Pleas from Chrysler executives for dealers to order more vehicles took on a more urgent tone Thursday as Vice Chairman Jim Press prodded them in a conference call to take more vehicles, dealers said.
Michael Wasserman saw the first signs that business at his Arizona car dealership was slipping as early as October 2006, long before the country entered a recession and the depths of the nation’s housing industry collapse were apparent.
As the nation’s car dealers gather at the industry’s annual convention in New Orleans this week, many, if not most, must be wondering when the moribund automotive market will come back to life.
With Chrysler LLC's U.S. sales down 30 percent last year, an economy mired in recession and the automaker living on government loans, the last thing you'd expect a dealer to do is order more cars and trucks.
At this year's version of the National Automobile Dealers Association convention, survival has passed maximizing profits as the focus of the annual event.
A top Chrysler LLC executive says the automaker should be viable by springtime because of its restructuring, introduction of new and improved vehicles, and higher sales due to loosened credit and sweetened incentives for buyers.
Amid the myriad problems facing the Big Three automakers, one is often overlooked — a costly, inefficient network of dealers.
General Motors and Ford have been working for years to reduce their ranks of dealers, but with vehicle sales at record lows and the industry seeking a financial bailout, both automakers now have billions of new reasons to renew their pushes to create smaller, more profitable, dealer bases.
Perhaps no other place in America outside Detroit has more at stake in the debate over whether to bail out the auto industry than National City, Calif., sandwiched between San Diego and the Mexican border.
No customer voices competed with the harmony of "Silly Love Songs" flowing from the showroom speakers at Danville Chrysler Dodge Jeep.
There is no business plan for what New England heating oil dealers and customers have gone through this year.
Hayden Elder's beaver pelt cowboy hat delivered his message to lawmakers as starkly as anything else did: The proposed $25 billion federal loan to keep the U.S. auto industry breathing is a local issue.
Hundreds of thousands of new cars and trucks that would have quickly made their way to people's driveways a year ago are now stacking up on dealer lots across the country, with potential buyers worried about whether they'll keep their jobs, be able to pay for gas, or qualify for a car loan.
Einstein may have been right when he said that compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe, but depreciation runs a strong second when buying a used car.
As if high gas prices, a weak economy and a strike by a major supplier weren't enough to drag down Hummer's sales, Hummer dealers are now reeling from the news that General Motors Corp. may consider selling the brand.
A nationwide sell-off of gas guzzlers is under way. Those big, low-mileage SUVs and trucks don’t seem so appealing when a fill-up sets you back $60 or more.
For years, the Warren Central High School Warriors have counted on Gene Beltz's Shadeland Dodge for support.
The next five months or so will be difficult ones for U.S. auto dealers, with sales expected to slump, but the chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association expects a bit of a rebound in the second half of the year.
General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner urged a group of auto dealers Saturday to lobby against individual states trying to set their own limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
When thousands of U.S. auto dealers gather in San Francisco this weekend, much of the talk will be about just getting through 2008.
If you want evidence that challenging times lie ahead for the automotive industry, look no further than the theme of the annual convention of the nation’s auto dealers in San Francisco this week: “profitability.”
An Indonesian caught trying to smuggle weapons to a Sri Lankan terrorist organization was sentenced to more than three years in prison Friday, the U.S. attorney's office said.