Currently many people work on keeping their car running in order to avoid buying or leasing a new or used vehicle. This keeps money in their pockets that they use towards food, rent, clothing, and other expenses that life brings to the table. The amount of people thinking it would be better to keep their current car running instead of buying a new car was so dramatic that it hurt the car industry. Cars went back to having the image of a luxury and losing the necessity feeling that so many car commercials sold to the public. In fact the U.S. Government stepped in to help the U.S. automobile manufacturers out of the deep hole that they stood in with a bailout of $17.4 billion in 2008. The following year the automotive industry continued to feel the pain of the recession and in 2009 the U.S. Government initiated the cash for clunkers program, which should have also been known as the automobile manufacturers’ bailout light. Thanks to both of these bailouts the U.S. automotive industry was saved, but car dealers still continued to struggle.
Recently Automotive News reported that the vehicles similar to those that would be crushed and destroyed just a year and a few months ago are being sold in order to help sales. These automobiles may not be the best, but they are still able to run and that is what matters the most. When you are fixing your car be it changing the headlights, the radiator, or rebuilding the engine, sometimes it seems to be less expensive to just buy a used car. Especially if the used Eurostat Industrial Production Index car you buy can be fixed at a fraction of the cost that you’re fixing your current car at. Dealership groups AutoNation, Lithia, Asbury, Sonic and Penske, along with others, are selling their “clunkers” to the public in hopes of bailing themselves out from this economic recession. This type of creative sales may help these car dealerships in staying in business and paying their employees a wage that would allow them to continue putting food in their refrigerators.
Even though national news channels reports say that the recession may be nearing an end and that we are on our way to recovery, people still are living on a budget and these cars just may be the answer to that. Those that need to sell cars will be able to sell a car to someone in need to drive to school, work, or a job interview. Odd how a year ago these cars were condemned as clunkers and now they are seen as a small light at the end of the tunnel for some.
(c) 2011 Johnny Industrial Engineering In Garment Industry Roque
