Giving credit where credit is due I would like to thank Senior Editor Mac Gordon for taking time to discuss Banc One Credit Company's vision.
We are serious about our commitment to Loyal Blue Treatment for our dealer customers. Our dedication and commitment lie in our desire to build on our 50+ years of experience and to be our dealers' long-term financial partners.
I appreciate your commitment to educate and inform those who share our enthusiasm for the automotive field. Your publication's insight on auto industry trends and how they will affect our business makes a valuable contribution to the knowledge base of our customers and associates.
Ed Tinsley President/CEO Banc One Credit Co. Phoenix, AZ
Franchise system stays if supply outpaces demand I am totally amused by the pundits who claim Internet, the end of state franchise laws, big-box stores and direct factory sales to the consumer will end the franchise system as we know it.
All of the pundits' claims miss two important factors in their forward-looking equation. Those missing factors are:
1. The way manufactures build vehicles, and
2. Consumer demand, or lack of demand.
If every vehicle manufactured had more buyers than the number of units built, like the VW Beetle, like the Audi TT Coupe, like the PT Cruiser; the pundits would be exactly right. What they say will happen would happen.
But, the vast majority of what manufacturers produce does not fall into these categories and the manufacturers know it.
No amount of Internet sales, no amount of direct sales to the customer from the manufacturer, no amount of involvement of the big-box stores will sell the new Saturn series mid-size cars in the numbers GM anticipated being able to sell.
No amount of Internet sales, no amount of direct sales to the customer from the manufacturer, no amount of involvement of the big-box stores will sell the Neon in the numbers Chrysler anticipated being able to sell.
Until the manufacturers change their build process and are able to build only under demand on hot items, the pundits theories are incorrect.
In the meantime, we dealers will order the cars that the general public is not lining up to give a deposit on, then sell the iron to the public.
The next time someone like Bruce Belzowski (from the University of Michigan's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation) or other pundits want to take the dealer out of the equation, ask them how the manufacturer will sell a vehicle like the Kia Sephi.
Steve Schukei Schukei Chevrolet, VW, Audi, Isuzu Mason City, IA
