New Book for Auto Execs & Dealers to Read & Ingest: The "book for the month of July" may well be Peter Gosselin's "High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families".
The book's premise: A shift of economic risk has arrived at the door step of working Americans and their families and they are ill-equipped to handle or cope with the consequences. The financial fall "out" brought by astronomical gas prices, a weakened dollar, and massive layoffs are making people "pay" in every way including the loss of pensions and diminished security for their familes.
What this means: People are nervous and uncertain because they sense that they are only one or two steps from a deep financial fall. We are seeing it in housing, food purchases and car buying. They are looking for a "net" for their future.
What can dealers and manufacturers do about this?: Help people "manage their vehicles"-- by counseling them on how to deal with vehicle(s) they now own from gas mileage to sound maintenance practices. Dealers can survive and make it through this period by becoming "transportation management centers" and NOT car dealerships who are perceived to be only out to sell a car or truck. This will take some "high wire" leadership, marketing, and plain guts to position the entire dealership to help existing and new customers deal the reality of the "high wire" financial situation that every American is facing at the moment. As an industry, we have the opportunity to take the economic risk by getting on the "wire" with our customers.
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