejecting contracts (franchise agreements) was approved wi… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on May 9, 2009 at 3:23pm — No Comments

Precarious Position with Late Model Used Ponitacs, Saturns, and C-D-J Products?

Usually I am the answer man. Ask anyone that knows me, I generally always have an opinion based on my business (auto industry and other) background. I need some help on this one. I have been advising dealers for years to keep inventories of both new and used vehicles low. Yeah, there are times when you can miss opportunities (like last fall when I predicted the bottom would fall out of used vehicle values (and it did), only to skyrocket five weeks later. If you over-bought during the bottom, yo… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on May 8, 2009 at 9:36am — No Comments

VERY IMPORTANT ALERT! This Concerns TILA Enforcement

NAF Association Alert (as received from Mr. Jack Tracey, Executive Director) President Obama has signed a new law that, for the first time, will allow state Attorneys General to enforce the Truth in Lending Act. In most states, auto dealers and finance companies only worry about TILA lawsuits from consumers and the Federal Trade Commission. A small number of states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) are exempt from the federal TILA, and in those states the state AG can… Continue

Added by Greg Goebel on May 2, 2009 at 3:12pm — No Comments