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Defiance
One
of the greatest motivational cartoons of all
time…there’s this eagle swooping down with wings
spread and talons extended…you can see the fire in
its eyes. A little mouse stands tall facing oncoming
the predator with one arm raised and one finger
extended upward.
We
all have those moments of doubt. Sometimes you might
even catch yourself shaking your head and wondering.
These predators seem to be so big and so powerful.
Sometimes it seems like there’s no way you can
possibly win. Maybe you’re tired of all of the
constant battles. No matter how many times you beat
them, it seems like they just regroup and come back at
you from another angle. They’re relentless.
I
know how you are feeling…it is midnight here in
Milwaukee and I am in the middle of an eighteen-day
speaking tour. You want to talk about a weary warrior?
Here I am sitting in a hotel room putting these
thoughts into words, hoping what I write makes a
meaningful difference in the battles at hand.
Earlier
this week I was the keynote speaker for the Minnesota
Auto Dealers Association annual convention in
Minneapolis. You know something…I nailed it! As a
professional speaker, you know when you really connect
with the audience. This was one of those days.
The
message to the dealers was simple. Hang on! Help is
coming. Circle the wagons and keep your powder dry. If
you listen real close you can hear the bugle in the
distance. The cavalry is just over the other side of
the hill and they are riding to the rescue. The real
battle is about to begin. I have it from reliable
sources that your State Dealer Associations are
amassing a war chest estimated to be more than 1.8
million dollars already (and growing) to initiate
legal action against several of the factories, most
notably Ford Motor Company and their Blue Oval
Certification program. From day one I have said this
was a sinister plot and it was never about customer
satisfaction, but rather that it has always been a
thinly veiled scheme to circumvent states franchise
laws and to eliminate dealers through illegal
multi-tiered pricing.
In my mind, it stopped being about customer
satisfaction the moment they took money away from some
dealers so they could give it to others while
pocketing a slice of it for themselves in the bargain.
(Opinion of course) Ford Motor Company says Blue Oval
Certification is legal…okay let’s make them back
it up in court in all fifty states.
You
know what folks…for the very first time I am certain
they are going to lose. Listen to what I am saying
here. We are going to win this thing because what they
are doing is wrong and I am certain in my own mind
that it is illegal, not to mention immoral and
dishonorable. The first retaliation came from the Ford
Dealer Alliance and the magnificent stand five brave
dealers took when they filed their lawsuit. Then,
there was a second lawsuit by 13 Chicago-area Lincoln
dealers against the Lincoln Premiere Experience (Blue
Oval only worse) and then there were the first
rumblings about another lawsuit coming out of North
Carolina…and then California checked in…and now I
am hearing loud noises coming from state after state.
When the heat is on, there’s no doubt that Texas
will be there.
As
I have written in every article and stated in every
speech, it will never be over until you stand them
down in court in every state. If the NADA isn’t
going to take the battle to them, then it’s up to
your state organizations to carry the fight. I am
urging every concerned dealer to grab your checkbook
and reach deep. If you don’t win this one, then
it’s over for all dealers (every make) everywhere.
It
is obvious to me that Ford is agitated and becoming
visibly nervous. There is a lot of stepped up
activity, letters from the top, and visits from field
representation asking dealers to support Blue Oval
with the dealer associations. Ford keeps pointing to
the fact that a large number of dealers have certified
already as if that means anything. Of course the
dealers have certified what was the alternative?
I believe that Ford Motor Company is banking on
their dealer’s greed and complacency. Their
reasoning is that once you guys (gals) get your first
check for being Blue Oval Certified that you will lie
down and stop fighting. They are counting on their
ability to buy you off in the short term. Any fool who
is so naïve as to think this money is going to be
this easy to get in the future is going to end up
being a boiled frog. (See my commentary in last
month’s issue titled…To Boil A Frog) Don’t cave
in on these issues.
Look
at Ford’s recent history in regard to keeping their
promises to their dealers. Think about it before you
jump in and buy what is being sold here. One thing
coming out of Ford that is totally ridiculous…I have
heard it said that they are saying that their alleged
secret research is showing that the majority of
dealers are in favor of and support the Blue Oval
Certification program. What a crock of warm horse
hockey that is. Anyone who tells you that most dealers
are supporting Blue Oval Certification has a hidden
agenda. All of the reputable surveys I have seen by
private companies, legitimate research firms, and
state dealer associations show the overwhelming
majority of dealers are angry and bitterly opposed.
Without exception, every survey shows that the dealers
are in strong support of the Customer Satisfaction
initiatives in the program though. It is about taking
money away from some dealers and giving others unfair
pricing advantage.
Hey…how
about something a little lighter? I just got my new
2002 Cadillac Escalade. My friend John Lund at Lund
Cadillac in Phoenix helped me order it and he
delivered it to me in Atlanta on a flatbed truck.
Complete with moon roof and video entertainment
system, it is the most incredible and beautiful truck
I’ve ever driven. If you haven’t seen one yet, the
Cadillac emblems on the front and back are as large as
grapefruits. Of course I predict we will see a number
of rap artists suing GM over neck injuries when they
try to make jewelry out of those emblems.
Love
my new Cadillac…BUT…as I was driving down the
highway on Sunday morning, I decided I would hit the
“On Star” button to test it. That experience was a
real bummer. The “On Star” gave me a recording
saying all of their operators were busy assisting
other customers. This recording played over and over
again about seven or eight times and then the
son-of-a-gun hung up and signed off and thanked me
using “On Star”. I never did get anyone on the
line, just the stinking recording. If it were real
life I am afraid that Batman would have gotten his
butt handed to him if he was relying on “On Star”
for help.
Hot
off of the wire. Out of Cash…out of Business. Did
you read where CarOrder.com finally bit the big one?
…Closed their doors and rode off into the sunset. If
you been following my articles CarOrder.com was the
dot-communist company that blew through 100 million
dollars faster than Jac Nasser can screw up a pipe
dream and then gave the people responsible another 25
million seed money to start over and buy dealerships.
Using
a business plan designed by young genius, 24 year old
Brian Stafford and financed by those cutting edge
new-age technology gurus at Trilogy Software of Austin
Texas, CarOrder.com allegedly flushed 125 million
dollars down the toilet teaching you stupid car
dealers a new way to do business. Don’t you love all
of the things all of these smart people taught us?
What
really scares me is these people (Trilogy) are the
same people who have a strategic alliance with Ford
Motor Company’s as Ford’s business-to-business
technology provider…and, last I heard, Trilogy was
doing the Forddirect.com website. You know, it stands
to reason that Ford would chose Trilogy, a company
with a track record for success in automobile
retailing rivaling Jac Nasser’s accomplishments.
Attention
Ford dealers! Bend over and brace yourselves. I just
saw a blurb in one of the “weaklies” that caught
my eye. You know I am a suspicious sort of guy and
little things seem to magnify and jump off of the page
at me sometimes. What’s this I am reading about an
“Explorer-based baby Navigator” entering the
Lincoln lineup? Are we talking about another brand
dilution with the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer,
and now the new Lincoln Navigator-Explorer?
Sayonara
Saturn. A solitary tear rolls down my cheek as I write
these words. Saturn has bailed out of Japan. Oh Gawd
Maud! Say it ain’t so.
After
spending undisclosed multi-millions of dollars to
promote the retail sales of slightly more than 4000
total units over a four and one-half year period in
Japan, Saturn division is withdrawing and quitting the
Japanese marketplace. Whoa! Back up here a moment. Let
me swirl my cognac and savor that last
statement…Saturn sold slightly more than 4000 in
over four years in Japan. That’s got to be a typo.
They blew multi-millions here trying to push that pig
on the Japanese and they only sold around 4000 units?
Look
for press releases from General Motors proclaiming
this project an overwhelming success once again
proving the viability of the Saturn nameplate
internationally.
Eaton
says he did not deceive the stockholders or the
American public. Bob Eaton finally broke his long
self-imposed silence on these issues saying in effect
that he did not double-cross and sell-out all of those
who trusted and believed in him. According to Eaton,
as I interpret his statements to say, he really did
believe the Daimler-Chrysler merger was a merger of
equals and he never dreamt that the historic American
Chrysler legacy would be flushed down the toilet by
the incompetent bumblings of goofy, egotistical,
clue-impaired Aryan zealots.
Of course that’s just my personal spin and
interpretation of his allegedly dubious statements. I
wonder from which one of his multi-gazillion dollar
mansions located in which lavish resort location Eaton
issued these credibility-impaired statements?
Excuse
me here Bob. From me to you here big guy…I don’t
like you and I don’t trust you and I don’t believe
you for a hot New York second. Whether or not you are
a wimp, a moron, a criminal, a deceitful traitor, a
good man wrongly accused, or just an
innocent/misunderstood victim of circumstances may
never be proven. Only you in your heart know the
answer and what your motivations were.
After
the reading the book “Taken for a Ride: How
Daimler-Benz Drove off with Chrysler” by
Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz (Amazon.com), I have
a prejudiced viewpoint. The book seems to portray
Eaton and Stallkamp assuming the roles of weak
cowering wimps dealing with the predatory, electric
personality of Daimler's Jürgen Schrempp. Although it
was billed as a Merger of Equals, I have legitimate
clouds of doubt in my mind as to whether or not Eaton
knowingly sold out.
I
have just been informed that General Motors is
entering into a joint venture with AutoByTel. Now
there’s a coalition of proven winners with a real
track record of competence! It seems like they are
planning (scheming?) some sort of allegedly
dealer-backed website to sell cars of all makes to
everyone. If I got my information right they plan to
name this proposed fiasco AutoCentric LLC. Hell folks,
General Motors has proven statistically that they are
incapable of marketing their own cars, why would
anyone seriously believe they would be able to market
anyone else’s’ products. AutoByTel on the other
hand is also a proven leader with an apparently solid
documentable track record for losing their
stockholders money. AutoByTel reportedly lost another
whopping 29 million dollars in 2000, which was up from
a 23.3 million dollars loss in 1999. Even Automotive
News described AutoByTel as being “Shaky”.
Hell guys I see your bid and raise you…I am
describing General Motors as being “Shaky” too.
AutoByTel
CEO Mark Lorimer says AutoByTel expects to be
profitable by the third quarter of 2001. Excuse me a
second here…haven’t they been predicting to be
profitable ever since they originally started
allegedly squandering their investors capital? General
Motors and AutoByTel…this is a marriage made in
heaven.
At
the Las Vegas NADA Convention, Ford Motor Company
availed themselves of every press opportunity to say
how they were mending fences with their dealers and
how relationships were improving. (More horse hockey)
Of course, wouldn’t you know it, all of the while
those rascals were working out a deal to invest in JoeAuto.com,
a business model designed to compete with dealers for
light maintenance and repair work. Here we have Ford
Motor Company on one hand piously talking about
mending dealer relationships while on the other hand
they are repeatedly stabbing their loyal dealers in
the back investing in a competitive auto service
business.
February
12th, 2001, Jim Schroer Ford Motor Company
Vice-President of Global Marketing says that Mercury
is here to stay. In a published interview Schroer
piously stated that Mercury wouldn’t suffer the same
fate as Oldsmobile.
By February 26th Schroer was
featured on the front of Automotive News as having
defected to Daimler Chrysler as some kind of director
of brand image management. Ironically, Automotive News
used the same photo of Schroer in both announcements.
(Note to editors of Auto Snooze save that picture of
Schroer, I have a feeling he won’t last here either)
Don’t these Chrysler people check anyone’s
references?
You
know, I have repeatedly said that Volkswagen is famous
for fumbling the ball at the goal line. All of a
sudden I am having some kind of epiphany about the
future prospects of Volkswagen sales in the United
States. Its like a bright light of enlightenment is
shining down on me from the heavens. You know I
honestly believe these guys are going to get their act
together. I feel the momentum. Gawd…I hope I am not
sticking my credibility on the line here. The products
are great and the marketing concept appears to be
sound…if they can only deliver automatic
transmissions and reduce German interference in the
sales process. They really don’t understand the
American market. I have a feeling that if they give
these dealers the product and step out of the way and
turn them loose to do what they know how to
do…well…I think Volkswagen can once again be a
major player in the U.S.A.
General
Motor’s websites continue to be a joke allowing
consumers to configure cars that they refuse to
build…won’t build…and that the dealers can never
get. These are the same people who are planning to
build “built to order” cars and trucks.
Did
Billy Ford really say something to the effect that Jac
Nasser might retire someday and go surfing in
Australia? Is it just me with my twisted sense of
humor or does anyone else find that picture hilarious?
I will keep watching HBO made for television movies
for the latest remake of Beach Blanket Bingo with
Annette Funicello and Jac.
“Ding-Dong
the witch is dead”…oh excuse me, I was just
singing to myself here. Hey did you hear where Bob
Rewey suddenly announced his retirement from Ford.
Wow! Who would have thought it? You know Bob was a key
player in many of Ford’s high profit successes like
the Auto Collections…and he was best known for
Dealer Relations breakthroughs like Blue Oval
Certification.
Replacing
Bob will be Brian Kelley a newcomer to the automobile
industry with a background in accounting. As the new
official grand magnanimous poobah of Global Marketing,
they are placing young Brian Kelley in one of the most
prestigious and powerful positions in Ford. I have
read up on Kelley and I am leaning toward believing
this guy is not going to be the Dealers’ pal. From
statements he’s made in several interviews including
his profile in Businessweek, I get the impression this
guy is convinced we’re dinosaurs and he is the
savior and the current franchise system is on his hit
list. He’s the one who made the (allegedly asinine?)
statement that dealers were going to “Morph”. Of
course anyone who has children knows that the word
“Morph” is “Power Ranger” terminology. In
previous articles I referred to Kelley as a real
“Gee-Whizzer”.
Kelley
is the guy who’s the e-commerce champion (Please
notice I did not say Geek or Propeller Head) of the
new Ford. Personally, I believe he’s going to be
controversial and short-lived in this position. I
never particularly cared for Rewey or what I perceived
to be his anti-dealer agenda but, I will admit; he was
somewhat of a car guy in his Ole Bob Rewey sort of
way. Regardless of personal opinions and overwhelming
statistical evidence, I suppose he had some level of
competency. BUT…this
guy Kelley. Until he does something extremely
positive, I am going to be very nervous about what
might happen next. Whoever (Jac?) put an inexperienced
newcomer with these alleged radical half-baked ideas
in this position is going to be the one who should be
judged and accountable for what is about to
happen…whatever that is…good or bad. Take a guess
what I’m thinking here? The next thud you hear will
be someone’s career crashing.
The
wind whistled as the predator swooped ever nearer to
the brave little mouse still firmly standing his
ground with one arm raised high above his head…a
single finger sticking up in a gesture of defiance.
Suddenly there were ten more mice standing beside him
holding their arms high…and then there were a
thousand more…and another thousand standing close
behind…and more coming in from the rear to join the
ranks. The
eagle faltered and braked furiously as he backed off
and flew away in fear. Looking down from on high the
eagle saw 23,000 mice standing defiantly as if they
were one…holding their arms high in the air…each
with a single finger extended.
Give
to your state associations war chests now…are you
men (women) or are you mice?
More
Food For Thought
Deiter
Zetsche of Chrysler says he wants to initiate a
publicity campaign accentuating Chrysler quality. Is
this guy on drugs or something? This is suicide.
I
am so sorry to have to say this; many of my friends
are Chrysler dealers. With Chrysler’s arrogant and
antagonistic attacks on suppliers, there is going to
be an inevitable further decline in product quality. I
predict that Chrysler is going to reap the same
whirlwind that Jac Nasser sowed at Ford and your
product quality is going to go to Hell in a similar
fashion to what Nasser’s cost-cutting has done with
Ford Products. (Opinion of course)
As
a commentator and a futurist, I feel that Chrysler
executives will create a lot more pain as a result of
their apparently asinine business plan to restore the
company to profitability. We can all sit by and watch
as these people self destruct and stand by ready to
pick up the pieces sometime in the future when the
company is re-acquired by a competent American
corporation.
Rumors
are flying…I’ve made a hundred phone calls to the
usual sources and I can’t find the fire under all of
the smoke here. Some people have expressed wild
theories that Toyota may acquire Chrysler. The best
money is riding on American investors…maybe even
Kirk. All in all, I believe the Germans need to unload
Chrysler. It is a major embarrassment. When you were
just Mercedes Benz, we only thought of you as quality
cars…now, in my mind you appear to be assuming the
personification of slapstick, bumbling cartoon
characters. I can’t even look at a picture of
Schrempp or Zetsche without chuckling. I think
you’ve lost your credibility guys. After looking at
this train wreck you’ve caused who could possibly
take you seriously? Give it up!
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