Bailout Watch 135: Car Dealers: "Where's OUR G.D. Bailout?"
Yes, car dealers. Well, why not? If you think about it, the car dealers have a LOT of political pull. (Remember GM CEO RIck Wagoner’s letter to the dealers asking for their support for HIS $25b Department of Energy federal teat suckle?) So, now, “Auto dealers are calling on President Bush and Congress to take emergency measures to help revive vehicle retailing and contribute to the nation’s economic recovery,” Automotive News [sub] dutifully (not to say respectfully, although you could say that too) reports. The request came this week in a hand-delivered letter [from the National Automobile Dealers Association] to an economic adviser to the president at the White House.” And what goodies, you ask, were requested in this mammary-seeking missive? “Refundable tax credits for car and truck buyers and restoring the tax deductibility of vehicle loans.” Is that it? You must be joking mate. “Federal funds for state programs to take air-polluting clunkers off the roads and giving businesses additional tax breaks for vehicle purchases.” Air-polluting clunkers? Someone remind me again what decade we’re in. All done? Ha! NADA also wants the feds to “provide emergency loan guarantees to dealers through the Small Business Administration so that they have working capital.” OK, NOW are we done? Who knows? Automotive News forgot to include the text of the actual letter. Doh!
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Great bunch of comments. Seriously, the US economy has turned into a massive horde of piglets jostling for their spot at the teats of good ol' Uncle [s]Sow[/s] Sam. Except this litter is going to feed until the milk is gone, and then turn carnivorous on mom. (Too much of a stretch on the metaphor?)
Most if not all of them also own foreign brand. You can't and couldn't just waltz into Toyota or Honda office and offer service without having dealership already, and the one you could have was domestic. Also, because GM would not give 2 franchises to one operator in 40-50's a lot of franchisees own competing brand. One would imagine that those pimples on society ass had enough. There is nothing wrong with public buying cars directly from manufacturers, but those cok suckers pushed laws through each state (except Alaska I think) which prohibit sale of new cars without a dealer.
All this begging for gov't money...you guys could be mistaken for Canadians!