Yvette Mimieux, was she hot, or what?

What a great movie. I was only 14 when I first saw it at the old Lakeshore Theater in Jacksonville. Rod Taylor portrayed H.G. Wells traveling through time in this 1960 MGM academy award winning film.

In the future, after some unknown "Great Catastrophe" had destroyed our civilization, the time traveler meets the beautiful Weena (an Eloi woman played by Yvette Mimieux)…and, in the end, they find themselves fighting for their lives against the evil Morlocks in their underworld city below the great stone sphinx.

Time travel fascinated me. What if…just what if you could see the future?

I am convinced that the future will be the result of the choices that we make today. Most importantly, we need to be acutely aware of what the future is not going to be.

Why in the world would anyone in his or her right mind bet on the factory version of what the future holds for the retail automobile industry? These people collectively have a record for screw-ups that defies rational thought.

Let’s pretend for a moment that General Motors is successful in dismantling and destroying their retail dealer network. In the immediate future, I believe that they plan to replace their physical dealerships with Internet sales. Excuse me folks… "That just ain’t gonna happen."

So far the Internet is just a lot of noise. Recent research by reputable firms has proven that the Internet hasn’t accomplished one additional sale of even one additional car.

We are already looking at the second generation of Internet vendor. In my observations, the first generation, the referral services…a fancy name for Internet Brokers…it just didn’t happen. The AutoByTel and AutoByInternet type of customer, in my opinion, proved to be a major nonevent. My experience with Internet referral customers was that they were just a sophisticated telephone inquiry. The more information they were given, it appeared that there was less statistical possibility that they would actually purchase a car from the dealer that provided them with the statistics. In effect we gave these non-qualified consumers all of the information they needed to purchase elsewhere or not-at-all. The Internet referral closing ratios were terrible. Of course, I read and heard all of the propaganda about that supposed dealer somewhere in the sticks who was racking up profits from Internet referral sales …BUT…In reality, I believe it was a bust.

If a dealer accidentally did sell one of these grinders a car, chances are that they might, conceivably, become the legendary "Customer from Hell". Personally, if I were a dealer, I wouldn’t want some of these people to ever show up in my showroom.

In the end it is still all about relationship marketing. When we’re talking about buying a car…we’re talking about a thirty or forty thousand-dollar investment here.

Last month they held the official grand opening of the Mall of Georgia less than ten miles from where I live in Atlanta. This mall is incredible, rivaling the Mall of America in Minneapolis as one of the greatest largest malls in the country. You know folks, they actually had traffic jams and they actually had to increase parking areas and shuttles to the mall.

Yes, the Internet is someday going to be a major factor in automobile sales. AND…yes, you had better become involved in technology-based commerce. BUT…don’t be fooled into believing that it’s going to replace the hands-on, service-oriented, bricks and mortar dealerships. An automobile is not a commodity. It is a major investment decision in most people’s lives. They want to see it, drive it, smell it, and have the reassurance of looking into the eyes of whom they’re dealing with.

If there’s one thing you can be sure of about the Internet Automobile Sales Revolution, it’s this…Almost everybody in the game is "buggering" up those figures. There is more statistical "bullcrap" being fed to the dealers, the public, and the media than you’d find in an AutoNation Press release.

Speaking of AutoNation, (one of my favorite subjects) In an October 29^th article on the back page of the Money Section of USA Today…Wayne Huizenga was quoted as saying, " The investor does not believe in the value of the franchises that we do have, and they do not believe in the strength of our company."

Wow! Wayne and I do agree on one thing…if the manufacturers are allowed to compete with their dealers and sell cars directly to the public, on the Internet or otherwise, those franchises you’re holding are going to be absolutely worthless. AutoNation Dealerships are only going to be worth their real estate value if the manufacturers win this battle. The catch is that AutoNation stock is stuck at $10.00 per share…or less…much less…as long as Wall Street realizes that they have not increased the profitability of the franchises. Now, with General Motors and Ford evidently threatening to totally obliterate the value of their investment value, I am sure Wayne and company are trembling.

Remember this, AutoNation and CarMax were those pioneers who were here to teach us all about the future of the retail automobile business.

What AutoNation actually taught us was how to reduce your stock’s value by thirty-five per cent in the all-time record automobile retail sales year in history.

As I write these words, CarMax is sitting at a whopping 2 7/8ths per share. My kid could buy CarMax stock with his lunch money and still eat well.

Now these people and Ford and General Motors actually feel someone should take them seriously about the wave of the future?

I told you seven months ago that Ford was losing market share to General Motors and Chrysler in Tulsa as a result of their goofy one-price, no-haggle, happy-clappy, Excel 2000, venture into Tulsa Oklahoma…well…guess what? John Macdonald, senior VP of sales at Daimler-Chrysler just confirmed that Chrysler Dealers picked up 3.5% market share in Tulsa. He apparently credits Ford Motor Company’s ineptitude at retailing for the boost in Tulsa. As for General Motors’ ventures into retailing, he was quoted as saying… "You talk about dumb and dumber." (GM in comparison to Ford)

If I were a dealer, I would just love the position Chrysler is taking. They are going to own the market if GM and Ford keep dicking around with the retail process.

The biggest single thing that the dealers have not accomplished is that the states have not adequately strengthened their franchise laws to protect the dealers. There is a media prejudice out there that must be educated and won over. Somehow, the left wing liberal partitions within the media believe that the dealers are the reason that car prices are so high.

I am ashamed that some of you have not had the guts to stand up for your dealerships. If you lose everything you have ever worked for without a whimper or putting up a fight…then you deserve that.

Those who suck up to the factories will not be spared. Ask Jim Willingham if you can trust the factories?

If I were a dealer organization, I would get to the stockholders. Remember Stempel.

If the manufacturers ever win the battle to eliminate their dealers, the public is most certainly going to be screwed here. The manufacturers have made record profits in the face of declining market shares. What does that tell you? The dealers are not to blame; most of them are barely making a profit. It is the manufacturer that is gouging the public. If the media thinks the manufacturers are going to give the public a price break, they better think again. The independent, competitive automobile dealer is only thing that has held prices down for the consumer. AND…if the manufacturers ever were to eliminate their dealers, the level of service and quality would drop proportionately. Then every dealership might be able to achieve those stellar CSI levels similar to the Rydell Group in Southern California.

If you are a GM dealer, why don’t you inquire into how Rydell’s CSI is doing in California? They should be proud of it…after all this is the factory model! (Remember) I was on record in this magazine more than a year ago as saying that the Southern California market would kick Wes’ butt all the way back to the frozen tundra. I ain’t wrong yet, not by a long shot. Even with an obvious factory "Leg Up", he’s out of his league.

Speaking of Wes Rydell, they’ve now created the East Coast equivalent…Joe Laham. What we have here, in my humble personal opinion, is just another turtle on top of a fencepost who is swearing that no one stuck him up there. Of course, GM spokes-marionettes are saying, "There will be no favoritism!" (Regarding Laham getting preferred inventory that no one else can get) Sure, big guys, we believe that. Just ignore the little man behind the curtains pulling the strings. Laham evidently, has a fairly high opinion of his retail ability to give vehicles away. Of course, I know what his retail record was before the factory came aboard.

This is sort of like trying to believe that GMC truck division isn’t actually sending letters to customers in another dealer’s market area asking them to shop at Rydell Auto Group. No Favoritism!

Oh well! Looking into the future is easy if you use the track record of the past as a barometer. General Motors is a decaying remnant of past glory. Ford is a skyrocket that will probably fizzle and burnout. Both of these companies are have become distracted and have lost that "Eye on the Ball" concentration. They have become preoccupied with changing the retail process when it truthfully was never broken. The beneficiaries will be the import manufacturers, including Daimler-Chrysler, as long as they continue to build superior product and stand out of their dealer’s way and let them retail the vehicles. What we are seeing here, sadly enough, could be the ultimate demise of Ford and GM.

Oh well, raising a snifter of vintage Remy-Martin to Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux (God, she was hot) "Here’s to fighting off the evil Morlocks…or any other evil marketing Czars for that matter!"

Surprise…surprise! I have it from reliable sources that the Ford Auto Collection in Oklahoma City is now suffering the same dealer remorse as the Salt Lake City and Tulsa Debacles.

My drift on it is that you will see Ford’s ownership position increasing as they buy out their former partners who were once successful dealers.

ALSO…I am sure that by now you are aware that AutoNation is spinning off it’s less-than-stellar performing auto rental division. (Now, did I say this was another giant Wayne failure?) Of course, you have to chuckle when you read the press releases from just over a year ago about how they were going to crush the rental car market. Sort of like the hollow sounds of AutoNation.

Have you been following the press releases where Jesse "The Body" Ventura, the governor of Minnesota announced that the company (AutoNation) would relocate the national headquarters of its rental car spin-off (ANC Rental) to Edina, Minnesota creating 175 new jobs? Well Jesse must feel a little double-crossed now that they’ve announced they are keeping it in South Florida.

I thought for a moment that maybe Jesse and Wayne were getting their heads together (joke). Of course, Wayne should have known, considering his track record, not to buy a company called "Alamo".