North Shore auto dealers not shaken by woes in Detroit

LYNNFIELD -North Shore auto dealers aren’t overly concerned about the outcome of a U.S. financial bailout plan for ailing automakers in Detroit.
“I don’t pay too much attention to it,” said Chris Pike, sales manager at Hillcrest Chevrolet in Salem. “People tend to be very negative about things like this. But business here is not much different than last year.”
According to Pike, only a relatively small percentage of cars sold by Hillcrest are new. “We’re not a big dealership. We have about 90 vehicles on the lot and we don’t do a lot of new cars, so that bailout doesn’t really affect us. Besides, at this time of year we’re not normally busy.”
Lou Goldstein, marketing manager for the Kelly auto sales group, which includes a Honda dealership in Lynn and Jeep, Chrysler-Plymouth, Nissan and Infiniti dealerships in Lynnfield, said changing market factors could help boost sales.
“Right now we have two forces working in opposite directions. Over all, the economy is keeping people from buy automobiles, no matter whether it’s a Toyota or a Jeep,” he said. “Then there was the price of gas, which was also keeping people away from us. But now, gas is down to $1.70 a gallon.”
Goldstein said the decline in business at the Jeep dealership was not as dramatic as it was for others. “We’ve been in business a long time. We’re part of the community. We have a solid customer base and we have their trust,” he said.
Regarding the possible federal bailout of American automakers, Goldstein said, “We don’t know what the direct initial impact will be. The mission of the factory is to keep building cars, to keep people employed and the factory open. Ours is just to keep selling cars. That hasn’t changed.”
Goldstein said Jeep sales remain about 20 percent off, despite the brand’s widespread popularity among U.S. consumers. “That part of the industry is off but for 2009 we’re going to have the same solid line-up as in 2008. You won’t see any real changes (in vehicle construction and fuel efficiency) until 2010,” he said.
Kelly Jeep ran an “incredibly successful” sale campaign in September by offering Grand Cherokees for $14,000 below the manufacturer’s suggested list price. “We sold $31,000 Jeeps for $17,000. We completely sold out. That’s cheaper than what we sold them for when the Grand Cherokee first came out in 1993,” he said. “Now we’re taking $10,000 off the Liberty Limited. That campaign has also been successful. We’re still the No. 1 volume Jeep dealer in New England. We have been for about 10 years.”
Goldstein said auto dealerships must offer buyers incentives while maintaining a profit margin.
Despite the calm mood among North Shore auto sellers, the forecast of a financial meltdown in Detroit remained ominous amid a nation wallowed by economic recession.
The sale of domestic-made automobiles has been plummeting as potential buyers find credit hard to get, exacerbated in some cases by job losses and other stresses.
Statistics on auto sales for November are expected to show a drop of 36 percent from a year ago to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 10.2 million vehicles, according to Joseph Amaturo, analyst at Buckingham Research. Those sales figures would include the Big Three Detroit car manufacturers as well as foreign companies that sell vehicles in the U.S.
General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC on Tuesday were slated to provide a skeptical Congress with details about their long-term viability plans.
U.S. auto companies are trying to secure $25 billion in fresh government loans to help them survive the economic carnage, insisting that bankruptcy isn’t an option, even as companies burn through cash and bleed jobs.
The auto industry’s plight comes under an intense spotlight just a day after the United States got some grim news of its own: The economy has been stuck in a recession since December 2007. Most Americans sorely knew it already, but it became official Monday with the determination from the National