"I walked into our nice little double wide trailer that is functioning as our sales offices, courtesy Hurricane Ike, about 8:15 this morning and a guy we delivered last night was there to get his car washed.  Since he was here before anyone else he had made himself comfortable inside with a cup of coffee and patiently waiting for someone to show up.  The first thing he asked me wasn't when he could get his truck washed or when his salesman would be in it was if I thought he did the right thing buying a new Ford truck and not that Toyota parked about 100 yards away.  It only took a second to notice our local paper sitting in his lap and right there on the front page is another of those huge articles that would lead anyone to believe that American car companies are all but finished.  After assuring him that we would be here to service him till the wheels fell off his truck I showed him a quote from another paper that was emailed to me.  Here is what it said:

 "Auto Dealers have been going out of business in droves, and those who remain are adopting survival tactics. The intent is not only to lure customers, but to slash costs, motivate sales forces and bring more business to service departments…Part of the downturn is cyclical, since strong car sales never continue indefinitely, and the war has depressed sales by about a third. But Marketing Consultants, Auto Executives and even the dealer groups contend that automotive retailing is undergoing fundamental changes..."

Sound familiar? Then I showed him the date.  It's hard to believe that this article wasn't written in reference to the current economy, but rather for a market 18 years ago. The article originally ran in a February, 1991 issue of the New York Times. However, the points being discussed greatly resemble those which we currently face today.  So what does that mean? The person that sent the email thinks we should see it as a light at the end of the tunnel and I agree.  I shared the story of the old man and read the quote to all my people this morning and reminded them that some of us were in this business in 1991 when this downturn happened and some, well just you old dudes, were here for three or four more turbulent times in the past 50 years and we became stronger each time.  We take the bull by the horns and somehow always turn adversity into something positive.  We have veteran sales people, the best managers and a dealer that has made it through every one of these tough times.  On top of that now we have Jay Prassel!  What more could we ask for?   Okay, okay, a fresh marketing plan from Ford instead of the same old crap year after year would be nice but I can’t control that!  I am going to hit my customer base with another direct mail campaign because I know for a fact that it brought me people that want to buy here and I am going to follow that up with an email blast to 25,000 people that have never bought from me.  I will let you know how it goes!  Have a great day!

PS-  Remember the old man?  I saw him about an hour later looking over his freshly cleaned 2009 F150 waiting to have his picture taken for his calendar.  I went and brought him in my office, opened him an E-Trade account and transferred 100 shares of ford stock into his new account.  I showed him how to check on his stock and told him now he not only owned another Ford truck but he also owned a part of Ford.  I am quite sure that on a day that Ford stock hit $1.27 a share he just might be the only person on earth that was happy about owning some!

James McNutt - Kinsel Ford, Beaumont, TX