By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
Don't worry, it's not so bad - I just turned 32 a couple weeks ago and my first kid came along just a few weeks before that. Good luck with the condo. Richard is right - it will all work out. We're starting to toy with the idea of my wife staying home instead of returning to work in the Fall. That will be stressful, but if she wants to stay home, we'll work it out.
You're a great salesman, things will work out for you!
I agree with you, Craig - the Elantra is not a super handling car, but it rides like a much more expensive car than it is. My only real complaint about ours (2007) is that fifth gear is not tall enough. RPMs are over 3000 at 80mph, and it would be nice if they were closer to 2500 to improve fuel economy and engine noise. All that said, it is an incredibly comfortable car and we really enjoy having it!
(When I want the handling and performance increased, I drive our 2009 Mazdaspeed 3 - it's also very comfortable, but you feel the road much more intensely)
I have not driven the new Accords - I will admit, after the last two Hondas we had, my taste for them has soured a bit. How do the Accords handle compared with the Elantra and Mazda? I would imagine it is somewhere in between, but which does it favor more?
You're right boom, 90% of what people worry about never happens, and worrying about it doesn't help.
I think successful people just keep moving forward.
I think your employers must really like you, you are positive, honest, and you take the time to explain things and answer questions.
Really and truly, best of luck.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
I've been a proponent of letting Chrysler "go". Now that the reality of folks losing their dealerships, and the resulting dismantling of the dealership's staff. it irks me even more the way Daimler and Cerebus ruined the company.
While waiting at an airport for a flight last night, I went to one of the "magazine" stores and picked up one of the car rags (I think AUTOMOBILE?).
They were bemoaning the fact that what was once one of Chrysler's crown jewels, the mini-van, had its star fall so far. I think Edmunds even complained about their test mini-van being shoddy in materials and workmanship. Yet, the airwaves are flooded with ads everytime I look with the "feature content" (some content of dubious nature) of their mini-vans. Kind of reminds me of the old adage "can't see the forrest for the trees".
My Chevy dealer also owns a Chrysler/Jeep dealership. They're right next to each other. While the Chevy dealership isn't exactly crawling with customers when I go in for an oil change, the Chrysler dealership may as well be a football field in June.....not a soul in sight for 100 yards in either direction.
While it's really fuzzy what a Fiat/Chrysler co-mingling brings to the table, it's even fuzzier what will happen to all that inventory of Chryslers, Dodges, Jeeps that are sitting there sparkling new? Being a marketing guy, I'm trying to rectify what the demographic will be between someone who would shop for a Fiat 500, and want to move up to a Chrysler 300? I'm not getting it right now.
Same with mine. Sometimes I have to ask her twice when it's raining though. :P
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Doomed Dealers?
One from Dallas, One from Fort Worth, One from Arlington, One from McKinney.
All the names, though, are ones that I recognize, so they're fairly large, or at least advertise regularly.
The big Chrysler dealer in Grapevine who had 35 Crossfires at crossfire-sale prices (sorry :shades: ) survives.
I don't have a count of what percent of dealers in the DFW metroplex that this constitutes.... Edit - there are 17 dealerships within 30 miles and 56 within 100 miles...
Good luck Boomchek! Got our fingers crossed that your place isn't on the list!
There are a few dealers in the metro Denver area that are affected. One is a new place that just opened up a few years ago in a town close to mine (Burt, in Parker). What I find interesting is that the primary location (Medved, Wheat Ridge) of the chain that owns the dealers in my town is closing but the one here is spared.
There was a Chrysler dealer on CNBC earlier today ... he stated that his dealership is in the top 2% for sales in the country, yet is slated to be closed. He says he will file any and every lawsuit he can to get this stopped.
Who would have ever thought?
I know that in the retail business, when you have inventory, it remains listed as an asset at its original value - not its declining actual value - until you move it out of inventory. So that 14K modem from 1998 is still worth $100 on the books until you sell it for 99¢. That's when you take the hit. Is that true in the Car Biz too?
Will the dealers who declare bankruptcy be better served to keep the cars and use them as assets (at their book value) against what’s owed than to liquidate them and (by selling below book value) lower their worth as assets?
Since that’s clear as mud to me, and I wrote it, let me try to rephrase .
The dealer owes $100K in debts. He has 10 Calibers in stock, each theoretically worth $15K. If he sells them each for $9K, he’s still $10K in the hole. But if he keeps them, in theory he has $150K in assets against his $100K debt.
Ok, now you guys who know tell me how it really works, please.
That's what we're thinking too after she'll be done with mat leave. Daycare costs so much that almost all of her wages would go to pay for it, so she might as well stay home and raise the baby.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
I don't think the cars are considered assets since the dealer is paying interest on them, so therefore they're not really his.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
I did work for one small dealership that owned all of it's inventory. I think in that case during a BK, the cars would be auctioned off at current market value, not at sticker prices.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Do you think that Dealin' Doug is breathing a sigh of relief, given that he just bought back 5 dealerships from Lithia in the past month?
First, boom, congrats on the upcoming addition to your family!
But, I do have to make one, teensy, tiny correction to your statement above (gawd, I feel like Richard, almost).
As my wife works in the early childhood business, we try not to use the term 'daycare'. The good people who watch over the children of others prefer that it be referred to as "child care" - they don't take care of days, they take care of children.
See what happens when you've been exposed to this stuff for almost 13 years?
However, I do agree with your point that in many cases, the monies earned by the mother often are only enough to cover the costs of child care. My wife works for a small, almost rural school district and she has seen, first hand, the affects of the downturn in the economy. Both her pre-school (part time) and child care (full time) programs are experiencing a drop in enrollment and an increase of late payments.
It's funny because here in Vancouver there's s hortage of child care places, and there was sa tory recently on the news where parents lined up overnight just to get on a waiting list for child care. Some peopel encouraged us to get on a list already but we're not even sure where we'll end up buying so no point for now.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
For a couple of years in my past life I worked for a bank calling on dealers for indirect lending. Talk about a different culture - Cherry Creek was the worst back in the day. One good thing about him is he is extremely loyal to his employees - but his advertising seems so old and out of date. Almost as bad as the Rocky's ads
Kind of like insurance for a 16 year old .. the rates go down at 21 and (sometimes) at age 25). My wife's program charges, I think, $130 a week for full time child care .. the program opens up at 6:30AM and closes at 6PM, 5 days a week. Age 2 1/2 to age 5. Once the child enters elementary school (kindergarten), she offers "wrap around" care for when the child is not in school.
Inventory should be valued at the lower of cost or market value.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
to recap, last month, i had the rear suspension rebuilt and a new transmission put in.
after that i drove it for a week, so my wife drove my car and my at home daughter drove my wife's escape.
the limited slip rear end clutches were sticking, so any turns at slow speeds resulted in the vehicle vibrating as one rear axle wouldn't release.
i asked the service dept about it, and it is about $700 to replace the rear axle clutches.
so with some trepidation, i set out on my 800 mile each way journey to pick up my older child from school.
when i stopped for gas, something was wrong, i did a short slow turn without any vibration.
i'm thinking, either something got better or it's really broke now!
bottom line is, on the trip everything went smoothly and got the best ever gas mileage on a trip ever. odometer now reads 1.5% under (measured over 50 mile run). last year was 2% under.
we are all happy to be driving 'our' normal vehicles again.
filled out the sales survey for the new escape and gave top marks for everything, except maybe the dealership building. it started out as a garage around 1920.
anyways, i wrote what i hope is a pretty long compliment in the comments section.
Even if the dealership is paying interest (has a loan on the cars) they own the cars and owe on the loan.
The cars are assets and are carried as a debt balance on the balance sheet.
The loan is a liability and is carried as a credit on the balance sheet.
The interest is an expense and is carried as a debit on the income statement.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Actually declaring bankruptcy protects the dealership from having its cars reprocessed.
Now if the BK is Chapter 11 which is restructring the business the cars will stay and the business will operate as usual but is overseen by the courts by way of a trustee who takes the income and distributes it to pay the dealerships debts and bills.
If it is Chapter 7 the the courts will decide what happens to the cars (again usually through a trustee) and other assets and the proceeds are turned over to the holders of any notes and the business is closed.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
My daughter who just had a baby was told that. She said her response was that when they come to her house and care for the child in the evening and at night we will call it "child care" until then its "day care". She has learned a thing or two from me.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
The interest is an expense and is carried as a debit on the income statement.
And that in a nutshell (an appropriate vessel) is why I never thought about being an accountant....
She has learned a thing or two from me.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Yep, he was always around. Whre did you grow up?
Me? San Pedro.
I just went through the list that Michael sent. It was 40 pages long---seemed endless. Just think of the thousands of people tonight who are unsure as to what the future holds for them. It is so sad.
Richard
Me? Oxnard, in Ventura County, though I've lived in Colorado for almost 16 years. Still have family there, however.
(Please, no jokes about Oxnard - I know that it's been the butt of many jokes, from "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" to "Sideways", but it's my hometown and I'm darn proud of it. Please note that it is the hometown of the current Ryder Cup captain, Corey Pavin)
I smile every time you talk about the snake pit the car dealership business is in that part of the country. About half the weight of the Friday LA Times seemed like it was made up of screamer ads from all the unscrupulous dealers.
Even the imports have too many dealers in the greater LA area.
Richard, am happy to hear that your local dealer survived "Black Thursday". Now, we have to wait to see what happens tomorrow with the GM dealers. If you thought the Chrysler list was long with almost 800 dealers, tomorrow ought to be like reading "War and Peace" since GM is set to list close to 2400 dealers.
Does anybody think that Ford will try something similar? My thinking is that when the dust settles from all of this, Ford will be at a bit of a disadvantage, since they will still have a bloated dealer network in comparison.
It sure is. Other than a few dealerships that deserved to be put out of business because of their dealing practices, a lot of innocent people will suffer. They are the fallout of what MB did to that company. Not that I would have been an MB customer, I damn sure wouldn’t consider one of their products now.
The cut didn’t get the large dealership in my burb. Son #1 bought his Town and Country from that guy last June and my brother that lives in Florida bought his 08’ Sebring convertible there and had my nephew drive it down to him (I told that tale a while back). However, the cut did get a very small dealer in a town that borders mine. I never bought a car from him because I was a loyal GM guy but I never heard anyone complain about that guy, ever, since I can remember. He had to be there 50 + years. To be honest, I don’t know how he lasted as long as he did with his very small very old 2 car showroom building, on a side street, in an almost exclusive residential area. It had to be his great service department that I always heard about that kept him around.
SAD isn’t the word for it. What MB did to that company is criminal.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
Seems the number is 1100 and that seems small in relation to the size of Chrysler compared to GM:
GM dealers await word on cuts
TOM KRISHER
Friday, May 15, 2009
DETROIT — A day after Chrysler LLC told a quarter of its dealers that it won't renew their contracts, owners of General Motors Corp. dealerships are awaiting word on whether they will be next.
GM said it will notify 1,100 U.S. dealers on Friday that their franchise agreements will not be renewed. Dealers expect to hear either by telephone or FedEx letters that will begin arriving Friday morning.
The cuts will come just a day after crosstown rival Chrysler announced it was dropping 789 of its roughly 3,200 dealerships by around June 9. Both companies have too many dealerships for too few sales are slashing costs as they race to restructure.
The GM dealer cuts are likely to have a much greater impact than Chrysler's. While many Chrysler dealers also sell other brands and will stay open after losing their franchises, a large number of GM dealers sell only GM vehicles. So if their franchises are revoked, they run a greater risk of closing for good.
In both cases, the cuts will cost thousands of jobs, create holes in local tax bases, eliminate community pillars and create economic ripple effects across the country.
Chrysler is operating under bankruptcy protection, so it is likely to have an easier time tearing up its franchise agreements with its dealers than GM. A hearing is scheduled for June 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York for the judge to determine whether to approve Chrysler's motion to fire its dealers.
Chrysler executives said Thursday the company is trying to preserve its best-performing dealers and eliminate ones with the weakest sales. More than half of the dealerships being eliminated sell less than 100 vehicles per year, they said, and account for 14 per cent of U.S. sales.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
You won’t get any from me. Back in the late 80’s early 90’s the company I worked for did business with a company there. We always stayed at the Mandalay Beach Resort Hotel (it was part of the Embassy Suites chain back then) and it was right on the Pacific Ocean. I even took ‘you know who’ with me on trip there once. She soaked herself in the ocean and went shopping while I slaved away all day reviewing specifications and test data trying to support the lifestyle she had made herself accustomed to there. I made a lot of points that week. She still talks about how nice that place was.
IIRC, Oxnard is one of the CA produce centers. I allowed myself to be talked into schlepping back a flat of just picked strawberries by a young female engineer that accompanied me there once on a business trip (no wise comments, please). We went to a field with one of the people we were visiting with on our way back to the office from lunch. He said at strawberry time (which I think is in May) his wife always wanted him to stop at one of the fields (and there were tons of them) on the way home so they could enjoy some really fresh strawberries for dinner. I never did that again; what a mess!!
Thanks for your posting of the Chrysler dealership closings. While it wasn’t an enjoyable read, it was informative and more on topic that this post.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
The Chrysler-Dodge guy survived.
Waiting on today's news.
Glad you enjoyed your time there! There are times (usually when the temp is around 0 or so), when I miss the sunshine and warm weather. But, too many people and too many taxes now for me to want to return on a permanent basis.
No sales stories from me; however, I am taking the wife's VUE into the dealer for an oil change and tire rotation tomorrow. I suspect that I an attempt will be made to upsell me on other services.
Snakewease -
You're a Credit to the Accounting Profession!
Oh, wait.... I think I mean Debit.... :confuse:
Richard
Richard
Richard
Yes, I should have mentioned while I was poking fun at snake that indeed that was great explaining. I learn something in here almost every day.
OH NO !! Why don't you wait until I ask Duke Power to install their state of the art foam telephone poles?
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
In terms of child care, and it is a debatable issue, it was noted that Catholic child care centers did an excellent job working with small children and nurturing them.
If you should choose a home sitter for the babies, be VERY careful. The son of a friend of ours was on national news recently. He and his wife are both attorneys. After checking all references, they hired a home sitter for their first baby. They began to suspect abuse. After installing two hidden cameras, they caught the sitter shaking and abusing the baby. Shaking a baby is a dangerous thing in terms of brain damage. The sitter was found guilty in court. Fortunately, the tests showed that the baby suffered no brain damage. Our good friends, the grandparents, are now keeping the baby during the day. The child's mother is giving up her law practice this summer to stay home with the child.
In these hard economic times, it will be a tough decision for you both to make. I wish you both the best as you make your decisions.
Richard
Really? You must be Top Voided.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
In our case after the first child we were able to have my wife's parents cover while she attended nursing school. When my daughter hit maybe 4 we started her in preschool.
She was largely working part time through the first two being young. By the time the second two showed she was full time and her folks too old to deal with things. We had care in another's home for a while before moving on to pre-school.
I'd have loved to let her stay home full time with them but economically for us it didn't work. Every case is different. Best of luck.
jmonroe - it's not like I said I learned something useful every day. sometimes all I learn is how much time someone can spend waxing a Hyundai...