I know I speak for the rest of the auto industry when I say that I am glad to have the latter half of 2008 behind me. September through December was the worst 4-month stretch I have ever experienced. This is what the auto industry has been through:

• Dozens of lenders disappearing.
• All the remaining lenders changing their lending habbits.
• Credit Quality of customers deteriorating.
• Bailout/No Bailout in the news for 6 months.
• Gas reaches new highs.
• Repossessions of SUVs skyrocket. Lenders stop lending on SUVs.
• GM and Chrysler may still file Bankruptcy.
• Unemployment reaches new highs.
• Consumer confidence at new lows.
• Record Low market share for domestic automobiles.

Well, that was 2008. And now we are in a new year, with a new president getting ready to take over and a new congress to go with it. What does that mean for the American auto industry?

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Personally, I think that consumer confidence will gradually start to build and sales will follow as people in this country will always have something to drive. Once the news on the various media outlets start to report even modestly positive news, sales will pick up. Right now, the people that can buy a vehicle and want to buy a vehicle are waiting to see what happens with the econmy in 2009.

Related posts:

1. End of Year Car Buying If you have waited until the end of the year...
2. Bankruptcy Filings in Washington Hit 4-year High There were 2,664 bankruptcy filings in September. That is about...
3. Prestige Gives Auto Loans to More People As of June 1st, Prestige Financial Services is once again...
4. GM to Close Thousands of Dealerships Lots of employees at GM Dealers are looking for work...
5. Cash For Clunkers Program Info http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/05/news/companies/cash_for_clunkers/index.htm?postversion=2009050518 Cash for clunkers’ program gets a makeover – May....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!

Tags: 2009, auto, auto industry, automobile, Autos, bailout, bankruptcy, cars, Chrysler, Credit, dealers, gas, GM, lenders, motive, new auto, news, repossession, repossessions, suvs, thoughts, trucks, vans, vehicles

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 3:17 PM and is filed under auto dealers, auto financing, auto industry, auto industry crisis, auto lenders, automotive news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.